[David Lawrence]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “I… will personally settle for exposed, or frankly, even drawn on fake tracks. Just straight black lines where they think tracks would go, like black marker tights on british ladies in the war. “

LOL!

[David Lawrence]

@Paul Escamilla,

Many thanks for posting this. My brother and I needed to vent so we wrote it together over iChat Theater Preview in FCP 7. Our intent was to blow off steam, have fun, and at the same time voice some very serious concerns about FCPX that are being discussed here on The Cow.

I guess we struck a nerve because the version posted above was ripped and reposted by someone this morning. Guess that’s what it means to go viral 😉

Our original version is in 720p HD and includes links to some of the articles and discussions taking place here and elsewhere for viewers interested in learning more about the controversy.

Here’s a link to the better looking and more informative original:

https://youtu.be/dP1WQ7FP0g8

Thanks!
David

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[David Lawrence]

[Craig Seeman] “FCPX is the first of the Relational Database driven NLEs, leaving behind the old SpreadSheet model. “

I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. When I edit, I my sole concern is in crafting experience in time. How I do that should be up to me.

[David Lawrence]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Ctrl/P then type your inpoint timecode; Ctrl/P again and type in your outpoint.

Done.”

Thank you!!!

[David Lawrence]

[Chris Kenny] “The UI “limitations” are mostly subjective. There is very little that can be done in FCP 7 that fundamentally cannot be done in FCP X as a consequence of UI changes.”

Let’s start with something simple – entering time code values to set the head and tail of a source clip. How do you do this in FCPX?

[David Lawrence]

[Reed Black] “1. Add your transition 1st. BEFORE you add the black space.”

yes, but this is the simplest possible example. On a complex timeline it may not be possible. The bottom line is that the behavior is unpredictable and completely unintuitive.

Another example: click the head of the clip and use the context menu to select “add transition” instead of command-T. Result? Fades at the head and tail of the clip!

Re: Positioning tool – Yes, you can press P and place clips anywhere, but it’s not changing the ripple-only nature of the timeline. It’s placing transparent slugs where ever a gap appears. These slugs are objects on the timeline and have to be managed. I honestly don’t see how this makes my work any easier.

These aren’t minor quirks. To me, they’re huge usability gaffes and there are a ton of them throughout the program. It’s really sloppy, amateurish design. Coming from a world class UI leader like Apple, it’s baffling how X got out the door. It feels like they never did any basic usability testing with actual users!

This is why so many of us are saying X is unusable for our work.

[David Lawrence]

@Reed Black,

Where does your fade begin on the timeline? Mine ripples back 50% the fade length. That is *not* what I want. I want 10-seconds of black and then fade up from black to my clip. In FCP 7, this is the default behavior. And I can easily choose transition alignment – begin on edit, center on edit, end on edit – from a context menu drop-down item. I use this stuff all the time. Please explain how to do this in FCPX.

Same with the magnetic timeline. If it’s simple to turn off, how do you do this?

Thanks!

[David Lawrence]

It really is!

BTW, I don’t intend to be a hater. I want to love this thing. But I’ve been working with NLEs since their invention and I’m really appalled by some of the UI decisions I’m seeing. Here’s a functional spec I co-authored in 1987 to give you an idea of my perspective and background:

https://www.propaganda.com/sfsu/econo.html

I’m all ears. If I’m missing something please point me in the right direction.

[David Lawrence]

@mattyc –

I just went into editing preferences and changed the apply transitions setting from “full overlap” to “available media” as you suggested. It makes *no* difference whatsoever. It sounds like you’ve figured it out so please tell me what I’m doing wrong here because I can’t make it work.

[David Lawrence]

So are you saying there’s no equivalent of the “Fit to Fill” function? That’s one of my most commonly used techniques to fix lacking coverage.