Dominic Deacon
Forum Replies Created
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Yes a couple programs have a ripple mode. I’ve asked this a few times now and not been able to get an answer yet: In practice is FCPXs magnetic timeline really that different to editing in tracks locked/ripple mode in a program like Vegas or Edius?
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That’s quite different to cutting drama though. When cutting drama we don’t necessarily have the advantage of every take being covered by multiple cameras. In fact I’ve never cut multicam work. Rather we’re trying to match eyelines, motion and body movements between takes that may have been shot hours or even days apart. Little things, like an actor shifting body position during one take but not another,can be massively jarring and you need to be able to see everything clearly to pick those problems.
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Not judging FCPX- which I haven’t used yet so can’t comment on how successful magnetic is- but there is a simpler solution to this “problem” than chucking tracks entirely. Why not just implement a tracks locked ripple mode?
When I’m working fast and lazy and haven’t been tying my footage together properly I just work in tracks locked ripple mode so all tracks on the time line shift and move around together when I make changes in the same way I imagine they do in X. It’s not something I use often but it’s a simple solution to the problem if you struggle with pieces of your timeline shifting out of sync.
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[Dennis Radeke] ” never have to render because it’s always real-time, or another way to say the most flexible and powerful software playback system in NLEs”
I’ve actually been very impressed with Premiere from the little I’ve used it. The AE integration and the way it works with RED is not to be sneezed at. I have to disagree with this statement though. On my system (windows 7, i7 3.4ghz quadcore, 16 gbs of RAM, nVidia Quadro graphics) I find it nowhere near as efficient as Edius.
Running some basic tests I found Premiere uses 25% more RAM than Edius when playing back the same footage- in this case 1080p footage from a 5d with a few filters laid on top. While Premiere is running the system harder it is not doing it as well. It’s showing a low res “preview” version of my footage while Edius is showing the real thing.
Also found that Edius will play back a wider range of formats than Premiere though I haven’t toyed with that enough to say definitely that that’s the case. I’ve just a few instances where Premiere refuses to work with footage that Edius has no issues with.
My biggest disappoint with both both programs though is that they have significant issues with project bloat which was never a problem with FCP 7. From what I hear FCPX is even worse on this front. Is AVID the only NLE left that doesn’t slow down massively on a large project?
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But I don’t use trim mode. I’m on a editor that has a choice of source and record windows seperate or unified and where trim and standard editing are seperate modes you have to jump between. I’ve never edited with a single viewer and never in trim mode. Trim modes change your mindset as an editor and to me are not as true. Of course some people disagree and prefer to work that way. Choice is key.
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I’m frequently looking at both simultaneously. Here’s an example of the sort of problems I come up against:
I had to edit a long, two handed dialogue scene. There were no individual close ups of this scene. The director had shot a medium of both characters from one angle and a wide from another angle. Large portions of both actors bodies were visible in both shots. Both actors were reasonably inexperienced and didn’t really understand the importance of matching their body position between takes. I had to cut between these two angles six or seven times during the 1 minute 30 scene and any differences in actor positions between shots was glaring and jolting. Nightmare.
It took me about 8 hours to get the scene cut satisfactorily in the end. I can’t imagine how I would done it at all if I was not able to constantly see the first frame of the incoming clip and the last frame of the previous clip at the same time. It would take days.
There’s plenty of work where a source monitor is not crucial but I think it’s giving yourself unnecessary difficulties to try to do narrative work with a unified viewer.
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What were the issues you came up against that made work on the feature film “painful”?
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It’s a while since I played with AVID. Doesn’t sync lock in AVID work in the same way as FCP7? I mean that the sync lock button just toggles on and off for the entire timeline rather having to individually seperate audio and video for every clip as you need to in some other programs.
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Which other NLEs have audio locked to video? In Edius the audio is locked to video by default as well. Audio tracks 1 and 2 sit empty while your audio is represented by a thin bar underneath your video.
Actually it’s strikes me that FCPX has been built to run a lot like Edius in it’s default setup. Apart from the audio lock when you first load Edius up it’s a single screen set up. Ripple mode is on. Tracks are locked- meaning you make an edit in V1 it ripples right through all the other tracks so they stay in sync. I haven’t been able to try FCPX- my mac is one generation too old but I imagine editing in FCPX is very similar to this. It’s a fun way to edit.
Generally of course I have all those defaults switched off and use it with a source window.
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I made the full switch. Not just switching from FCP to EDIUS but from Mac to PC as well. The total cost was about half what a Mac set up would have been and now I no longer have to render and have a system that will accept virtually any video format/frame rate/resolution etc on the same time line without a blip. I can’t be believe people have been editing this way for years and no one told me. No spinning beach balls for me anymore.
The one thing I miss after switching is Motion. I should learn After Effects, and I’ve been making some half arsed moves in that direction, but I do just enjoy shuttling things around in Motion. It might have it’s limitations but you could get great effects very quickly.