[Jeff Kirkland]

It’d help to know exactly what your trying yo do. The FCPX blend modes are in the info panel along with the transform, crop, rescale tools, alpha channel handling, etc.

Google is great, this forum is great, but there’s this thing called the FCPX user manual. Search for compositing in there and you get 14 hits that cover everything from a general overview to use of blend modes.

Also, I think I’m right in saying that Ripple Training have video course called Compositing in FCPX” or something similar…

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I was playing with this yesterday and to my surprise, editing a lower third png file did update across multiple projects without any linking issues. I went on to even try saving an unrelated picture over the top of the lower third png file just to make it radically different and sure enough – it updated across multiple projects just fine.

Based on experience with earlier versions of FCPX I had always assumed replacing a file would lead to a relinking nightmare.

Even if it didn’t though, the workaround would be to put the graphic inside a compound clip, use the compound clip to place the lower third, then if you need to update just replace the contents of the compound clip. All projects using that compound clip will update to the new version.

~jeff k

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 with the Radeon 5770 and FCPX and even Davinci Resolve runs quite well.

I would have bought the slightly better than base model 27″ iMac but it was pre-christmas when the new iMacs were hard to get, my Mac Pro was refusing to start up, I was drowning in unfinished work, and the just-opened-that-day Apple store down the road had three of the base model 27″ iMacs in stock.

The real bottleneck I have is hard drive speed. With 24gb of RAM I have yet to think the computer itself is slow but I do spend time waiting for beach balls to go away while FCPX is doing its database thing. I’ve been too busy to work through my options for a cost effective external RAID but its a must-have.

Ultimately though, the iMac I have is fine for me for the work I do which is short form corporate stuff with the occasional multicam conference so I’d suggest the answer to the original poster’s question is that any of the 27″ iMacs is fine for his use. Just get the best one your budget allows.

And of course, not have having invested much so far, I won’t have to think too hard when/if a new Mac Pro is released.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

For what it’s worth, my work is 90% corporate. I have the basic 27″ iMac and don’t really have any issues. If you can justify the expense, grab the 1gb graphics card and the i7 CPU but if, like me, you just don’t need the extra horsepower, the base model is fine.

But you *must* budget for RAM no matter what. I have 24gb and I find even going back to machines with 16gb they feel sluggish.

The low-end 27″ isn’t quite as future-proof but I budget to buy a new one every two years anyway. I see the iMacs as disposable like laptops so $1k a year is what I feel is a pretty good figure to write off on a throwaway computer.

Another thought – is there any reason not to just buy a new graphics card for the Mac Pro? My 2006 Mac Pro with a newer graphics card and 8gb RAM runs most things just fine.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I think so. I use it to capture old VHS tapes, etc. I usually just capture from it using QuickTime X because they’re long captures and I want to be able to keep working in FCPX at the same time – but I’m sure I remember testing it in FCPX when I first set it up. From memory, if there’s no deck control FCPX waits for a valid signal and as soon as there is you just press the “import all” button. FCPX will capture until you press stop or there’s no input signal any more.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I cant remember where it came from and couldn’t find the receipt but there’s an Apple store ten minutes from me so I’d be 99% certain it was Apple’s adapter. I’m using the thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter and then a generic FireWire 800 to FireWire 4 pin cable.

I’ve controlled several Sony, a JVC & a couple of Panasonic DV/HDV cameras using the adapter. It’s also working fine with my old Canopus ADVC100 A/D converter. I’m sure there will be exceptions but so far so good.

~ Jeff K

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

A FireWire to thunderbolt cable should do the trick. All of my DV and HDV cameras seem to work with FCPX fine via one of those. If not, there are plenty of other apps, including QuickTime that can capture the footage.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

DVD architect doesn’t need a whole lot of grunt to run. An i5, even with the overhead of Parallels is way more than it needs. I’m running it on an i5 iMac with 8gb RAM so I’d say you shouldn’t have any troubles.

For what it’s worth Sony Vegas runs under the same VM as well and is still very useable. Vegas is still my preferred app for multi-track audio finishing at the end of an edit.

I’m running DVDA under Windows 7 and it seems happy enough. Haven’t ventured into the world of Windows 8 yet.

Cheers,
Jeff K

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

This is probably getting off topic for the original poster but while I agree that DVD’s and their ilk are a royal pain, I’m not sure what the alternative is if you need to deliver multiple copies of a project in a guaranteed playable by everybody format.

Here’s an example from a year or so ago. The client would have been very happy to go with digital delivery but as far as i could see there wasn’t, and still isn’t, any digital standard to achieve the same thing other than DVD.

Five hundred copies had to be delivered in a guaranteed universally playable format. The video had to have audio tracks in multiple languages and subtitle tracks that could be switched on or off and remember the current subtitle & language state as the user skipped from title to title – It also had to do it’s best to guess the primary language of the viewer when they hit play.

The target audience had mental and physical disabilities so the delivery medium had to be plug & play simple and not require any reading skill or great degree of motor skill to achieve.

I hit the brief with a DVD authored in DVD Studio Pro but I’d love to know what the digital-only alternative would be.

DVD may be old but it ain’t dead yet…

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Jeff Kirkland]

I’m hoping someone will have a good answer to this. Personally, I’ve fallen back to an old favourite of mine from before I switched to macs – Sony DVD Architect running under Parallels. The ‘home’ version is cheap but effective, and the professional version has features that rival DVD Studio Pro.

I’d love to find a good Mac native app though. I have Encore but as far as I can see it’s nowhere near as capable of the advanced authoring I need as DVD Studio or DVD Architect are.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland