[John Davidson]

Not completely different, but acknowledging the platform specifics wouldn’t kill anybody. Wasn’t CS4 32 bit on Mac and 64 bit on PC? I think if Mac versions had a better feature or system functions tailored to the platform, the nightmare would be specifically for PC people would would either want it desperately or call it a gimmick. For those who really commit to a platform (either way) customized options tailored to the platform would be a good thing. That consistancy across Apple apps is what makes using them so pleasant (and part of why I really dig FCPX).

And you totally busted me on CUDA/GCD. I was reaching, obviously :).

[John Davidson]

I started on PC’s and was a massive detractor of macs until our first Tiger G5 in 2005. A big issue for me was losing the F9 key for easy ease, which is stupid I know, but it was. I still don’t think there’s a way to get it back without wrecking my itunes control. It’s been seven years and we still have to right click on keyframes to easy ease.

When you say CS6 is the same on Mac and PC, I agree, mostly. This consistency of UI takes away from the overall mac experience, i.e. itunes controls, no full screen apps, and the comment above that usb mics worked easily on a pc when on a mac it involved a price in blood to get working. I think in the last 3 years Adobe has taken great pains to code apps better for mac, but the core of all Adobe programs start on PC and then go to mac. If it didn’t, we’d see Adobe take more advantage of mac specific abilities like mac consistent keystrokes (CMD + ,) for prefs, full screen apps, and acknowledging the Apple keyboard control layout, for example. We don’t even get a mac shortcut layout preference option.

That’s part of why I stuck with Apple’s solutions. Their programs feel like they were built for the system you’re using and take advantage of it. If Adobe made CS6 specifically for mac, they would use Grand Central Dispatch instead of CUDA. Know what I mean?

There’s a lot Adobe skips over that OSX makes available to them for whatever reason – I guess multi-platform UI consistency. I think that at it’s root Adobe starts in PC land and clones that to mac. It’s the under-the-hood things that can get you. There not programs built FOR macs, they’re programs built to work ON macs.

[John Davidson]

The card manufacturers don’t make as many cards for macs as they do PC’s. When they do, they’re more expensive.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

You can tell it from really simple things like cmd+, doesn’t open preferences. Standard mac shortcuts are ignored. There are conflicts with standard mac applications using the F# keys for things like easy ease in After Effects. On macs you have to choose between easy ease (F9) or muting your computer. I kept the mute on my computer as I use that more than easy ease.

There are also less Adobe supported graphics cards on macs vs pc’s. Full-Screen isn’t supported, even though that feature was available for Adobe to implement since Feb of 2011 when Lion was first released to developers.

So much about Adobe apps for mac screams “we built it for PC’s first”. I use Adobe apps and I love ’em, but when people on PC’s say their adobe stuff works great compared to Mac’s, I believe them. Some of that probably has to do with the fact that Macs (iMacs and Mac Pros) have gone so long without a meaningful update. I’m hoping that changes soon. We’re jonesing for a new iMac but I’m not buying another one right now because the current models are 500 days old.

I think (hope) Apple has some awesomeness coming soon.

[John Davidson]

Not easily. Took quite a few hacks to get it to work (over a day of googling and trying to figure it out). Tried the same thing in FCPX and it just worked right of the gate. Premiere just didn’t want to see it. I’m not surprised it works easily on a PC. Adobe and macs are basically just staying together for the kids.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

Try getting a USB mic to work in Premiere.

[John Davidson]

I screen shared with him (Tony’s a buddy) and it was very weird. I just match framed into the clip, dragged it back onto the clip in the project timeline, hit replace from start and it went away.

Anyways, if anybody encounters that, that’s the solution. Go figure!

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

I don’t think a single one of these points or questions (I’m not sure what they are – I lose all comprehension after the sixth comma in a sentence) are actual inhibitors to workflow on a daily basis.
The real annoyances we encounter are:
-No love for the primary
-No easy match framing from a keyword tag to source
-Compound clips don’t extend past their original point even if source on it has room
-The little effects animation thingee on the upper left of a clip is accidentally clicked far too often
-no draggable effects from the inspector
-no quick and easy way to make customized transitions without going into Motion
-keyword sets don’t load with a selected event
-roles sets can’t be saved and loaded
-Project view is too big and clunky
-folders aren’t movable between drives in project view
-broken apart audio doesn’t have an easy out of sync warning
-can’t copy compound clips back to event
-can’t copy metadata from one clip to another (for example if we received a color corrected version of a show that we’ve already key tagged)
-generators data doesn’t copy into an even (like with slates built with Motion)

These would be much more useful things to complain about, IMHO.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

Baby steps :).

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

If each new event gets a new DMG, you’ll still have to assign it for every project export. Only takes a second though.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.