Jonathan Dortch
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I totally agree. I’m far more concerned with UI/Feature omissions than FCPX 1.0 being able to integrate with FCP 7.0. Apple let the FCS3 install remain untouched for a reason. First time we’re able to run two FCP’s side by side. I think most people complaining about the lack of project migration are merely doing so out of principle, but if you’ve poked around FCPX for even a few minutes you can see how there’s no way a FCP 7.0 project would translate into this new interface. You’d also see how this program can’t accommodate probably around 30-40% of the FCP 7.0 capabilities. From the core architecture down to the fundamental concepts behind the UI, they’re two totally different programs. I’m not a software engineer but I have to assume that writing such robust video based software is difficult. There are only a few players in this market.
FCPX reminds me of the first OSX release more than anything. Flashy but totally lacking major features, entirely different non compatible UNIX/Cocoa base — and we were forced to dual boot with Mac OS 9 until things with OSX were up to speed.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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I took Tony’s advice and I’m actually reading the manual tonight after two days of poking around. The Position tool actually quiets a lot of my bitching about the timeline 🙂 I like being able to move clips around freely without rippling everything.
The more I play around with the new timeline it’s kind of interesting… to me it’s really more of an adoption of the more locked Avid timeline system (linear rippling, required gap clips) paired with some classic FCP tools and this new clip connection system to further enforce sync. Still trying to sort out the benefits/intricacies of this storyline system.
I do find all the talk of jumping to Premiere pretty funny… though I haven’t touched it in years. I’m a huge AE fan, but Premiere is the one app of the Creative Suite I’ve just never seen used professionally. Not that this won’t change, but I’ve never come across any shops that use it, and as a freelancer I think you’ll be hard pressed to find any clients wanting their work done in Premiere. Avid will probably always have it’s place, but in my experience for NLE’s in a professional environment, it’s been a two horse race for the last decade. I just can’t fathom Apple abandoning the immense success of FCP.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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My only light at the end of the tunnel is thinking about Apple’s usual patterns for release and upgrade. People are pointing to the death of Shake, but I don’t think Shake had even a fraction of the user base of FCP. Ultimately it might not have been profitable to maintain Shake development against other high end competition from Autodesk, etc.
How about Apple’s most major release in recent years. Remember the iPhone without Copy/Paste? How about with only web apps, no App Store? They released the product and then aggressively pursued ecosystem development. FCPX is as major of a redesign as possible, and the 64-bit architecture seems to be equal parts impressive and powerful. It has major potential. To me the real tragedy is Apple’s marketing of this former professional product in its elementary state, scalping a major portion of an entire industry and starting this frenzy of concern.
I’m still freaking out too. Definitely because of the uncertainty of how much is missing from FCPX, but mostly for how this new program is structured for not allowing user customization — a key sign of a consumer program. If we had the same lame-duck feature wise FCPX that still showed hope of actual professional adaptability (custom Timeline options, custom Event directories, custom layout options, custom view options etc) I think the fervor would be far quieter.
The most telling thing is that for the first time ever, we can install FCPX side by side with FCP7. Ultimately I have no problem with the rudimentary state of FCPX as long as development is coming and I can continue working on a stable feature rich FCP7. Let’s just hope Apple keeps an ear to the market and actually listens. The first update needs to be substantial. Otherwise this just turns into a major tragedy for our entire industry.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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+1 on all of that. I especially like the Motion integration. Using Motion to make a Text template to bounce instantly to the FCPX effects panel is awesome. It’s cool how FCPX can natively interprete the Motion behaviors.
I can see the benefit in the Magnetic Timeline but I really wish there was also a classic mode to use the FCP timeline the way we all are accustomed to. How difficult could that be? The main benefit of the FCP platform historically has been flexibility in the way you like to edit. I would love to see some of the choices return.
I also really like the way the Effects/Transitions/Audio/Photos etc are grouped in the bottom right with iTunes and Aperture integration. Very accessible and stops the chronic Finder bouncing to pull additional music/sound FX/stills.
I love the native 4K support — huge potential in the future.
I am starting to see the benefit in the way Events group all of your media together on the storage device, but MUST have custom directory support ASAP. Shocking this is missing.
I’m trying to be positive but still sitting on the fence. Very curious how Apple will respond to all the negativity from launch.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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You’ll find a lot of people freaking out here and a lot of talk of jumping ship. I’ve been using it heavily for the last two days driving it as hard as possible and trying to get over the initial shock. The foundation is there for a really cool editing platform with a lot of awesome features, but way too many essential pro features are missing or buggy. It requires a lot of time to learn the new software, it’s a completely new UI and requires a new editing thought process which I’m not happy about. I didn’t think the core principles of FCP were broken.
Motion 5, however, is by far the best version of Motion by UI improvements alone IMO. There is a really slick feature to create FCP Text Templates, Filters, and Transitions that get sent straight to FCPX for really tight integration. First time I’ve ever seen the studio suite work so seamlessly.
To me, overall FCPX pretty much feels like beta software. This should have been a wide beta release not for sale even at $299. We are keeping FCP 7 installed and using X just to learn the new platform until the features/stability are up to speed. I’m not ready to jump ship, I’ve been on the FCP platform for a decade and there’s a lot stuff to potentially be awesome about the rethought 64-bit FCPX. I’ve never liked Premiere Pro and I’ve hated the archaic interface of AVID since film school.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Had a few invalid fonts. Trashed all of them, nuked the font cache. Can see the Text Editor in Inspector now but it crashes the program out every time I try to use it.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Great tip will try this tomorrow first thing. timeline issues are my biggest concern. thanks for all the info today!
JONATHAN DORTCH
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It’s more unnecessary clutter than performance concerns. 3-4 projects going at a time and you have to load all of the events/media to work on one? what happens when the folder on the RAID is 100 events deep?
i didn’t notice a hide mechanic for events, just clips. maybe that is the only solution for now.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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The weirdest thing about the Event system to me is how you are only allowed to save to a root folder on the drive under the “Final Cut Events” folder, and every Event in that folder is loaded on startup. So without manually archiving/moving the Events in that folder, do they want EVERY Event ever created on the drive to load EVERY time FCP X is launched? Such a mess.
The only way to get anything close to the “Bin” structure is to use the keyword / smart folder system. I really don’t see the point of abandoning the Bin/Sequence system. I am totally into the clip tagging but these “Events” seem totally dumb.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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Ugh. Motion had the exact same Font / Text Inspector problems. Been finicky for the last two versions.
JONATHAN DORTCH
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