Mark Morache
Forum Replies Created
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[Craig Seeman] “Note that the primary storyline already has that behavior. You can place a clip anywhere and the space is filled with a gap. Optionally give secondary storylines the same default function.”
Sometimes in FCP, or XPRI, I’ll place a clip way down the timeline to give myself a huge gap. I’ll bet you can do that in FCX. Just tried it. Put the gap into the secondary storyline, selected it and CTL-D and gave the gap a 5 minute duration. No problem. Huge secondary storyline. Fill away. It still doesn’t have the same functionality of editing to the primary.
I like the trick of ganging the connected clips and having it add the gap. I still maintain the magnetic timeline makes my job take longer right now.
I think you just want your tracks like me, you just won’t admit it. If you want the ability to add one track, why not have three or four?
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Craig Seeman] “Sure but why not allow for secondary storyline be a default behavior? I think some would like the option.
“
I think what Craig wants is the ability to assign edits to tracks, just like you can in FCP7. Just click the V1 on the source side and drag it to V2 on the right side to patch your new edits into the selected track.
But wait… there are no tracks! That won’t work. It’s against the paradigm.
I’ve tried putting audio as the primary storyline, then adding b-roll as a secondary storyline. It feels awkward to me. I really like using I and O on the timeline, and even if I have the secondary storyline selected, it still sets the region on the primary storyline.
After I set my points, I can hit the Q key to make a new connected clip, the hit P and drag the connected clip into the secondary storyline. #awkward
If I set my points THEN select the secondary storyline, my range disappears. The only way I can select a range in the secondary storyline is with the range tool and the mouse. #awkward
Perhaps there’s a way we can keep the secondary storyline selected until we specifically unselect it, and all of our keys and edits will apply to the secondary storyline, like a second track.
(Perhaps there’s also a way to keep the in and out-points we set until we unselect them.)
Overwrite and lift: I’ve been using the “overwrite to primary storyline” lately. After I place my narration and soundbites in the primary storyline, I select the entire length of the narration track with the X key, connect a clip the same length then select the connected clip and overwrite it to the primary storyline. It bumps the narration clip below the storyline, then the clip is now in the primary storyline, and I can use my keystrokes to replace bits and pieces of the primary storyline to go along with the narration.
There is nothing in FCP7 like the lift from and overwrite to the primary storyline functions. I could argue that they are trying to add these functions to the interface to make up for deficiencies, because the magnetic timeline is faulty, awkward, and no more practical than the tracked storyline unless you are dealing with the most simple of edits.
Trimming the ends: When I make large changes, trims, or re-arrangements in FCP7, I create a large gap, move the group of video and audio clips into the gap, then close up the gaps and “trim the ends” making sure that the sound and video clips on the non-primary channels overlap exactly the way I want. Likewise, to remove a large chunk requires closing the gap and trimming the ends to clean things up. FCX doesn’t keep me from the necessity of trimming the ends. The re-editing can be complicated because I may need to reconnect clips I don’t want to move to other clips before I make my edit. (And those little connection lines can be mighty hard to see.) It might make it a bit easier in X because of the non-collision, but most of us can deal with the complications because often editing can be a complicated thing.
I believe Apple could come up with a track based interface and still find a way to give us a virtually magnetic timeline. I think the ability to select a group of clips and “group” them together with a keystroke could give us the same advantage of the connected clips without forcing us into the stacks of storylines.
There is a way to perform ripple edits in FCP7. Perhaps if they made it a switch instead of a modifier key it would be easier for the new kids to understand it.
FCP7 has a superimpose function that puts the newly edited clip on a new track. I believe they could easily give FCP7 a non-collision workflow by having it automatically add audio tracks when there aren’t enough tracks to hold the new clips. How about a modifier key that handles potential collisions by creating a cross fade between the clips like Sony Vegas?
I understand the magnetic timeline. I can edit in the magnetic timeline. I am not afraid of the magnetic timeline. I am not a big fan of the magnetic timeline.
Perhaps after the upgrade the magnetic timeline will allow us to edit at 768 miles per hour, and we’ll all love it, and the rest of the NLEs will scamper to replicate it.
Meanwhile, I may have edited my last story in FCX until a significant upgrade. Parts of the editing process are much more fun, but other parts require me too many workarounds. For crying out loud, I’m still manually disabling clips and exporting my finished project 4 fimes and re-assembling the clips in FCP7 to create my split audio channels.
Oops, I ranted again…. sorry.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
There’s a trick I used in my old Avid days.
Drop a large chunk of the clip into the timeline, then trim it there. If you’re using the waveforms to help you trim, you can maximize the waveforms in the timeline. Shouldn’t be too difficult.
Once you’ve set the clip in the timeline, you can Shift-F to see it in the event browser, and hit the F key to set the points as a favorite, just in case you need it again.
Personally, I find that scrubbing the clips in filmstrip view works quite well. I’ve given feedback for a couple of things that bother me about it. I wish that each bin (keyword collection, I know!) remembered it’s own view. I like list view for music files.
The other thing that bugs me is skimming the long clips where the filmstrips are broken up over several lines requires me to skim back and forth. I’ll bet they could fix it so that just by skimming vertically you would be able to skim the clip continuously across the line breaks.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “[Walter Soyka] “Can I import projects from Final Cut Pro 7 into Final Cut Pro X?””
I gotta think you could take that 7 timeline and make it trackless. V1 would be a direct translation. V2 could be a direct translation as well if you put everything into a secondary storyline. That would leave the reconnecting to the editor. Reconnecting is much easier than re-editing.
Or if all they did was connect the first frame of each V2 clip to the frame directly under it on V1, that would go a long way. Dissolves on V2 could be converted to keyframed opacity. Wipes and other transitions could force those parts of a V2 timeline directly into a secondary storyline.
Then do V3 and above the same way.
Seems like the audio could be done just as easily.
I’ll be they could come up with a translation for the 3 way color corrector, or they might even be able to create a version of it for the FCX effects bin.
Frankly, anyone who uses plug-ins and tried to open that project on a machine without the plug-ins has some fixing to do, but at least their edit is there. Why can’t we be afforded the same opportunity in FCX?
There’s some wicked irony here when you consider that AE can open an FCX project, but FCX can’t round trip to motion. And that Premiere Pro can open a FCP7 project but FCX can’t.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Being of the “there must be a pony in here somewhere” school of philosophy, I’m expecting that the long delay from Apple for an update to FCX is because of the extra work it’s taking them to put the tracks back in the timeline.
Seriously, they could have created their non-conflict timeline with tracks. They could have kept a version of connected clips by locking clips together, in tracks. They could have given us 64bit with backround rendering, crazy powerful metadata, even a version of the magnetic clips, and still given us our tracks.
I’m glad there’s still room for Aindreas to be shocked and awed.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Robert Brown] ”
I really doubt they are going to take a hit financially but their reputation has taken a hit deservedly and so maybe there is some concern about that.”They may not care as much about taking a hit financially, but I think they care about their dominance. I don’t know what percentage of editors use FCP, but Apple knows, and I believe they wouldn’t like seeing their preeminence wane.
And correct me if I’m reaching, but if it looks like they care what the pro world thinks, isn’t that a good sign? There seems to be a number of these signs that FCX wants to be a professional app when it grows up, so I’m ever hopeful.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
Well excuuuuuuse meeeeee.
Are you saying I’m not worth my money?
[Bret Williams] “I’m kinda floored”
Get yourself off the floor.
I’ve been living without Illustrator and After Effects, but never without Photoshop. I have a very old copy so I love being up to date.
And I know that Motion is not After Effects, but I haven’t come close to exhausting what I can do with it.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Walter Soyka] “My question for the forum is this: what do you think we can look for from Apple over the next 6 to 12 months to indicate if they are truly dedicated to the professional (or “complex workflow”) market or not?”
Honestly, they can get come out from behind the curtain, and do the thing that costs absolutely nothing, and can do everything to win back the hearts and souls of the final cutters everywhere.
How about a press conference.
Seriously. Other powerful companies do that. Don’t just manage the spin. Explain what happened in simple terms, own it, explain what you’ve learned and how you’re going to make it better. We’re in Apple’s corner, or we were at one point.
No matter how much I’d love to see that happen, I don’t expect it ever will.
What I expect is that they will shortly release the API that the third party producers will need to make this product get along with the rest of the world. I expect they will come up with an update that will make the program less buggy, add back some of our most necessary functions like multicam and relinking. I expect they will continue to come up with great hardware, and that third parties will bring things that will take the party to the pro level.
There’s something I haven’t seen mentioned much here, but that’s the magic of the app store. Not that Apple needs money right now, consider the temptation that you can push a button, the software goes everywhere at once, and within minutes a giant money barge starts unloading mountains of cold hard cash for your bank account. That might have had something to do with the release. They might have intended to be quick on the updates, which you can do so easily when the software isn’t on a disc, but they might have been bogged down by the deluge of issues raised and decided one big update would be better than a dozen little ones.
The more we conjecture, the worse the possible spin. A press conference would stop the misapplied ranting, and let us make informed decisions about our futures.
It’s like the husband who tells his wife “I told you I loved you when we took our marriage vows. I’ll let you know if that ever changes.” Communication is everything.
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Craig Seeman] “I was at the event and I did chew his ear a bit afterwords because I wanted to hear about the business thinking he’s going through. I think his approach to this as someone who founded what is now a large facility, is very well thought out.”
Any tidbits or insight that’s not in the video?
[Craig Seeman] “An interesting side note is that Tekserve said it was the highest attendance they had for any event and that includes Apple product launches. The place was packed end to end standing room. If you’ve seen that video you can imagine the reason Evan did the presentation standing in the window display as there was no other place he could fit.”
I was wondering about that. It seemed like a very strange place to stand. I thought they were just being innovative. “We’re in a fishbowl”. Kind of like the restaurant that has the one-way glass over the urinals so you can see out, but no one can see in.
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
[Craig Seeman] “Additionally, while facilities might represent only a very small portion of FCS sales. they probably represent a big portion of MacPro sales.”
And if the post house is on Macs and Final Cut, it’s pretty damn likely the editors will have their own personal Macs and Final Cut, and even their families.
I still don’t know why it took them two months.
Seriously?!
Also, kudos to you for your patience with people who seems to just want to rant and rave.
There’s a lot to be pissed at, but there is so much innovation and power in this app. I watched the tekserve presentation by Evan Schechtman.
Quite excellent. He wasn’t a sycophantic fanboy, but gave a very detailed, thorough, and knowledgeable examination of the whole situation.
I’m comfortably convinced that I’m not wasting my time learning and working on FCX. Clearly they made several errors in this launch, and I hope they figure out how to keep this from ever happening again.
Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
This works for me:
Select the clip you want to change
Click “color match” in the video properties bin to activate the match color function
Skim to the frame of the shot you want to match your clip to.
Click the frame in the clip, and the “apply match” button should activate.
Press the “apply match” button and it takes effect.
Are you clicking on the frame of the clip you want to match?
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I’m calling it FCX. They took the “pro” out, so I will too.
I’ll reconsider after the first upgrade.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
blogging at https://fcpx.wordpress.com