Mathieu Ghekiere
Forum Replies Created
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I’m not an After Effects user, but there seems to be some hope for After Effects OSX users, with the demo that Adobe gave on Metal on WWDC.
The speed gains they showed with Metal on Illustrator and After Effects were very impressive.Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Vimeo framework” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
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Christian, in my experience, most of the time (not always) changing an excisting edit in FCPX is a lot easier then in a lot of track based NLE’s because of the magnetic timeline. Sometimes it can work against you, but changing some orders and stuff, and have all the rest stay the same and connected to each other is a great time-saver.
About match framing back to a keyword collection: I get the point (I misunderstood you before I think), but a clip can have multiple keywords (which is actually great), so to which collection should it match frame back to then?
On the timeline you could always work with compound clips and/or markers if that helps. You can do a search for markers and stuff trough the Timeline Index.
A lot of learning how to work with the magnetic timeline, primary vs secondary, is based in my experience on muscle memory. After a big while with X you start THINKING in terms of primary and secondary and secondary timelines. This just takes your muscle memory to switch and change.
FCPX is not ALWAYS faster, but most people who use it for a long time (I also switched from FCP 7 after I first hated X and even asked for a refund) notice that once you start learning it as used, you don’t miss a lot of stuff you thought you would miss more. Like I thought 2 viewers would be handy, but I notice that I as good as never use the Event Viewer now it’s there. (it’s not the same as the old 2 viewer system though). I just don’t have a problem with the one viewer anymore. Although, I can understand people NEEDING a certain functionality if you workflow depends on it AND if every other way in X takes you more time from start to finish.
But what I wanted to say: a lot of people who use it a lot notice that X is faster and easier in MOST cases. Not all. But like Charlie said: a lot of us rather have the missed functionality of X than what we perceive as the missed functionality in the other Track based NLE’s.
Again, I don’t think X is perfect. But even with it’s imperfections I like it more and think it’s faster then other NLE’s.Regards,
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Charlie just typed: X has a lot of room for improvement and don’t lump me in with the crowd that says it’s perfect, and you reply with: ‘for you it’s perfect, right?’
:-sI agree with Charlie about the roles not affecting the Master Clip. Now it’s always a very certain logic: if you do something in the Event Browser to a clip before you put in the timeline, it gets transferred to the timeline, but not reverse way. I also agree it would be a mess if it would work both ways.
You don’t loose keywords if you do Match Frame, unless I’m misunderstanding you.
I also have a bullet point list of 30 or 40 points that I wish Apple would change or make better in the program, but I also think most of what you say isn’t that high on my list, or non-excistant at all.
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Hi Oliver,
when I saw the original test-video that Bill linked too, I was glad to see it but I also was in doubt because he didn’t share full details on codecs and settings used. (Even though I’m an FCPX user switched from FCP7, I want my results fair and transparant and clear, because I think Adobe is trying to do a lot of good stuff with Premiere too, even though I don’t see myself going back to tracks anymore, but who knows).
So it’s nice to see your results too, which pretty much confirm that FCPX is a very fast renderer (which I also notice on my pretty new machines – a 2014 Macbook Air and a base model 5K Retina iMac), but with full settings and codecs revealed to have a more informed view.
Thanks and regards, -
The short version in my opinion… it was a bit of both.
Apple botched the launch.
The first version was very unstable. Missed TOO much features. No XML. No attributes. The event Browser didn’t even remember the in and out points you set on a clip. No Library model. No RED RAW support. No Multicam. The list was long.
So yes. The software got a LOT better. I started fiddling with it around 10.0.3 and switched completely around 10.0.6.Then the other side is that the way it worked was sooo new, completely different of FCP7 (and this wasn’t communicated very clearly to the existing user-base), that people had a hard time getting used to it. Change is hard for a lot of people (including me) and it was also a matter of being open-minded again to concepts you though you knew and were fixed in a way. This is why a lot of people *still* feel a lot of hate for it. There is a minority of people who have used the software a LOT but it’s missing certain stuff or it makes their job a lot harder, so they have a lot of good reasons to not like it.
But you have to get rid of your excisting muscle memory (especially the magnetic timeline) and this takes months. Not talking about the ability to cut, but to ‘think’ the way the program works in a muscle-memory way the way you have it with other programs you have been using for years.So yeah. Both 😉
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Walter, you said:
“It’s been the classic frog-boiling scenario, going back to FCP Legend where ProRes was the only way to work.”
This is completely untrue. Prores was only introduced with Final Cut Studio 2 (FCP 6!!). You could before and after, work with DV, HDV, XDCAM, …
Prores was one of the first good alternatives to having a very high quality HD codec, not too taxing, without the rates of Uncompressed HD.
It was very far from ‘the only way to work’ … -
you are correct, but that’s why I checked the specs: they are both i7’s.
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No, I think RAM and Graphics cards and fast storage all contribute A LOT more to having quick performance. (especially fast storage, and especially for 4K).
That small processor bump will make some renders go a very small bit faster. Personally, I would keep that money rather towards a fast Thunderbolt RAID (like Pegasus) then to a processor bump. It will have a much more dramatic impact on your speed.
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This is The list I keep sending to Apple. I try to update it and check off stuff when they added functionality to The program or squished bugs. Anyhow, this is my list, just a Quick copy and paste:
– Remove Attributes button
– Being able to give color labels to projects
– Another behavior when putting multiple dissolves in a timeline. In FCP 7, it would add a dissolve everywhere it could, but if there wasn’t enough media, it would not copy a dissolve there. This was very handy when you worked with a lot of clips that just follow each other coming from a recording device that splits long recordings in multiple files.
In FCP X now, you can only choose to create media for the transition, or just cancel and not have a a cross dissolve anywhere. If I’m not mistaken, the first releases of FCP X would give you more choices in this regard.
It’s nice to have a combination of the old behavior and the potential new one (with creating extra media) and just have options of both in the dialog window you get. Because if now, you have a recording split in multiple files, and put a dissolve in between those clips with FCP X doing the ‘creating extra media thing” you get a weird effect that’s not wanted.– A kind of batch export, and maybe support for kind of reference files?
– If you export for instance, 3 timelines in the background, you only see the first file by name.
The one below, awaiting, just say: ‘Master File’. Why can’t you say the name of the project or timeline? So you can get a quick idea of what you are already exporting and if you forgot anything.
If it’s the same timeline you are exporting multiple times, with changes, let’s have it say the name of the sequence with the date and exact time of the export?– If you click Expand All in the menu for expanding video and audio, that it expands every clip in the timeline, INCLUDING the ones you put in the timeline AFTER you pushed the Expand All option. It reduces the amound of clicking. If you want to edit with an expanded view of audio seperately, you click expand all, and edit the way you want. If you put new clips in the timeline, you don’t have to press again and again in the menu. The same goes for Components. Could be nice to just have it as a viewing mode.
– More RAW controls from REDCINE in the R3D Hud, including (big one) the eyedropper tool to very quickly and automatically set white balance.
– Have a simple white balance tool in your standard color tools, like the one from RED. Let it be a tool you can switch on or off.
– A timecode HUD with much more timecode options. Seeing in one view the timecodes of everything in the timeline (like the old timecode overlay in FCP7), optional of course. Being able to COPY and PASTE a timecode from a clip instead of manually having to feed it always, like you could in FCP 7. You could just copy the timecode from the viewer of canvas.
– A well made timecode reader/generator effect, not only a generator. (have both). Like the old one: read timecode, generate one, custom, … Now, we have to work trough compound clips with timecode generators above, which seems unnecessary. To be able to read source timecode.
– More options from Color, including but not limited to color wheels. Tracker. Sharpening, denoising,… Maybe have a seperate Color Room? (same with Audio?)
– If you click to have Proxy Media Playback, put a warning side if media hasn’t been converted to Proxy yet, but don’t have it be offline completely. It sometimes doesn’t make sense to transcode EVERYTHING in your timeline to Proxy Media. Only being able to transcode a portion of it, and just see a small subtle warning sign in the rest without hindering your ability to work with it, would be much better!
– In the preferences, have playback for Optimized Media or Original Media be 2 seperate options? Or just some more flexibility.
– ‘Break Apart Compound Clip’ back in the contextual right-mouse click menu.
– At Audio Enchancements, at the background Noise Removal option, have a small button to set the noise print, as you could with Soundtrack Pro. I don’t know if the technology now in FCP X is the same as in Soundtrack Pro, but I’m getting much worse results (frankly, I never get good ones, and thus never use it) when using the remove background noise option in FCP X. Maybe having the option to manually set the noise print, will get better results back?
– An audio mixer! Maybe have some seperate Audio Mixing ‘room’, like you could have with Color Correction. FCP X seems to have great technologies under the hood (some of Color, some of Logic, some of Soundtrack Pro, some of Cinema Tools), but just have the tools deeper would really make it a super-NLE. Not needing to round-trip, but still being able to do so much in an NLE that can seem so simple, but yet can get very deep, is VERY appealing, and would get many people to switch to Macs and FCP X. Look at Color… Yes, you could say Resolve is better, but not needing to round trip, and being able to do very good corrections in the same program where you do the finishing, compositing, editing, … is really tempting. If you don’t want to use it, you don’t need to. But I miss Color, and in the same way I think much more of Soundtrack Pro needs to return to FCP X.
Maybe audio mix trough color coded roles or so?
So you can change the chronology of Roles in the Timeline Index, and the Timeline shifts all those Roles together. So if you decide you want all your Sound FX under your video, and then all your Music, you do it in the Timeline Index with a drag-move, and the timeline groups them and moves them together? Marcus Moore wrote a great blogpost about some options:
https://disproportionatepictures.blogspot.com.es/2014/05/roles.html– Being able to give Color Corrections names, instead of just the automated numbers.
– Being able in a way to very easily put a video-only dissolve on a clip, without messing too much with detaching audio, secondary timelines, … Just have a cross dissolve video-only transition in the transition browser or something. Same thing with making an audio-only cross dissolve with a dedicated short cut (it used to be ALT+CMD+T in FCP7)! These little things suddenly can make FCPX a much more slow tool to use.
– Have a quick way of putting audio back to a clip after detaching it. (and if they are out of sync, maybe have a dialogue box or something to choose if you want to keep it out of sync, or put it back to it’s default?)
– Have out of sync-markers when detaching audio… Or have better solutions for working with a recording where all the audio is for instance 4 frames off.
– Have the Background Render option be REALLY background. So for instance, when you are working, it keeps rendering, but like with one core or something. So it’s low taxing on the system, but you can really keep working.
– Please make it possible to have your transform, and crop tools in the inspector change in stacking order together with effects. Being able for instance, to put a crop ABOVE or BELOW a 3rd party effect for instance. Now there are many work-around necessary (compounding) to do this. (and some things are just impossible)
– The background Dashboard hud dissapears when going into another application. Not that handy.
– This feature could maybe be a work-around for the dashboard dissapearing, although it would be nice to have both: In the Share Monitor program, have a look at what you are exporting in every program (FCPX, Motion 5, Compressor 4). They all share the same engine. Having the Share Monitor open and being able to see what you are exporting in FCP X next to your regular Compressor Batch would be great. Having a seperate tab or something like that.
– When making a new compound clip, being able to immediately say which keyword it needs to have. Now, if you need to make a lot of them, and you are making compound clips from clips in a keyword-collection (which we do, to have a timecode generator on them, because we miss having a timecode hud), you always get thrown back into your Event, instead of staying within that keyword collection, and then you have to manually search the compound clip and assign a keyword to the compound clip again.
– In an Event, in your viewing options, you can choose to display: “no rating or keyword selections”. I like that option, but it would be extra nice if you have an extra viewing option with separate: “no rating” “no keyword”, next to the excisting option of both.
– Being able to have a Proxy with Alpha channel (have the software detect that automatically? Make Prores 4444 in those cases?)
– Being able to adjust values of Loudness parameter in Audio Enchancements with numeric values. Now you have numeric values for the Loudness sliders (Amound & Uniformity) but you cannot adjust the numbers directly, you have to use the sliders.
– In the transform Tools, have full Rotation controls. So for instance, only with the Y axis for instance.
– The last view of your viewing modes of your clips in the timeline is very small, which makes it very handy if you are working with many layers and don’t need to see thumbnails. It would be great to have fade handles for audio in that viewing mode. And maybe also have an expanded audio components view in that mode, but I would consider that less important.
– Having Snapping also work with for instance, doing retiming (with Hold Frames) on multiple secondary storylines above each other.
– This is more for motion, but: In Motion5, in the Browser, also have column view like you have in the Finder. It makes navigating trough your files much easier.
– If you have for instance 4 layers of video, with each of them having 4 clips next to each other… Once you make a couple of clips in a layer of video into a secondary storyline there is a minimal height difference. This becomes annoying when working with multiple layers of video, and you want to check and go from one of them to the other. (for instance, by putting transitions between them).
– At this point it seems impossible if you use Match EQ, to apply the match with the same clip, but just an other audio component. If I have one clip with 2 tracks of audio components, and I want to match channel 1 with channel 2, I cannot do so. I need to copy the clip, and make sure it’s physically another clip on the timeline. This seems a lot of unnecessary steps and gets in the way of what the whole Audio Component feature is about.
– Being able to drop a complete folder in Compressor. And make Smart Folders or Quees. Compressor has Job Actions now, but it would be great if you could tell it to use every movie that arrives in a folder (including things you are currently rendering out in FCPX, but you are leaving the computer overnight), to compress that to a couple of things. I know you SORT OF can get that now by sharing in FCPX to multiple things, but it would be a nice feature for Compressor to have too.
– A way to ‘lock’ edits/Projects, with a simple lock-icon like in system preferences. Snapshot seems to be a way, I’m just wondering if a lock icon is not more universal and easily understandable.
– Another something on the wish list: it would be great if you could select all your markers in the timeline index, and make them into another kind of marker, with one command, or one click. Like making all your markers chapter markers, or making all your markers to do items, etc. …
– Having a way of seperately consolidating only your Proxy Media to another folder like you want.
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We see the same.
We see Waveforms a lot faster on long clips, and performance on a network has greatly improved. Especially JKL-scrolling fast now goes without dropped frames as it sometimes used to do on network storage.