[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Have you tried MotionVFX.com?

They have some very high quality templates at very attractive prices (49 dollar, which is about the price of one or 2 hours of your time), and you get to download the complete Motion Project, allowing you to make changes if you wish.

Also remember that there is already a Bad- TV signal filter inside FCPX that works very well. You could even, depending on your needs, take a still picture, put the material inside manually, and put that filter on it. Could work.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

FCPX only optimizes media to Prores that it consideres to be ‘needed’ to transcode.
For instance, H.264, certain MPEG2 sources, …
But I think even XDCAM HD, which is a Long Gop codec, you cannot let FCPX transcode it to optimized media. It just a greyed out function. You can let it make proxy media, but that’s a whole other ballgame.

Considering that it doesn’t even ‘need’ XDCAM to be optimized to Prores, I would expect that it certainly doesn’t need DVCPro to be transcoded. So I’m not surprised.

You also have to know that X, unlike 7, doesn’t have a ‘codec’ timeline. You can only put in a format (1080 25i, 720p, etc.) and you can choose a RENDER codec (different flavors of Prores and Uncompressed) which will in turn be the default export codec. You can change this render codec afterwards too.
In FCP7 you had a ‘Prores timeline’, or a ‘XDCAM timeline’, or an ‘Uncompressed’ one, or… X-timelines are codec-independent, although working in Prores does help in speed. I haven’t tested DVCPro, but I think it should be fine too.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Seems great addition, and this adds a very powerful package to FCPX (tracking for color correction, effects, etc. …)

I’m a bit bumped by the upgrade pricing from the normal SliceX version, but other than that, I think it’s a very attractive priced package.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

I would keep all discussion here.

After Apple changed the post-production world with FCPX for a big part, we had 2 forums:
FCPX techniques, just a technical forum for people who work with FCX, and this forum which became a bit of a loose discussion board about NLE’s. Avid. Premiere. Apple. The Industry.

Very interesting discussions.

A shame to break it up to seperate boards.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Craig,

thanks for the updates.

With all the deadlines that you are going trough (cutting in 22 instead of 26), do you get a lot of extra interest from the network in FCPX?

Kind regards,

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

No doubt Adobe is doing a lot of great things.
That being said, hearing that the ‘current version of Premiere is a bit rough, but the next one will be great’ is something I’ve been hearing since CS4.

But, don’t get me wrong, I love how much work Adobe is putting in Premiere, and of course they are a very strong player being that they have a complete mature suite.

That being said, on the editing front, I think both with old FCP and FCPX, Apple has shown that it dares to think forward, try different things, and although they had a terrible launch (a program released without relinking function? without XML? without the ability to export only a range from the timeline? ugh. they deserved a lot of that early criticism) they also have shown that they are still very much in tune with things that speed up the process. The way Roles work, audio components, keyword collections, … It’s all new, but I like it, and it’s very powerful and fast. The way they implemented an almost stupidly easy proxy workflow where Adobe can not even hint at, is also remarkable (yes, I know improvements can be made).

I agree with you that FCPX had a rough start, and that time will tell if it will be as easy or much more difficult to win market share. But the longer I work with FCPX, ‘get’ the program, see the updates, the more I’m positive about it’s future.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

Hi Bill,

yes, it’s about visual comfort. You could easily work out a system for yourself with color labels, so you know what’s finished, what’s in progress, what’s recently changed, etc. …
Yes, you can put them in folders, change the name, etc.
But a color could give an instant visual recognition.

Anyhow, one of the least important things on my wish list 😉

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

When FCPX came out, I really disliked it. Gave it another chance after 10.0.3, and tried using it as much as possible after that because there was too much I liked.

Now I’m almost switched 100 %.

When it was released, Larry Jordan said: “Nobody will use it professionally now. But within 12 to 18 months, I think the situation will be dramatically different”.

I think his timing was a bit too optimistic, in hindsight, but you can see people that dissed it first, becoming more interested. More and more stories show up.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

This is my wish-list (sent it to Apple a couple of times, updated trough use):

– Being able to Scale or Stabilize Attributes on synchronized clips.

– Remove Attributes button

– If you scroll trough with JKL keys, and you do it very quick, you hear the audio pitch-perfect for the first seconds, and then it disappears. It would be great if it would stay like that.

– Being able to give color labels to projects in the Project Library

– 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?

– I don’t know if this is by design or a bug: if I put multiple in-and out points, ranges as you say, in a clip, and I make them chronologically and push E to append to the primary storyline, it puts them in the wrong order in the timeline. If I make a range 1 and a range 2 in the same clip, in chronological order, FCP X puts it in the timeline as range 2 first, and range 1 second. It’s completely opposite of normal thinking? If you have an interview that you want to go trough, it’s more intuitive to have it in the same order as the interview. Now it ruins the multiple ranges-option. I can’t remember this being so in FCP 10.0.6, but I could be wrong, so I don’t know if this was introduced in 10.0.7?

– Synchronize clips seems to only use audio. According to the manual, it also used timecode, but we tried multiple times doing it with clips with the same timecode, and FCP X would never place them correct. In multicam this works correctly. It would be nice to get some more options there and let FCPX use timecode correctly to synchronize multiple audio/video clips.

– 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.

– If you have a synchronized clip with R3D material, making sure the spatial conform works like it does with a normal rough R3D clip.

– 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. The Match-Color behaviour doesn’t work very well, and the older 3-way color corrector in FCP7 was miles ahead on some of this manual control.

– 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.

– More options from Color, including but not limited to color wheels. Tracker. Custom shapes, that can be keyframed, including in their shape points. 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!

– Fade Handles on seperate Audio Components.

– Fade Handles on video?

– Prores LT as a codec option to optimize!

– In the preferences, have playback for Optimized Media or Original Media be 2 seperate options? Or just some more flexibility.

– Better support for working with networked storage! I’m not talking about users working on the same project on the same timeline (although the patents I saw online about guardians etc. were interesting) but just having the program work easily with networked storage over ethernet!

– If you open the HUD of a Smart Collection, it seems I cannot make the HUD bigger or smaller. Sometimes if I have long names of Keyword Collections of which the first 3 words are the same, I cannot see which to click on or off if I put a Keyword on one of the parameters of a Smart Collections. I don’t know if this is a bug or not.

– At the retiming menu, if you click it, have a custom option to manually give in a percentage.

– Custom resolutions when making a project! With a way of making it a preset! It’s possible now trough a compound clip and work-around, so it must be possible technically, but just the option needs to be ‘activated’ in the dialog window when making a new project.

– ‘Break Apart Compound Clip’ back in the contextual right-mouse click menu.

– This is more of a general Mac OSX complaint since Lion, but the way the system works with programs in full screen is really really one of the most emberassing things ever if you have 2 monitors… FCP X is no different. Suddenly seeing the second screen dissapear is really… ugh.

– 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?

– Being able in the Copy Paste Dialogue box, to paste seperate color corrections, and have them being applied ABOVE whatever you have done to that clip earlier. And not only replace it. Maybe have a small button in the dialogue box where you can choose to ADD your attributes to the clip you are pasting it too.

– Being able to give Color Corrections names, instead of just the automated numbers. And also being able to move a color correction up or down in the effects stacking order, like you can do with other effects.

– 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 a smart Render function, as FCP 7 had where it simply copies original media if you are doing simple cut-cut operations. Now this only seems to be with Prores LT, but not with XDCAM material for instance…

– 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. Now it stops if you do something in the program, and you really let it do a lot, it kind of makes your computer super super slow.
Like the generating waveform that seems to pause whenever you work in the program. It’s not logical.

– Being able to also put Events in Folders, like you can with Projects.

– Also having Skimmer info in the timeline, showing for instance timecode of the original clip.

– If you have a (raw) clip in the Event Browser, and click Open in Timeline, and for instance, put a timecode generator on it, and you put it in your timeline, it shows the timecode generator on the clip in the timeline. So far, so good. But if you then, in your Event Browser, after the edit, use the same process to remove the timecode generator or make it invisible, it doesn’t update in the timeline. The work-around is to first put your clip in a compound clip, but I think it’s a unnecessary work-around which can cause potential errors. You suddenly have every clip you need to use like that twice in the project, and you have to make sure the starting timecode of your compound clip is the same as the one of the clip itself. (UPDATE, I can imagine this works the way it does, because you like having that a normal clip in the timeline is completely independent… I get the logic, but then you should just get a better option for having timecode on a clip that you want to remove instead of compounding every clip first).

– Better support for using FCPX with 3 displays. On a rMBP connected with 2 other displays, it will always use your laptop as a standard second display. The only work-around is closing the lid, let FCPX put your content on the other display, and opening the lid again. Very silly work-around, especially if you have to do it in front of clients.

– If you have a bunch of clips and you all change their scale properties trough the transform tools in the viewer, the slider in the inspector will still say it’s 100 procent while the clip clearly isn’t on 100 pro cent. Maybe I got this because of working with compound clips, I don’t know if it’s the same with raw clips, but anyhow, if I use the inspector to change all the clips their scale, they all update correctly in the inspector if I click them afterwards. Strangely enough also, when I use the transform tools of the Viewer to change the Position of clips, they all update fine in the inspector. Unless this was a bug on my end, I don’t think this is logical. Maybe the issue is only with compound clips, but it’s a big issue nonetheless.

– Please make it possible to have your transform, crop and color correction tools in the inspector change in stacking order together with effects. Being able for instance, to put a crop ABOVE a 3rd party effect for instance. Now there are many work-around necessary (compounding) to do this.

– When doing a split edit on a connected clip and the audio starts a lot earlier then the video (J-cut), and you then you collapse the clip again, and then put a dissolve on the video, which causes it to become a secondary storyline, it cuts the early audio off. That doesn’t make sense (if it’s not a bug). A way to solve this, would being able to just put a transition on a clip (dissolve) without it becoming a secondary storyline. I get the logic behind this, but in practice it causes me a LOT of unnecessary clicks in a timeline, while the other way around, if I want to have secondary clips become a storyline, I can always have the option trough the menu command or contextual menu. Please change this behaviour. Maybe it’s not a good idea to have a connected clip become a connected storyline automatically after putting a transition on it. In my experience, in 99 procent of the cases, I really have to do a lot of extra clicking around, and it almost never saves me time.

– 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.

– In a Smart Collection, also being able to use Clip Type: Synchronized Clip. Now you have to do it trough Text, and then add Sync somewhere. A bit of a work-around.

– 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.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

FCPX often works like this.

For instance, you have some shortcuts to put something from the primary storyline into a connected clip and vice versa. In the beginning, I thought: why would I use this? work like this?

At some point during a job, I thought I needed it. I started using it, in the beginning a bit uncomfortable. Now I use it all the time, depending on the shot etc.

Multiple in and out points are great for, for instance, interviews. You just go to trough the interview, and everywhere you have a good answer, you just push the shortcuts. Then, with one shortcut, E, bam, it’s all there in the primary storyline. Just connect some b-roll trough the Q shortcut.