[Pxlmvr]

For me, as far as file organization, I use the ‘Shared’ folder under ‘Users’ on your hard drive. That is the folder that everyone on the network has access to; no passwords needed. I create a ‘Projects’ folder there and inside that, ‘Current Projects’ and ‘Archived Projects’ folders. Current projects get a folder with client number or project number. Inside that folder, I set set up Audio, Graphics, Supers and Misc. folders.

I always render out Motion or Photoshop supers as Self-Contained Quicktimes or TGA files because I use templates. This way the original file never gets changed down the road.

[Pxlmvr]

make that three votes for the intuos 3. the mouse has 5 buttons and scroll wheel. pen is indispensible when doing photoshop work.

[Pxlmvr]

I second rafael. I usually export the key from AE then apply my effects in FCP. Also the rendering estimation is *never* correct initially. I’ve had renders that have said 5 days initially only take 20 minutes. That clock only seems accurate once it gets below 5 minutes or so.

[Pxlmvr]

Wacom Intuos 3. 4 button mouse, 5 including click wheel.

Occasionally, after long periods of editing, my wrists will start to hurt a little. I usually change to using the stylus for a while. Also, as been said, keyboard shortcuts break up mouse usage.

[Pxlmvr]

here you go:
https://www.lafcpug.org/Tutorials/basic_you_tube.html

[Pxlmvr]

Also, if you are doing your graphics in PS and plan to import back into FCP, make sure you change the image size to 720×540 or 720×534 for DV, do your PS work, resquish to 720×486 or 480 and import to FCP. This way your graphics will have the correct aspect ratio.

[Pxlmvr]

I’ve been using SonicFire since 2.0 and *love* it! As has been said, when working on a deadline, having the ability to customize the length of a track is a huge timesaver. I remember the days of trying to cut CD tracks to length and sometimes spending hours trying to get it right. With SF I can have a track done in 5 minutes! Highly recommended!

[Pxlmvr]

Definitely a fishing trip.

FWIW you sound like a pc user and there is difference between the pc experience and the Apple experience. First, Apple makes very good products with a long shelf life. They don’t instantly become crap when Apple offers an upgrade. They are very good at providing support and free software updates. Second, even at $1800 that is literally a steal! Avid MC software only is $5000 with none of what Apple is offering. Three, as has been said, you don’t have to upgrade. I’ve been using FCP 5 since it came out and it is very stable and will do almost anything required for editing.

“A software upgrade, with only modest packaging, costs a few dollars.”

You are forgetting R&D, distributing, cost of business, etc. You don’t sound like you know a lot about business or software publishing. I lot of people responded to your naivete.

“I wanted a stable late-model FCP, (not necessarily the New Hotness with *$24k COLOR*) now it feels like Old and Busted, unless I cough up $499.”

Again, FCP 5 works great and is perfectly stable. In fact FCPS2 has more of a risk of being unstable being a new upgrade and all.

“I have seen the way bastard-stepchild software can get treated by publishers (limited support/patches/resources, etc) and my confidence in this product (v5x) is inevitably reduced by this situation.”

Use of the term ‘patches’ and your assumption of ‘publishers’ indicates a pc background. Again, Apple operates differently. There are still people making money using v.3 and 4.

In my estimation this is a kid who likes PCs and wanted to rag on Apple.

[Pxlmvr]

What is your drive situation for the two systems? Hard drive read and write times play a huge role in rendering and playback.

[Pxlmvr]

For the timeline I use a combination of keyboard and mouse. I use the ‘a’ Selection tool and the ‘z’ Zoom tool. With the Zoom tool, using my four button Wacom mouse, I can zoom in and out, click and drag to zoom into an area, and by just holding down the ‘command’ (aka apple key), it changes to the hand tool for moving the timeline. So my left hand is always in the shift, a, z, control, option, command, space area; right hand using the mouse. I also use ‘shift-z’ to zoom to entire timeline. (just found out today that just holding down the z key for a second does the same as shift-z.)

Using the ‘z’ key is much more convenient than cmd+or- because my hand doesn’t have to leave the mouse and my muscle memory can find it automatically. Of course if you don’t have a four button mouse, you can still use your modifier keys (cmd, opt, ctrl)