[Richard Johnson]

Thanks Franz. All three A’s tell us their video editing software is breakthrough from time to time, it’s called marketing. Hyperbole wasn’t what I was attacking and neither was debate. In fact, I specified that constructive debate is what is useful on these threads and political style bickering gets us nowhere. Maybe I am the cat calling the kettle black but I don’t think so. Anyway, I’ve made my point so I’ll leave it at that. I think most people understand exactly where I was coming from.

[Richard Johnson]

Thanks for the response Marvin. I didn’t necessarily mean that protools would adopt FCPXML but simply give it support. I’m not exactly sure how these things work and why Apple didn’t simply release an XML that was already a standard and compatible with other software. Really though, I don’t know much at all about XML protocols so it may not have been an option.

As for Logic, I’ve just never used it. I think a lot of DAW’s have pretty similar functionality but I’ve always trusted Pro Tools and am familiar with it and I like it. I usually say don’t fix what aint broke but with video editing I’m ready to move forward now that FCP as I knew it is EOL.

Still figuring out “Roles”. Looks interesting. Not sure how it will integrate with a track based DAW but as you mention, maybe LogicX will be their answer. Will have to read up on “stems”.

[Richard Johnson]

Point taken Marvin. I had just gotten home from a party where I had a couple beers and probably was a little quick to pass judgement. Forums, by nature, jump around from one topic to the next. I was simply concerned that on occasion it feels like political bickering instead of truly debating.

The thread I was frustrated about referred to my curiosity over whether people thought Avid was likely to come up with quality and timely FCPXML support for Pro Tools despite the fact that they are publicly trying to take Apple’s Final Cut Pro customers away. I know there are many here with more experience and knowledge than myself about those matters and there are oftentimes workarounds if one program can’t import files directly from another. I believe sometimes people send Premiere files to FCP to then bring into Davinci Resolve. If XML support may be crippled or nonexistent for good DAW’s I may jump ship to Adobe Premiere or Avid before their deals are over. I was curious to others feedback on that topic. Once again, I’ve settled down a little and probably could have simply asked my question more directly in the first place. Live and learn right. Cheers.

[Richard Johnson]

Hey guys, I don’t know what happened to this thread but my initial post was to try to show y’all my personal situation and first impression of FCPX. If I am going to pick up the Adobe suite for my personal editing station I would like to act before their deal expires. FCPX might work well for me but only if the FCPXML gets good support from Davinci Resolve and ProTools. I’m not really concerned about Resolve b/c it seems in their best interest financially to support it. Pro Tools doesn’t seem as clear cut for support b/c Avid has a competing NLE software that they are publicly trying to steal FCP customers over to.

I kind of hoped after 15+ posts some of the people on this forum might be able to add some insight to my question… What IS the purpose of this forum?

[Richard Johnson]

If finances are a big issue look into getting scholarships. Seriously, look at every film school in the area, or any area, and apply for as many scholarships as you can. Chances are you will end up writing a lot of essays but you can probably use the same essay responses for multiple scholarship applications. I got my undergraduate on a scholarship.

As for editing software, both Adobe and Apple are offering 30 day trials of their software. A company called Lynda.com also offers a 30 day trial I believe and they have really good tutorials on both FCP and Premiere. This site will also be a good resource for learning them. It would be a good starting point. If you are going to try to work in the Hollywood film scene Avid would be a good one to learn. There’s more to editing than software though so getting your feet wet on any editing platform will be good valuable experience down the road. If you plan on working for yourself you can use any editor that you like. I have a friend who makes a killing using the less than $200 Avid studio (basically their imovie equivalent I believe) for his wedding video business. Seriously, he makes big dough. Anyway, good luck and don’t forget that what you make is much more important than what you used to make it. Cheers.

[Richard Johnson]

Thanks for all the input guys. Pretty pumped about learning Resolve. I may go ahead and download the lite version when I get back to the office on Monday. It’s surprising how little investment it looks like I have to make to add “Resolve” to my arsenal. Pretty cool.

It sounds like for just hd resolutions that a decklink card $1000, a flashed gtx 470 $400 and the software $1000 I should be up and running. That’s about the upper limit of my budget and bumping up to a 4 drive raid would add about $800 bucks and put it out of the running for now.

Could someone clarify the idea of “Cache operation” through a 4 drive raid and the benefits of said setup. I’m unaware of DPX. Is GPU live render how I’ve been operating using Apples Color? Thanks.

[Richard Johnson]

Yeah, In those tutorials it says you can make a garbage mask around everything in the foreground and with multiple layers then keep the background from going “absolutely wacky” to quote the guy on Adobe TV. I’m not too proficient in After Effects (hence me being in the After Effects Basics Forum) I was hoping I could just adjust the parameters within the effect. Maybe as I get more proficient I’ll be able to get something decent out of it. It was certainly faster than the FCP Smoothcam. I think for a clip that took Warp Stabilizer 3 minutes, FCP took 5. That’s almost half the time which is substantial if you have lots of clips that needs stabilizing. Next time I’ll be more careful who I lend my steadicam out to. Thanks for your help.

[Richard Johnson]

Todd, after you mentioned the “Warp Stabilizer” feature I decided to download the 30 day trial of CS5.5 today and give it a go. Wow, it’s horrible on my footage. I saw some samples that I was directed to from the Adobe site and it looked promising but It gave my footage crazy “jello” type effects. I posted a clip on Vimeo of how the Warp Stabilizer affected my footage and how the SmoothCam feature in final cut affected it (I’m still on FCP 6). Here are the links:
https://www.vimeo.com/24755638
https://www.vimeo.com/24755478

I tried it in a few different shots and didn’t feel any would be acceptable. The shot I posted was simply from selecting Stabilize Motion from the Animation tab to apply the Warp Stabilizer. Are there other parameters I need to tweak to get it to work well or is it just not very good for certain types of shots? I’m really bummed, I was hoping for a new arrow to add to my quiver… I’ve got it for a month though, any other types of shots that you feel this effect excels in that I could try out or are there any of the advanced parameters that I can adjust within the effect controls that might help this type of shot. Thanks.

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[Richard Johnson]

Watching through final cut pro. I’m just viewing test footage right now. I was actually impressed with how much better 30p did compared to 24p. It was noticeable and I didn’t think it would be. Anyway, I think I will be able to get by, I was just hoping their might be some post production help since my camera doesn’t offer higher frame rates.

[Richard Johnson]

Don’t know exactly which settings you mean. In “Compressor” I chose Apple Pro Res 422 for progressive. Here is the compression summary:

“Apple ProRes 422 for Progressive material
Description: Apple ProRes 422 10-bit video with audio pass-through. Settings based off the source resolution and frame-rate.
File Extension: mov
Estimated file size: 772.62 MB
Audio: multi-track passthrough
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: (100% of source)
Height: (100% of source)
Selected: 1280 x 720
Pixel aspect ratio: Square
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: (100% of source)
Selected: 29.97
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: Apple ProRes 422
Multi-pass: Off, frame reorder: Off
Progressive
Chroma filtering enabled
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 50
Min. Spatial quality: 0
Temporal quality: 0
Min. temporal quality: 0”

The file started as a 135 MB .MOV quicktime movie from my digital SLR.

The flicker I am referring to is most visible while making a turn with the camera on the steadicam. I think the answer is to turn more slowly and try to incorporate stationary tripod shots whenever possible. I could also pull out the dolly and retain motion, but smoother and with more control. It’s just a pain to lay out the tracks and bring additional gear. At 30p the jerkiness is not as bad as 24p. I just wish the Nikon D7000 offered 60p in 1280×720 mode. Any ideas?