Simon Ubsdell
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Bret Williams] ” In my Avid days, I ALWAYS operated with sync locks ON. 99% of the time”
I do too – I should have made this clear.
Check out this video for an overview of my comparison – I do think FCPX has the edge in this if nothing else.
[Bret Williams] “But glad ya like gaps. I’d rather have a source window amongst other things.”
The fact that I like gaps doesn’t mean that I don’t have very major issues with a huge number of other aspects of FCPX – without OMF for example I simply can’t begin to think of using it professionally.
I just think it’s useful and interesting to see where the design advantages might lie rather than assuming it’s all equally a piece of junk.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
I just thought I would follow this up with a video showing off the three different methods:
I should have mentioned that in Media Composer I always work with locked tracks – trying to do this task without locked tracks would be hideous in the extreme.
I think it is clear that the FCPX method wins hands down – unless I’ve missed a trick with the two otgher NLEs which is no doubt a possibility 😉
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “You could even make a smart Collection that adds all your selection Compounds automagically if you name all of your selects compounds with a unique text order that applies only to these kinds of compounds, something like CPSelects_JeremyInterview, then CPSelets_SimonInterview and have the smart collection add anything with “CPSelects_” or whatever. That way, all of your selects will be in one tidy little package in the browser. You can always “open in timeline” if you want more timeline granular control.”
Sounds like a good plan – I’ll definitely give that a go. Thanks for all the great workflow ideas you are throwing up by the way – really useful and insightful.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Jeremy Garchow] “You can have multiple projects open, but you then have to copy from one project, browse (like a web browser with forward/back arrows) to the next Project and paste.”
I don’t know about you but I can’t help thinking it would be preferable to have tabbed Projects rather than having to rely on the iMovie style Project window which really feels like it gets in the way of the flow of the edit.
Perhaps then there would be less need for having to rely on compound clips which while they are a good workaround don’t strike me as being ideal for this “edit-from-selects” workflow which seems to be very common. In fact, plus one from me on this as well.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Andy Neil] “Ugh. Too many buttons. Geez Avid, just give me the ability to map shortcuts to the Option, and CMD keys and cool it with all the damn buttons. You’re starting to look like Premiere.”
Agreed – that looks like far worse of an abomination than anything in FCPX. What are they thinking!!! Boy, does it look cluttered and messy.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Michael Hancock] “Segment mode are your tools of intent. You can overwrite mode, which means the clips you move around overwrite what you place them on, or insert mode – the clips ripple when you drop them. But the difference is that filler and clips are treated consistently with either mode, or tool of intent.”
I hate to disagree but … if Media Composer were consistent in its logic you would be able to select a gap/filler with the yellow (Extract/Splice) segment tool and deleting would ripple the timeline. It doesn’t.
I’m not saying it should, though on reflection that could be quite handy, I’m just saying that nothing is as perfectly consistent as it seems.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[David Cherniack] “You mean like an adjustment layer?”
Yes, Andy Neil made this suggestion here and it’s a good one:
https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/17623
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[David Cherniack] “Yes I acknowledged that in my post. But it isn’t true of other NLEs, as I mentioned.
I think the problem that others are finding with gaps in X is that theyre a more functional part of the magnetic timeline than in MC…seemingly to keep all the rippling behaviour copacetic.”
Yes, I was only talking about Media Composer but the point I was trying to make is that MC has been around forever and nobody has found its implementation of gaps/filler to be an issue.
Maybe it’s because my cutting days started back with 35mm/16mm I’ve always found the notion of “gaps”/slug/filler having the property of physical objects to be an entirely natural and helpful one.
Other than the fact that other clips can be connected to them I don’t see FCPX gaps as being in any significant way different from those in MC – in some ways they could do with being more like actual objects. It would be a real bonus if you could add effects to them as you can in Media Composer.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Neil Patience] “While this does suggest that slug, or filler to use the Avid term, is added to maintian sync actually nothing physical appears in the Avid timeline at all. An empty gap is created containing “nothing”.”
This is not entirely true.
You can actually pick up the “gap” clips in the AVID timeline using the segment tool and move them around, even overwriting or rippling other clips as you do so.
So I would say that conceptually it is identical to what is happening in FCPX, although marginally less obvious.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[David Cherniack] “Space in such a timeline is not a negative gap object. It is simply space, the absence of an object.”
I’ve mentioned this before but Media Composer in fact has always treated what you are calling “space” as gaps, so this isn’t something radically new in FCPX.
In MC you can make cuts in the gaps (AVID call it “filler”), you can add effects to them (very useful for effects that apply to a whole timeline like crops etc.), you can edit gaps into the timeline to shift other stuff out of the way, you can even accidentally move with them the Segment tool and overwrite other clips. Generally it’s a pretty useful way of working tnhat doesn’t feel at all counter-intuitive – so if legions of traditional editors can cope with it in MC, why not in FCPX?
I’m not at all sure that gaps are really that much of an issue – which is not to say that there aren’t other issues.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com