[Tangier Clarke]

Robin I actually agree with you and don’t have any suspicions of Apple killing off FCP X. I think it just came to mind because I often hear about the [seemingly] lack of development for Motion often related to new features; some wanted, many needed, and others merely a ‘why don’t we have that too built in’ perspective. As a result of these types of perceptions about Apple’s care/interest toward Motion, along with its integration with FCP X, I wondered what if Motion really was dying a slow death. That’s all.

I agree though. I think many people (including myself) want it to be something perhaps it never will be and partially because for those features where it and (for example) After Effects intersect, Motion does things so well and efficiently. Perhaps we don’t want to have to go to After Effects, but such is the case. You can’t have everything. For the most part it does everything I need to do though.

[Tangier Clarke]

Although I am excited this is available I too agree that it’s a limited use tool. It wouldn’t make my regularly used tools, but definitely something I’d want to have in my arsenal. I can’t help but wonder two things:

1) Did mVFX and PixelFilmStudios achieve this using tools and features already built into Motion that somehow are less known/used; in this case applying the mesh to an object? I suspect it’s somehow more along the lines of plugins that use MOCHA like mMessage.

2) Per the conversation above, how much of Shake actually made it into Motion do you think? Granted I was no Shake user, but at the time only heard about how amazing it was. Do you think Apple really bought it to leverage some of it’s features, then kill the rest as a business move? Did we gain most of or lose most of Shake’s features as applied to Motion? I’d hate to think it’s the latter for whatever reasons Apple had.

These things being said and the seemingly lack of development for Motion, I can’t help but wonder if Apple decided to kill Motion, would that essentially be the death knell for FCP X? They’re tightly integrated and FCP X is for more used, but I hadn’t considered this notion until now. Discussions have often been about what if Apple killed FCP X. Perhaps killing Motion would be more telling.

[Tangier Clarke]

Thanks Joe. This is one area of FCP X which I am still surprised there’s no better handling of keeping libraries and events clean and trim with one iteration of a clip. However I recognize that the metadata for two clips may not be the same as well as the keywords.

I’ve been using EditReady for a long time for unique nomenclature (which includes the show, episode number, shoot number, card letter (we name ours), camera angle, clip name, and audio incremented number) of all principal photography clips before ingesting into FCP X. I am not a fan of using folders when I don’t have to. I like to keep things in the filename to reduce abstraction. Folders can be renamed and moved, etc. Filenames seldom are at the Finder level at least. I used to use Renamer and also have used A Better Finder Renamer, but EditReady filled in the gap for rewrapping and handling the naming as well. Same with KYNO, but unfortunately I’ve had too many small issues with KYNO to use it fully yet even though it’s feature rich.

Also, XML interchange isn’t a great workflow if one uses custom (or not) generators with drop zones for media in their projects since XML doesn’t support that media. That’s too bad, because creating custom generators is a big time saver, but also prevents any reliable use of reconciling external drives with the final project to the master drive from which the media came from reliably. You have to do it all in FCP X by moving, margin, copying events, etc.

I am creating a set of questions and testing them slowly under various scenarios to get a better sense of what FCP X is doing in the background. I’d really like FCP X to have more robust copy/merge features with other options to keep what you want, get rid of what you don’t need…in addition to drop zone XML support.

[Tangier Clarke]

A new development in this issue. User Redifer over on fcp.co found that the export worked just fine with the embedded LUT applied to the clip on a 1080p timeline, but the native 4K was a problem.

This definitely seems to be a bug.

[Tangier Clarke]

No problem. I am working on a narrative episodic drama this way and it seems to work. We do still send files to each other via Frame IO, Google Drive, etc. if we need to add additional content.

[Tangier Clarke]

Well what do you know…I changed the LUT to Panasonic V-Log, exported a ProRes 4444 and it came out just fine. The green stayed in tact.

[Tangier Clarke]

It’s the built in one referenced in the metadata. There are others to choose from. I should try one that is not part of the metadata and see what happens.

[Tangier Clarke]

Steve, it sounds like you have a good plan in place already and barring any other insights from others I’d say what you have in mind is a good strategy. I work with teams remotely as well as post-supervisor and editor. Aside from exchanging XMLs I:

Create a custom library called [Project name] Commons. This is a library with images, audio, compound clips, a completed sample, and other valuable projects (storylines) editors can copy/paste from.

Additionally to control some pertinent motion graphics while providing some form of flexibility for potential adjustments I make custom plugins using Apple Motion and give those to the editors as well. I make sure though that we’re all placing these plugins at the host computer’s drive level folder FCP X reference rather than bound to any user account. This way the plugins (effects, titles, transitions, etc) don’t go offline. There are limitations to this though. Drop zone content doesnt transfer via XML.

[Tangier Clarke]

The LUT was applied on the clip as set in the inspector. I attempted to see if passing the storyline to with the clip to Compressor would yield a different result. I don’t know if this is a bug or not, but I’ld like to definitely send in feedback to Apple, but want to wait to see if others reply as well. I also posted this on FCP.co to get additional eyeballs on this issue in case others have experienced this.

[Tangier Clarke]

I found that the only way (so far) I won’t get this issue is if I set the Camera LUT to “none” rather then the applied Sony LUT FCP X uses from the metadata.