[Tangier Clarke]

Thanks Mark. I converted everything to 3D and although it worked in Motion, the published Z parameter had no effect in FCP X.

[Tangier Clarke]

These are all excellent points and giving me some food for thought. I started out on AVID in school and in the professional space, then went to FCP Legacy for most of my career. The majority of my professional post-production experience has been on FCP Legacy and FCP X; using Premiere Pro from time to time which wasn’t that far from FCP 7.

I haven’t worked for big Hollywood studios, but have worked for small production companies for all of these now 17 years. Admittedly I don’t want to go back to a track-based NLE. I enjoy DaVinci when it’s working well. I suppose I am fortunate to have made a good living professionally and independently using mostly FCP (all versions). Perhaps things would/could be better if I sought work that required other tools, but I haven’t really had to do that, but it’s still good to keep my practice up on the other NLEs and stay up to date with their changes.

FCP X is an interesting tool and they all have their weaknesses. There’s value in all of the NLEs and their respective strengths, but FCP X certainly doesn’t make me want to use the other NLEs as much. I am sure others feel different. Of course there are features from each NLE I wouldn’t mind Apple “borrowing” or rethinking.

The statement above about the schools being market-centric regarding how they implement NLEs makes a lot of sense; especially for those markets that aren’t LA, Houston, New York, and Atlanta.

Thanks for the discussion folks. It’s giving me a lot to chew on.

[Tangier Clarke]

“It’s not the schools jobs to affect the market penetration of FCPX. That’s Apple’s job.”

Michael very good point and I agree. It makes sense to provide students with what will make them more marketable and/or get a job.

[Tangier Clarke]

Figure it out. Didn’t know that once I used the Stencil Alpha on the matte (top layer) on the image below, I then had to take those two layers and make them a compound clip for the matte to work on my third (bottom) layer. I can’t explain how this is working yet, but it is.

[Tangier Clarke]

I guess I’ll jump in with my short list:

1. Separate audio roles in a polyphonic file into discrete roles to be worked on like a track (for filters and such)
2. Batch export frames at markers with a certain tag
3. Markers stay when making a compound clip
4. Collapse roles into a discrete compound-clip-like track
5. Saveable export information presets (Description, Creator, and Tags)
6. Reconnecting of plugins as well (so we don’t need X-FX Handler)
7. Keyboard Shortcut for original/ optimized and proxy playback
8. Add multiple clips to the timeline in the same place (like audio) so they stack rather than insert
9. Ability to turn off offline items with one button like disabling roles. Particlarly important when titles or generators are offline , but they’re in the way of the frame below.
10. A hold feature at
11. the the beginning and end of the Ken Burns effect so you don’t have to keep adding/modifying a freeze frame after the edit.
12. Duplicate x amount of times sub menu so you can create several duplicates of projects with one click – great for prepping for reels to go to ProTools
13. Display export as time remaining instead of just percentage.
14. The ability to choose fonts from a font collection like in Motion
15. Transfer text in generators via XML
16. Work on chat text titles without frame moving up, or a way for the video clip to not move.
17. Visual marker (like lines or something) on a compound clip to show where the edits are inside the clip (useful for doing sound cues on the main storyline rather than inside the compound clip)
18. Built in LTC converter (for using things like Tentacle Sync devices)
19. Batch syncing
20. Display storage/space for projects, not just events and libraries. Helpful when telling someone how much space they’d need jsut for a copy of the project and it’s elements.
21. IGTV preset (actually this is for Compressor) as it stands I can only make IGTV video in FCP X from wide-screen formats.
22. Incorporate Motion behaviors
23. More keyframe smoothing options
24. Speed ramping the FCP 7 way
25. Make the basic title generator more like Alex 4D version where you can adjust carriage returns by dragging border handles.
26. Allow copy/pasting of custom generator attributes
27. Allow applying paramater values to multiple generators of the same type at once.
28. Ability to sort events (by creation date, alphabetical, or numerically)
29. Ability to keyframe the tracking of the Custom text generator
30. Select all clips of a role type and elevate them above other clips with a command key combination (like lifting all titles above adjustment layer)


[Tangier Clarke]

Bouke you’re right. I am actually preparing for a DCP, but based on your response I realize I misread something likely due to reading too fast. The ProRes 4444 spec says “…a mathematically lossless alpha channel of up to 16 bits”. SO this only applies to the alpha if I am reading this correct.

My concern is, depending on the camera’s format used to record (in my caseXF-AVC Intra 4:4:4 12-bit), how do you maintain that bit depth in your exported master. I could be thinking about this all wrong so please enlighten me.

[Tangier Clarke]

Have you considered X2Pro (https://x2pro.net)?

[Tangier Clarke]

Same issue here. There’s things I want to apply to the entire timeline after making it a compound clip, but I lose all of the important markers. One alternative for audio at least is to export the audio only and bring it back in and apply your limiters and filters to just that role or roles.

[Tangier Clarke]

Brandon here’s a post I wrote a few years ago on PluralEyes which elaborates more fully about it.

https://www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/24392-to-fcp-x-or-to-pluraleyes-what-s-your-workflow

…and some additional notes I kept from testing PE 3.5. Not much has changed with PE 4.

PluralEyes (PE) 3.5 
One video clip/ one audio multichannel audio for each video clip.
Multichannel (interleaved) audio files

PE to FCP X XML no options checked
Synced clips exist only as project , no browser clips in sync.
Audio clips in synced project dead – not audible.
Audio clips in synced project missing channels from original audio.
Audio does point back to original audio in browser – defeats the point.
Useless without synced browser (bin) clips synced
FAIL

PE to FCP XML Event option checked
This replaces camera audio with 2nd system audio
Clips show in browser
No audio configuration available in FCP X inspector
No audio from synced clip can be heard
Audio shows synced audio inside clip (reveal clip in timeline), but is missing channels, no waveform, can’t hear
Audio is not trimmed to match video according to PE manual
FAIL

FCP X XML to PE then Back
This seems to work (sort of)
Synced clips are compound clips in FCP X*
Camera Audio was replaced (not sure I like that)
Audio in synced clips have two mono channels, original had three
Audio in synced clips points back to compound clip, not original audio (problem)
* Primary editing objects in FCP X are clips, synchronized clips and multicam clips, not compound clips as regular editing clips.  I wish third party apps would create an object the way FCP X would instead of a compound clip.  Compound clips create an extra layer of obstruction of the source media with regard to start/ end time, duration/ creation date/ and revealing in Finder.

Clips created in FCP X when all PluralEyes options are enabled before exporting, does in fact refer back to the original clips in the finder as originally shot rather than generating new Quicktime movies.  Though in FCP X, start, end, and durations have changed than if it had been done in FCP X only, simply because PluralEyes has trimmed the audio to match the video.

*There are times when the camera original audio is still useful, better, or absolutely necessary.  In this regard I still prefer the way FCP X syncs where it maintains camera original with the 2nd system sound at all times.  This way I don’t have to go hunting for the original clip at the precise sync point if and/or when I need it.  I am amazed that third party apps don’t accommodate this method.  In this regard I think FCP Xs only shortcoming for syncing is that it does not do batch processing and cannot quickly identify associated clips the way Dreamsync can.  I have worked on many shows where it is imperative that I have the camera original audio available.  I seldom ever want an application to replace the audio of my video clip.

In FCP XP, you still have to manually manage camera associations in order to build a proper multicam storyline to export as an XML for PluralEyes to handle and attempt to sync and bring back into FCP X.

Some pertinent questions using 3rd party apps for batch syncing.
How much do you value that your camera original audio is connected to the second system audio at all times? I like this feature about FCP X’s built in syncing capabilities.

————————————————————————————————————————————-
My current workflow (using Tentacle Sync devices and sound created with Sound Devices units) is:
Offload cards with EditReady – rewrapped and for custom file naming.
Run video clips through LTC Convert (to reset timecode from the cameras to the TC from the Tentacles)
Import video and audio clips into FCP X
Export event XML for Sync-N-Link
Sync-N-Link does the syncing in a snap and sends that back to FCP X

This works great and it’s fast. I can sync days of content in a matter of minutes. Literally.

[Tangier Clarke]

What I meant by that was that to my understanding FCP X is not syncing by metadata. It uses header information in the audio file as well as timecode, waveforms, sampling rate analysis perhaps.

When I used WaveAgent I don’t think sampling rate of the file actually changed. What I believed happened is that the header information in the file itself (something we typically don’t bother with) was changed and that is what gave FCP X what it needed to interpret the file differently. This is how a sound engineer explained it to me.

The FPS comment I believe was a matter of the timeline settings I believe in terms of how FCP X conforms picture with audio, but audio has no FPS. Lol, I knew what I was saying when I wrote it lol, but now I am scratching my head over that last bit.