If Anyone Cares! 2

Final Cut Studio 2 - FCP 6 - Color - DVD Studio Pro 4.2 - Motion 3 and Soundtrack Pro 2

Big things first - Unfettered timeline - YEAH! Mix formats - frame rates - WOW

Color - Does this look anything like the stuff from Silicon Color? Looks to me like some of Shake in FCP? Motion Tracking and SteadyCam??

Motion 3 - True 3D - camera and lights - WooHoo

Now the little things that make you go HUH? DVD Studio Pro 4.2? Nary a mention of BluRay just Blue Laser HD-DVD.

Well, it's still only $499.. Just think -- no more worrying about which codec dominates this timeline, etc.

I'm busy soaking this all up on the FCS 2 site.

- Justin Barham -

Couple of early thoughts-

Obviously Color is the big addition, doesn't look any different from Final Touch- but to be included in FCS is great value, can't remember how much FT cost before but I know it was pricey.

Motion looks like it's becoming a very mature useful app and the 3D support looks fantastic.

Multiple Codecs on the same timeline is great, and the AJA box looks good

BUT

I am absolutely gutted that the FCP browser does not have integrated spotlight. Given that FCP hasn't had a major update through the whole lifespan of Tiger I thought this would be a no-brainer. Being able to instantly search effects and clips right in the browser as well as create smart bins would have made a real difference to workflow and I can't believe it's not in there.

It really seems that the FCP interface which was in need of a bit of an overhaul has stayed pretty much the same.

Oh and the fact that media manager looks exactly the same is a bit worrying to say the least.

Obviously it seems to be a pretty essential upgrade given the new features, but I really wanted them to knock it out of the park, instead there's lots to be pleased about, but a couple of glaring ommissions.

-Andy Keil-

Well I just learned that STP 2 now does both OMF import and export. That's huge to me.



<<It really seems that the FCP interface which was in need of a bit of an overhaul has stayed pretty much the same.

Oh and the fact that media manager looks exactly the same is a bit worrying to say the least.>>

Yeah I agree with you there. FCP itself doesn't seem to be much changed except for ProRes. I'll have to dig deeper though.

- Justin Barham -

all i personally wanted was more contrast in the timeline numbers/background. EASY FIX and again ignored : (

i thought the fcp team read our posts?

Do you reckon FCS2 will run well on my 1.67 Powerbook?

Doesn't look like COLOR even supports the Powerbook if you check out the system requirments page at apple...

And don't forget the new Final Cut Server for those in multi setups. Big, happy jump.

[www.apple.com]

[i thought the fcp team read our posts?]

Some of them do. I just hope one of them wields control over how big the bin storyboard frames can enlarge. My clients like those.

[Oh and the fact that media manager looks exactly the same is a bit worrying to say the least]

I wouldn't rely on interface appearance as a metric for improvement. Getting MM to work under the hood is the most important issue. The interface, it's pretty clean, IMHO.

My favorite points so far-

AJA's hardware ProRes codec. That's the only sensible way to use this thing. The open timeline is nice but hardware acceleration is the best solution. Anything in to anything out. Nice. How much will it cost? Two-three grand?

Color - wow.

Soundtrack Pro 2- the 5.1 surround panner tool, ADR capability,

I almost thought LiveType was gone. Nope. Still there. Just not goosed.

$500.00 seems reasonable for anyone upgrading hardware to Intel multicore.

- Loren
Today's FCP 4 / 5 keytip:
Preview unrendered effects with Option-P or Option-Backslash!

The FCP KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

<<AJA's hardware ProRes codec. That's the only sensible way to use this thing. The open timeline is nice but hardware acceleration is the best solution. Anything in to anything out. Nice. How much will it cost? Two-three grand? >>

I'll be interested to hear more about how this works. Heard it costs about $3500.


<<Soundtrack Pro 2- the 5.1 surround panner tool, ADR capability>>

Looks like they did a ton of work to STP. Including OMF in and out!


<<I almost thought LiveType was gone. Nope. Still there. Just not goosed. >>

I wonder why LiveType is still around. Seems like Motion really eclipses it.


And finally they're promoting Compressor a bit more. New features I'm anxious to try out are the TC filter and "smart" pulldown removal.

- Justin Barham -

AWW crap now I have to wipe the drool off my desk......

Man this looks sweet!!!!



Sean

Hey Loren,

We talked once before about the type tools in FCP; I'm not sure if they changed the basic tools but it looks like they've taken a step towards eliminating a lot of round-tripping. You can access Motion templates from within FCP and just drop them right on the timeline, editing the text placeholders as you go. So you set your template up ONCE in Motion and then do all your text edits in FCP. Update the template in Motion and it updates automatically in your project. Pretty sweet actually!

Kind of odd they didn't do much to Livetype but I guess something had to get shortchanged...

JK

_______________________________________
SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

I still love Live Type. It's great for making textured backgrounds to bring into Motion. 3D will be cool though I doubt my clients will notice.

I'm still reeling from the depth of this upgrade. The connectivity between programs looks intense. A little daunted by the Color program. Just recently got my head wrapped around Color Correction thanks to Ripple Training. Now those guys are going to be busy for the next few months.

Decent upgrade price too, although with the plethora of recent software upgrades, it's more like a utility tax.

<<Looks like they did a ton of work to STP. Including OMF in and out!>>

Errr looks like I might have been mislead by the hype. STP 2 only does OMF import.

But it does do AAF in and out so AAF to ProTools it is.

- Justin Barham -

<<I'm still reeling from the depth of this upgrade. The connectivity between programs looks intense.>>

Yeah. I feel like this is what FCS should have been in that regard. FCP Motion interoperability looks great.

More people should be using Motion and STP now.


<<A little daunted by the Color program. Just recently got my head wrapped around Color Correction thanks to Ripple Training. Now those guys are going to be busy for the next few months. >>

They pretty much just threw in Final Touch for free!

It's a massive program though. I don't imagine too many FCP editors will want to dive right in.

Also haven't seen and word on if Color control surfaces are the same as with Final Touch. Probably. Looks pretty untouched except for name and icon.

- Justin Barham -

AJA's IO HD page.

- Justin Barham -

My question: Can the new FCP access more than 2.5 GB of RAM?

"Yeah. I feel like this is what FCS should have been in that regard. FCP Motion interoperability looks great.

More people should be using Motion and STP now. '

-Yes it may even be a serious contender to After Effects now.
Cant wait to test it.

"AJA's IO HD page."

-Yep looks good. Just oredered one of those babies.
It will be interesting to see how the DVCPRO HD codecs works with the new ProRes codec.
Anyone tested this?

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com

Reguarding the Media Manager...how do you know nothing has changed? The demo was to show us all the MAJOR updates and improvements of FCP. They only had 90 min to show us it all. The Media Management aspect of FCP is only improving. The fact that you can auto conform changes made to a cut in Soundtrack by having sound effects tied ot video timecode tells me that they are really addressing media managment. SO does the FCP Server...they are really looking at this. We'll know more as the week progresses.

What I liked is that Apple not only took the feedback that we gave them, but made it BETTER than we asked for. Not only mixed formats on a timeline, but mixed frame rates...no worrying about uper or lower fields...and the sequence automatically sets itself up to the settings of the first clip you add to it.

Ease of use...IT JUST WORKS. These are Apple mantras. AVID is a powerful took, but very complex. FCP is a powerful tool as well, but very elegant and simple.

I have NO complaints about the new release.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Have you used the new release?

I don't have any complaints either, but demo's at a tradeshow don't really account for much one way or the other. I edit with Avid, FCP and PPro, there are things I like and dislike about each but I'm not sure saying one is easier to use than the other is entirely accurate.

I have a book, Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System by Adam Wilt and others which is ~875 pages. It doesn't teach you how to use FCP just how to set it up. Not exactly how I would characterize an "elegant and simple" application.

Regarding how well the ProRes codec works with the DVCProHD codec, it doesn't! It replaces it, the DVCProHD codec is crap and hopefully this will be much easier to work with and much better quality.

True, nothing was mentioned regarding Media Manager, however that's the problem! Given that it has been an issue and one of the areas where FCP falls behind AVID, even if they don't show it in the keynote, I would expect some mention on the FCP site, but nothing at all, and on the demo videos at first glance the interface for MM looks just the same.

Don't get me wrong, I'll upgrade to this for Color, Soundtrack and Motion. The value for money is excellent. I just think that there were areas in the FCP interface that badly needed an overhaul and I would have expected it. We haven't really seen any changes in the interface since FCP 4. I don't mean change for change sake, just to take some of the file browsing features that are already in the likes of motion and implement them in FCP as one example.

What I love is that we were kind of expecting FC 'Extreme', at more than $10k, which would include 2k colour correction and HD improvements.

What we got was exactly that, but for $600 upgrade. In the words of the famous Big Kev - "I'm excited!"

BTW, for those not in the know, Final Touch, the program that has been integrated as 'Color' into the upgrade, used to cost about $25,000. Per licence.

My excitement could also be that I finally cracked and ordered my Octocore today. AU $8,000 of chunky Mac goodness, fully equipped to start playing with FCS 2 as soon as it hits the street.

So I'll be doing the reviews myself, as soon as it gets here, which can take weeks when you live in the remotes town in the universe. Might even have FCS 2 before I get the new rig lol.

There's a lot more to how well FCP handles media management than what appears in the "media manager" dialog box and it appears that they are moving in the right direction.

Again, I'm not going to labor the point too much since I have not used it or even seen a demo. But the little I've seen and read about the improved capture window, the ProRes codec [which enables] the open format timeline etc.. I find very encouraging.

What's under the hood is a lot more important than how sexy the paint is on the hood.