FCP 7: Motion 4 : Color 1.5 ect :-)))

[" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" >www.apple.com])

To All:

Apple has announced that the New Final Cut Studio Pro has been released.

It has a new price of $999.

Russ Andris

Here we go!

[www.apple.com]



www.strypesinpost.com

nice ... I absolutely NEED tis new version for no good reason at all :-)

whats new: [www.apple.com]

Dude! ProRes 4444! Outstanding!

Can finally do 4k end to end with your RED too...

Initial reactions, not good at all.

Yes, there are some good features, background exporting, improved Pro-Res support, but seriously there are some glaring omissions here that look practically unforgivable.

1. Still no spotlight support for the browser by the looks of things, where are smart bins and a search field? the wretched "find" window is still there judging by the tutorial videos.

2. Doesn't look like there's an improved text tool in FCP either, just what is stopping them from taking the same text tool from motion and putting it in FCP?

3. Roundtripping is still the order of the day, moving from one app to the other, what about a universal timeline?

4. The Color interface is exactly the same, that is so desperately disappointing I don't know where to start. It is a horrible interface and whilst what is under the hood is very powerful, the fact that this app has been under Apple control for years now and they haven't even bothered to bring it into line with the rest of the pro-apps, it still looks and acts like the 3rd party software everybody knows it is.

5. Blu-Ray support is so grudging you'd think it was barely there, not a single update to DVD Studio Pro? That's no updates in what the last two versions now? Pathetic. I'm not interested in format wars at all, but people need to make Blu-Ray, and all Apple is saying here is find some other way of doing it, because we won't make it easy for you.

6. It seems that they are so obsessed with their own little eco-system that they don't want to acknowledge the bigger picture, is being able to export to MobileMe going to help FCP into an Avid-centric post house?

7. I am struggling to see the updates in compressor that they've listed, I really don't see any benefit at all.

8. Another time the pro-apps get updated just before the operating system gets an overhaul, certainly no mention of this being Snow Leopard ready.

Ultimately this is like a point release, things that should be bug fixes (adjusting the speed of a clip in the timeline now doesn't bump the whole sequence, it never should have done that in the first place, and it's being trumpeted as a new feature!)

This just shows that Apples focus on the pro-market is little more than a token glance, we have been under-served in the last two releases now, one is bad enough but two is a trend and it's just not right, there are scant reasons to upgrade here and it stinks.

These are just my first impressions, I'm sure for a lot of users the updates will be fine, and it won't stop me using FCS, but I'm just so disappointed because I really wanted Apple to knock this one out of the park, and instead it seems like they're happy to tread water.

Sorry if I'm coming off like an angry jerk, I just had high hopes for this.

I on the other hand, feel very much w00t for long-asked for things like expanded Pro res, improved speed change tools, improved markers, big timecode, closed captioning support, background exporting, global transitions and lots more.

Getting better, is getting better.

Quote

Initial reactions, not good at all.

What a shocker.

Look, we go through this every single time a new release of Final Cut comes out. "Still no this," "why not that," blah-de-blah.

The math on this is really very simple. Are there any major features missing from Final Cut that prevent its adoption in the indie and mainstream post markets? Clearly not, since it has been adopted in both those markets. In fact, given that the installed base is now well north of a million seats, I think it's kind of ludicrous to say that anybody's been underserved by Final Cut Pro.

Does it do absolutely everything just exactly how you want it? Of course not. But come on.

I, for one, am thrilled about the export-to-MobileMe feature. A single step to send an approval Quicktime to a client? Awesome.

Look,

I am not saying that FCP has all of a sudden become unusable and the sky is falling in, I will still use it and can't see a time when I won't.

However, the complaints I have with it are justfied I feel, I'm not complaining for the sake of it, I'm not asking for niche things that would satisfy a handful of people. As far as the MobileMe thing is concerned, I'm not saying it's a travesty that it's included, fair enough, you may find it useful, but we all know that this is a feature that is in Quicktime Right now. You can already do it. All that has been done here is to save you opening a file in Quicktime, so it's not a game changer is it?

I'm saying that it's indicative of Apple's policy of adding minor features whilst completely ignoring far more important concerns.
Yes, the Pro-Res support is great, but a lot of these updates are either bug fixes or minor tweaks.

ProRes 4444!! ALPHA CHANNEL SUPPORT!! BIG Timecode window! AVC Intra native support! Apple IS listening. This is H-U-G-E!!! Oh man...this is me pinging my MEDIA OPS MANAGER to UPGRADE NOW!!!!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Quote

a lot of these updates are either bug fixes or minor tweaks

I will disagree with that as well. AVC Intra Native support is no "tweak"...neither is the new Export Dialog (looks like a complete rewrite to me).

Can't please everyone...but these new items are fantastic IMHO - I will SURELY get a major productivity boost from them!!

FWIW...I would have like to see a new Interface in this version ...but that is not as important as the productivity adds that have been made!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Very impressed here. The ProRes 4444 codec is a major game-changer.

The biggest improvements are in Motion; shadows, reflections, parenting, 3D Mouse support, etc. All of it a huge boost to this imho underrated app.

Color: Very good news as to the performance improvements and the RED support. Excellent.

Snow Leopard: no, I don't miss support for an OS that doesn't exist yet. It'll all happen soon enough.

PriceTag $299 or about 220 Euros for the upgrade? Very fair, excellent value. Done deal.




Clay

Collective wisdom? Upgrade now or wait for the first software update to provide inevitable patches?

Well you can't Upgrade Now because the Buy Now button doesn't work on Apple's site. Brings to "the page you are looking for cannot be found."

OK, specifically regarding the lack of true support for Blu-Ray.

You could already use compressor to export for Blu-Ray, so it's not really anything new, where they have changed it is one click Disc creation using pre-made templates, it's hardly pro-authoring is it? When Final Cut Studio was in it's first incarnation, I could take an SD project and see it all the way through to DVD, can I now do the same taking an HD project all the way to Blu-Ray? No, I can't.

Apple has made this decision because they are applying the same standards to their pro-sumer base that they are to their consumer base. They don't want you to use Blu-Ray, so you can't. Never mind that it is a standard that you should be able to take advantage of.

And as for expanded format support, it's a given, every update has improved support so yes AVC support is great and all, but it is expected.

And is this a 64-bit app? What about multi-processor support? If it doesn't say anything then I'd say it stays as it is, which means that FCS tops out at 4gb of ram.

Again, I really have to point out that I'm not just being a naysayer to play devil's advocate, but surely I can't be the only one to see there are some pretty glaring omissions here that would have been expected by a lot of users. Is this really good enough 2 years after the last update?

Everyone is right - can't please everyone. But I find it curious on what they did improve....I'd much rather have a rewrite of the trim window than the speed change window. I'd much rather have a new ease in/out system within the motion tab for super smooth still moves than in speed change window.

I'd rather have a more robust open timeline with proper pulldown than alpha transitions.

New Marker and Tab system looks great! Big timecode window looks great!

Capture window needed a complete rewrite but didn't seem to happen. Too early to tell until I get my hands on a copy.

Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Television Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Instructor

Is the new Studio for Intel machines, or the old G5 users can enjoy it too?

My favorite things in this upgrade:
key frame improvements. They will travel with the cut
Speed change improvements won't move the whole timeline (hopefully the time warp will work)
Alpha transitions
TC WINDOW
ICHAT THEATER

I'd like to see key frame lasso like in AfterFX. This is very important when animating


Good upgrades

BUT - I will wait 20 or 30 days before I upgrade. Till the bugs are worked out.

I like it actually, there are definitely some features i'd like that are not included, eg. Blu-Ray authoring in DVDSP, the ability to fire off 8 cores to render (i think it still operates in 32 bits), and i don't think they made any improvements to FCP choking on large projects (i'm hoping they did under the hood), and i don't think Color does batch renders (i do most of my rendering in Color these days, and i have to split my project up into segments).

I'm wondering if they made FCP scriptable- i can imagine a day with loads of FCP scripts available for downloads (eg. on export QT movie, send to Compressor, send to DVDSP, burn a menuless DVD in one button; on export QT movie, compress and upload to ftp).

Otherwise, the iChat integration is really great for indie producers/editors, 4444 ProRes is incredible (can't believe a version existed without it), the long awaited colored markers and colored tabs, AvcIntra support is cool, and i can't wait to work finally work in AvcIntra on FCP 7. I'm not sure to what degree they mean by background rendering in Compressor, but if I could send a sequence straight to Compressor while I work in FCP, that would be great.

There's still no direct mxf import, but i sense a big improvement in this area for news/events/quick turnaround work.

This is awesome stuff.



www.strypesinpost.com

I will WAIT for the first .1 update.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

There are some free tutorials on ripple training dot com
[www.rippletraining.com]

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

>Is the new Studio for Intel machines, or the old G5 users can enjoy it too?

Good question. According to Cnet news, it's Intel only. However, the Apple requirements hint at universal binary support.



www.strypesinpost.com

From the tech specs page:

Quote

Requirements to install all Final Cut Studio applications
Mac computer with an Intel processor
1GB of RAM (2GB of RAM recommended when working with compressed HD and uncompressed SD sources; 4GB of RAM recommended when working with uncompressed HD sources)
ATI or NVIDIA graphics processor (integrated Intel graphics processors not supported)
128MB of VRAM
Display with 1280-by-800 resolution or higher
Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later
QuickTime 7.6 or later
DVD drive for installation
4GB of disk space required to install all applications (Final Cut Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Cinema Tools, Compressor, and Apple Qmaster)
46GB of disk space required for optional content
9GB for DVD Studio Pro content
7GB for Motion templates
22GB for audio content
8GB for LiveFonts

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Ah great. Thanks, Andrew, I missed the first line completely. I was reading the requirements for ProRes capture which is still in the same wording as in the FCS2 release.



www.strypesinpost.com

Keep the comments coming folks. People are reading.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Yes, it is definitely Intel only. Us dinosaurs with G5s will finally have to update to take advantage of it.

So as far as we know, this update means that the original code is still underneath, the interface looks basically unchanged. That is a bit disappointing, I keep wondering when Apple will do a "from the ground up" re-write of the application?

Dan

Quote

I keep wondering when Apple will do a "from the ground up" re-write of the application?

Why? Alias did that when they moved from Power Animator to Maya, and it took years for Maya to catch up to where PA had been. Ground-up rewrites are incredibly overrated.

Quote

Ground-up rewrites are incredibly overrated.

Maybe...but ground-up interface redesigns are not overrated. It was the best thing to happen to After Effects since Z-Depth was added. FCP is in dire need of this IMHO.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.