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

I am hoping that the instability with Multiclips and project size has been attended to. Don't have a big MC project on the horizon so I don't have a way of testing this.
Until the Media management aspect of FCP is rewritten to be based on File Timecode and reel no. and not just Name and file path, multiclips are probably going to be a bit of a headache.

The locators function of being affected by ripple edits is hopefully something that can be toggled of and on. I use locators the way they are now to mark target durations for network shows or commercial spots. It's not a biggie but wouldn't mind keeping that function.

This is unrelated to any coding but having recently consulted on a clients project and upgrade from 4.5 to FCS2 and done a lot of reinstalling recently I would LOVE it if it were possible to buy a "Disks Only" upgrade. The size and the weight of the boxes and books, the space they take up not to mention the dead trees they represent, AND I am looking at a new set of boxes for FCS3 and the new Logic upgrade, I would hope that someone at Apple is thinking of this. Charge me the same price, just keep the books and let me take the two upgrades back to the edit room on my bike.

more later...

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

I'm hoping we hit Color 2 soon. The interface is fine, just that some basic functions will be very much appreciated, eg. copy/paste in the Color FX room, the ability to shift the grades in secondary rooms around, as well as real time playback (eg. some kind of RAM preview function) which will be very helpful to gauge noise level.

I'm also with Joey on the upgrade. I remember FCP 6.0 being very forgetful with render files, so I won't jump into it right away unless I'm working on a non-critical project.



www.strypesinpost.com

Better P2 metadata mapping. Not the best, but a LOT more information is mappable. Lots more options.

AVCI native support. Still have to wrap in QT, but native codec.

ProRes PROXIE! Really light codec for offline editing! Woot! A good solid tapeless offline/online workflow now.

MARKERS! Color code markers. Markers that MOVE when you add or cut footage from the timeline. How friggin huge is that? Adding markers WHILE PLAYING the timeline? Dude...a feature us Avid peeps have been looking for.

That big timecode window. That kills one Digital Heaven plugin. Good plugin, but a pain to implement. Now my producer will be happy.

Speed changes that don't move the timeline. Nice. Dunno why people still bitch about this. Avid insists you make media with speed changes, before you add it to the timeline. Which is just good media management. I always adjusted the speed before I dropped it in, but this is great. And speed ramping too. Nice.

I need to learn Motion better so I can get really excited about those features.

IChat Theater...makes long distance editing now a very good reality. Now you don't have to export a QT movie and show it via iChat...now the other party can see your sequence AS you play it, and pause it, and make changes. And they can still hear you talking if you have a microphone attached. Duuuuuude.

Couple of improvements in Color, like knowing when you have disabled it and enabled it (a clear indication that it is off, which you toggle to see the differences you made). No change in the interface? So what? What's wrong with how it is now? I have no problems using it. This is a high end professional color correcting tool...not some simple thing for the hobbyist. I have no problems with the interface.

Bitching about how everything isn't built in to FCP as one big HUB of things? Come one...WHO does that? Adobe? No. Avid? HARDLY.

The new features are great. Good steps forward. All great additions. To start off with "well, this is a huge letdown because blah blah blah is missing and blah blah blah still isn't there..." That is the quick and easy path to becoming the grumpy old man on the block. Look at all the good things, stop being pessimistic. sheesh.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

PRO (Nice additions):

* LOVE THE NEW SPEED TOOL and you can uncheck "Ripple Sequence" to keep the sequence from shortening after the speed change. I use that all the time - nice productivity upgrade

* LOVE Global Transitions

* LOVE Improved (Color Coded) Tabs

* LOVE Background Exporting

* LOVE New BIG Timecode Window (and Mike tried to get me to pay $50 for that!! PHOOEY!!)

* LOVE Improved Markers

CON (missing):

* Why is the renderer so blasted slow??? Access more CPU / GPU / RAM power for more efficient rendering (may have been addressed...don't know)

* A useful more intricate Title Tool (BIG omission).

* Auto-Patching

* Better more universal handling of Fonts

* Running timecode & audio meters during Capture / Layoff

* A totally gutted & customizable interface is needed. Skin / button / color choices / textures. Something nice to look at and work with everyday . Battleship gray ("Old Ironsides" is tired & needs a face lift.

* Option to have all windows as ONE (tearing off tabs as needed for separate monitors).

* I would like to see in the browser the ability to click on a clip and have it show how many times it has been used in a sequence or sequences (like After Effects).

* Ability to play thumbnails in the browser (in Thumbnail view) using JKL keys

* Nodal View to see contents of precomps (nests)

* Customizable layer colors in Sequences

* More interactive compositing (ability to grab a layer + drag it around in the canvas without multiple clicking to reactivate position). Why do you have to click on the Position "+" to move a layer...then when you let go, you have to go back and click on that "+" again to move it again? Too much clicking...just select (hilite) a clip in the timeline and grab it in the Canvas - move it as many times as you want.

* Comp Window Rulers and Adjustable / lockable / hideable guides...like in After Effects / Photoshop / Illustrator. If FCP is going to call itself a compositing program, it may as well act like one

* More ROBUST Speed Ramp / Time Remapping tool in FC Studio with "pixel morph" technology (Timewarp)...Frame Blending sux.

* Round Tripping to After Effects (dreaming here, now)

* Email notification upon render completion would be a plus

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Quote
grafixjoe
CON (missing):
* Auto-Patching

Hear hear. Although adding timeline views to the keyboard shortcuts menu would be a half step better. With all the multitrack audio being recorded on set a timeline view for 8tracks going to 1-8 and another for 8tracks going to 9-16 would be great if it was mappable. (Apple mappable? Apple mappable and a bottle of Snapple? Unflappable? Play me off keyboard cat...)

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Count me among the disappointed.

I realize a pro app is more than aesthetics, but presentation is important, and FCP's GUI was really showing its age in the last release, let alone this one. Couple that with Color's interface (not only this release, but the last one too) and it becomes apparent that there has been, and continues to be a de-emphasis on vertically integrated design that is very uncharacteristic of Apple.

It just lends credence to the rumour that Apple has opted to strategically shift away from the pro community.

"I want it to have feature X just like this application..."

"I want it to have feature Y just like that application...."

Yes, we would all like to pic and choose our favorite features from ALL the applications out there and have one big SUPER NLE to rule them all. But come on...you can't fulfill everyone's dream. Features exist in various applications because some clever person figured it out. And then promptly PATENTED it so only they could have it. Why doens't FCP act more like an Avid when it comes to multiple user enviroments? Because of the patented way Avid has designed the software to make bins separate files. Why doesn't FCP indicate what clip was used in the timeline and how many times? Because Adobe did that and patented it.

We have to get used to what we have and how it works and stop trying to bend it into doing things that other applications do. Or have them find things that AREN'T patented like the FCP TTTT command to select all from this point to the right and make a hole. Avid snapped that up in version 3.0.5.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

>It just lends credence to the rumour that Apple has opted to strategically shift away from the pro community.

They don't make the interface all new and shiny and that is evidence that they no longer care about the ProApps? Are you serious?

Have you seen Avid's interface? It has gone virtually unchanged since version 7. They have added a few more buttons to include the new features...and yes they added the ability to make custom colors (a bit silly if you ask me, but people like it)...but the basic layout has been the same as it has for years.

WHY? Because editors who have worked for a long time with applications develop patterns and habits that make them fast editors. Change something, even small, and it throws them off their game. A button isn't were it was before, a menu moved....wrench in the works.

Yes, Adobe changed their look drastically and still chugged along. But I stress that Premiere isn't used in the high stress editing...EDITING...of television series and feature films.

No new interface...whatever. Much ado about nothing...


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

Hi All,
I'm stoked about the new Final Cut Studio. If you have any questions about the release, I can probably help you out. I have been testing these features for awhile now, so I have some knowledge I can share with you.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
Adobe
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro Community Blog
Follow Me on Twitter!

Shane Ross Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> They don't make the interface all new and shiny
> and that is evidence that they no longer care
> about the ProApps? Are you serious?
>
> Have you seen Avid's interface? It has gone
> virtually unchanged since version 7.

Apple prides iteself on its design, Avid doesn't

>
> WHY? Because editors who have worked for a long
> time with applications develop patterns and habits
> that make them fast editors. Change something,
> even small, and it throws them off their game. A
> button isn't were it was before, a menu
> moved....wrench in the works.

Good editors adapt. Change is what lead people to switch from Avid to FCP in the first place.

Quote

Good editors adapt.

I don't know where this persistent myth came from, but it's totally untrue. Sure, you've got your Murches out there who were (relatively) early adopters of non-linear editing. But good editors are artists first and technology people second. If I were making a movie and Dylan Tichenor told me he wanted to edit it with a razor blade and some scotch tape, I would not argue with him. Because the tools are, and always have been, secondary to the craft.

Good editors use whatever they damn well please, and they've earned the privilege, because they're good editors.

Quote

Good editors use whatever they damn well please, and they've earned the privilege, because they're good editors.

Sorry...but that's garbage. That is a statement from a large market editor...not in my little market. When our online editors did not adapt when we dumped the online suites for Avid suites...they were sh!t-canned...and they were "good editors" with over 10 years seniority.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Jeff Harrell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I were making a movie and Dylan Tichenor told me
> he wanted to edit it with a razor blade and some
> scotch tape, I would not argue with him.

So what you are saying is that you would adapt

Quote
grafixjoe
* Email notification upon render completion would be a plus

It's there for years with a little script of mine. Search the site.

With the new version there several improvements with XML as well. This will make roundtrips much easier even for big projects - for those who know how to handle

The text stuff in Motion is cool and because it's in Motion it's in FCP as well.

Tapeless ingest is much better and easier - though a 20 meter long clip name doesn't help really.
Many of you probably didn't know that even FCP 6 kept already a lot of metadata from tapeless media like P2. It was and is not really visible for users in the Browser columns. The even better thing is that these metadata are/were transfered into the QT metadata. So if you use a custom workflow like I do with merging camera and external sound you can open the newly created QT movie in any FCP setup or project and do have the basics immediately in your project (tc, rate, reel, scene, take, note) so this works right now and is improved with the new version.
Codec stuff is very cool.
Marker stuff is very cool.
And so on ?

As Shane said: be optimistic and see the improvements.

Andreas

P.S. The only thing I'm REALLY unhappy with is the price for us poor EURO fellows: it's 299 EUR for the upgrade that's 420 USD. So any of the European (EURO) guys should add an "Supporting Apple and US editors with 119 USD to keep them alive" to his signature after he has updated. For a full version the financial support will be 399 USD.

Lets try and keep this thread a bit on topic as much as we can. Its a good one and I don't want to see it go off the map into another country.

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

Yeah, film guys were dragged kicking and screaming to Avids. Many of them struggled with it, and eventually learned it, but they didn't remain as fast as they were with film. Or when they did get up to speed, if you changed anything...stuff hit the fan.

Good story editors are very fixed on the story...so they learn the tool and it becomes second nature as their hands just go where it needs to go and they can put their thought process on the characters and story. Change something, where it is located or how a button works, and that de-rails them (me too) and now they have to concentrate on the tool more and less on the story, so they slow down. They will eventually relearn that, but it takes a while. It is a serious de-railing (this happened to one of my mentors).

Many of the new editors are young and adapatble...and sorrily many of them are more interested in the flashy stuff they can do and less on story, so they want all the fancy bells and whistles and they want the interface to be shiny and bright green (I shudder when I see the custom interfaces many Avid editors...YOUNG ONES...have on their Avids. UGLY stuff, hurts the eyes).

Whatever. Apple increasing the student pricing while dropping the main price was sheer stupidity. Keep the higher price, make the upgrade not so cheap, and LOWER the academic price. Man...their heads are all on iPhones now...


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

Yeah....lower the Academic Price to at least HALF the street price makes sense.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I think the interface should be left as it is. User interface brightness would be a plus

Quote
Keep the higher price, make the upgrade not so cheap

You may make that suggestion AFTER I buy my upgrade...

Kevin, any insights into what to expect with FCS 3? Did Bruce the Yak pop up anywhere when you worked on it?



www.strypesinpost.com

I hope all of you that are excited about this beautiful upgrade are on Intel boxes...because this upgrade is Intel only:

Requirements to install all Final Cut Studio applications

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

Talk about everything happens for a reason...my Quad blew up a few weeks ago - now I know why

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I find it very interesting that, according to the documents I've seen so far, FCP 7 now edits both HDV and AVC Intra natively, but you still have to transcode AVCHD to ProRes. I guess either decoding AVCHD in real time is still to computationally intensive on current hardware. Either that, or there's just not enough demand for that format to justify adding native support.

You can expect a LOT of cool new features. Overall, great stability too. I'll detail all of my thoughts in an upcoming white paper so stay tuned for that.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
Adobe
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro Community Blog
Follow Me on Twitter!

is this available in stores now? Has anyone actually get a copy of this yet? Any improvement to trimming???

I'd rather them revamp the entire trimming tools/trim windows than all the colored markers in china!

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

So is this going to be able to access all the 10Gb RAM I have, rather than the 2Gb (I think) that it does now?

Quote
is this available in stores now?

I have to drive by the Apple store anyway. I'll stop by and see. I better bring my credit card just in case I get the itch...

This is ANNOUNCED this AM, and Chin Ho Lee wonders if we not only bought it, but have it installed already. Wow!

They don't mention trimming, but you never know. Markers are HUGE for multi-seat settings, and multiple people working on one sequence. When I want to trim I use Avid.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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

Nothing new as far as trimming goes. Sorry CHL.

Kevin Monahan
Social Support Lead, DV Products
Adobe
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro Community Blog
Follow Me on Twitter!

Oh no...here we go...you move to Avid to trim? C'mon shane...

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Quote

you have any questions about the release, I can probably help you out

I'll take you up on that, thanks!

Specifically what if anything has been done to improve media management. The Apple white paper says that reconnecting is now based on Spotlight, but little else.

What has been done to improve stability for large projects that span many drives?

Is opening large (50+ MB) project files faster?

Also, is navigating around the P2 Transcode window via the keyboard as easy as navigating around the Log and Capture window?

I am disappointed that it looks like nothing has been done to improve project management when multiple editors are working on one project (saying "use Final Cut Server" here is not the answer).

Thanks in advance!