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Apple Demos Final Cut Pro X at NAB 2011
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Please, be more dramatic.
Is that a request?
I see it as emblematic of the direction that Apple is taking away from the pro market. With that said, I'll likely buy it, since it looks like a nice prosumer-focused package. Three hundred dollar for what they are offering is not a bad deal at all. I just hope it comes on DVD, so I can point my bony finger at the box and tell it how it does not hold a candle to its older brothers.
You can't assume they've never used FCP. FCP is so readily available in the Post Production World, seems that everyone's got a copy of it at home whether it's the student edition or pirated.
whine whine whine
Most people here, will tinker with FCP and never actually make feature films or shows. You all have an opinion, but I think that people that actually do this for a living will be very happy with the results.
I edit TV shows and make adverts as part of my job, so I can't wait to get my hands on it, and then after using it for my job for a while, I will be able to tell if it really is worth its weight in gold, but from what I can see 64bit processing, multicore use and all the rest will allow me to do my current daily tasks quicker (like converting/exporting shows from PAL to NTSC for multi format broadcast on an 8 core Mac Pro)
Most people here, will tinker with FCP and never actually make feature films or shows. You all have an opinion, but I think that people that actually do this for a living will be very happy with the results.
I edit TV shows and make adverts as part of my job, so I can't wait to get my hands on it, and then after using it for my job for a while, I will be able to tell if it really is worth its weight in gold, but from what I can see 64bit processing, multicore use and all the rest will allow me to do my current daily tasks quicker (like converting/exporting shows from PAL to NTSC for multi format broadcast on an 8 core Mac Pro)
My guess is the full suite will continue to be sold as a boxed version. Apple did not announce then entire suite today, just FCP, so probably holding that for later. It's similar to the way they unbundled all the iWork apps on the App Store, but you can still buy the boxed iWork.
I know personally, I do not have the bandwidth to d/l the entire suite and supporting media. That would take a whole day. I'll gladly pay a $50 or $100 up charge for discs.
Some pro-style questions that have been left unanswered:
What about XML and EDLs in and out of FCP X?
What about multicam and multi-clips?
Can I turn the magnetic timeline off?
Can I turn all the pre-processing that happens on ingest off (if I'm intentionally shaking the camera I *don't* want FCP to auto-stabilize it)?
How does media management work?
Is there a Media Manager tool?
Can I remap the keyboard?
Is there a better title tool?
What about multi-user environments?
Is the app as mouse-centric as it appears to be?
Are all settings global or can I have project specific settings (such as telling FCP that the capture scratch for Project A is in folder A and the capture scratch for Project B is in folder B)?
I could go on but I think I've made my point. Now, all of this stuff is pretty mundane to cover the first time they show off the app so I'm not surprised it wasn't mentioned. FCP X still has a lot more questions than answers right now, IMO. I can't wait to learn more about it though.
Lethal
I do this for a living and it's the same as it with Avid: everyone thinks they know it better. And in this case and in this thread it's a who is "pro" d!ck contest. Who the eff cares, rite? I will definitely upgrade to fcx no matter what these "pros" say and I consider myself an avid guy. But I just hope that this program is stable, and doesn't have that many bugs as can be expected from a total ground up program rewrite.
Some of those questions actually were answered (for example that full keyboard control has been retained) and others are more or less no-brainers (like the stabilization question - you can enable/disable and even fine-tune that even in the dumbed-down iMovie, so why shouldn't you be able to do that in Final Cut).
People you seem to be missing the point that the $299.00 price is for FCP and not the entire studio package. Remember FCP was only one of many applications in FCS. I would expect the other applications to be similar priced in the app store. So in the end I think you may end up paying just as much.
What I did find interesting is no mention of upgrade pricing for existing FCS users. How will they handle upgrades per application?
Remember for current users we paid a small feee to upgrade the entire studio package.
As an editor I can say this is pretty interesting. I would expect the same level of precision we are used to now under the hood. I think the main focus of this demonstration was to show the new features and how easy FCP can be now for the non tech people.
My only concern at this point is every iMovie user now thinking they can be a pro editor with no training and very little cost. Even a 10 year old kid will be using FCP. This is going to affect the editing job market and make editors a dime a dozen. Sure talent still matters but it is going to be harder for companies to sift through 5000 demo reels trying to find that talent. Apple has pretty much turned editing into Wal-Mart.
You might as well kiss Avid goodbye as well. I'm sure there will be die hards for the old way of editing but if FCPX can hang on to the precision of a pro editor without the complex overhead then Apple has just sent Avid yet another major blow. Adobe and Vegas are still a bit safe since they had a lot of these features for awhile now. In fact I see a lot of similarities with Sony Vegas. To me FCPX is the way Vegas should have been from what I have seen so far.
Perhaps Avid will finally wake up and overhaul their entire interface the way they should have 4 years ago already. Avid had the opportunity when they bought Pinnacle Liquid to have a NLE with background rendering and other newage features but they killed it in favor of their dinosaur. The new FCPX is what Liquid could have been if development would have kept going.
What I did find interesting is no mention of upgrade pricing for existing FCS users. How will they handle upgrades per application?
Remember for current users we paid a small feee to upgrade the entire studio package.
As an editor I can say this is pretty interesting. I would expect the same level of precision we are used to now under the hood. I think the main focus of this demonstration was to show the new features and how easy FCP can be now for the non tech people.
My only concern at this point is every iMovie user now thinking they can be a pro editor with no training and very little cost. Even a 10 year old kid will be using FCP. This is going to affect the editing job market and make editors a dime a dozen. Sure talent still matters but it is going to be harder for companies to sift through 5000 demo reels trying to find that talent. Apple has pretty much turned editing into Wal-Mart.
You might as well kiss Avid goodbye as well. I'm sure there will be die hards for the old way of editing but if FCPX can hang on to the precision of a pro editor without the complex overhead then Apple has just sent Avid yet another major blow. Adobe and Vegas are still a bit safe since they had a lot of these features for awhile now. In fact I see a lot of similarities with Sony Vegas. To me FCPX is the way Vegas should have been from what I have seen so far.
Perhaps Avid will finally wake up and overhaul their entire interface the way they should have 4 years ago already. Avid had the opportunity when they bought Pinnacle Liquid to have a NLE with background rendering and other newage features but they killed it in favor of their dinosaur. The new FCPX is what Liquid could have been if development would have kept going.
You can ignore this if you like; I've been lead to believe that Final Cut Pro X is the Final Cut Suit. There will be no separate applications like Color, Compressor, Soundtrack Pro etc. Regarding the upgrade pricing, apparently there won't be one since "FCPX is already priced the same as FCS3 upgrade." Regarding the delivery methods, it seems that App Store is the only option. When questioned about the delivery of multi-gigabyte downloads, it seems that App Store will be the one and only place to get Apple SOFTWARE (not just applications) in the future.
Dead on.
There is of course, a lot of questions left unanswered and X, from what I've gathered, is very much is a step down. Where's the viewer? How accurate is this 'skimming' feature? Is it as annoying as the skimming feature in iMovie?
Was trim mode improved? from what I've seen, it looks dumbed down; even more simplified than what is the current version of FCP.
Does multi-camera editing still exist?
Where are the video scopes?
Dual monitor support?
ability to open multiple projects and time lines? And for that matter, what about timeline nesting? I know they've addressed this with this 'compound clips' but can I still take one timeline and drop it into another like I can in FCP 7?
Custom keyboard mapping?
What about the slew of third party plugins and filters I've spent money on? Will they still work?
Can I still capture tape or has Apple decided (like they have with DVDs) that tape is dead?
I think that this can go on and on.
As a long time professional FCP editor, I'm worried. Not because of change-- I like change. What I hate is when they change things and feel as if they need to reinvent how editors and editing have functioned for decades.
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Hmm, could be good. I've been using an old Final Cut that I bought whilst in university. Worked just fine for me but I only edit game trailers on it. If FCPX is that cheap in the UK too then I might just have to get it.
Maybe.
Apple have been doing a lot of simplifying of late and I hope it doesn't lose any depth.
Maybe.
Apple have been doing a lot of simplifying of late and I hope it doesn't lose any depth.
Hypocrisy
A reminder of Jobs' stunning hypocrisy from a year ago:
"For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X."
Congrats on another Cocoa port, Apple.
A reminder of Jobs' stunning hypocrisy from a year ago:
"For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X."
Congrats on another Cocoa port, Apple.
Full keynote has been uploaded to YouTube -
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VLwsfBa71U
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfgnyRSRyzg
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3OI3RGdhrM
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M16Hb4_3oOY
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VLwsfBa71U
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfgnyRSRyzg
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3OI3RGdhrM
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M16Hb4_3oOY
Unfortunately, its already the case. When the DTP kicked in Apple was all pro and nothing else. Apple was for media creators and scientists. Now its the opposite. Unfortunately it seems that Apple is incapable of serving both media creators and media consumers at the same time. If Final Cut Pro X will truly be a single app then I wish they had separated the Pro apps division from Apple Inc. just like the they did with Claris / FileMaker Inc.
Does that mean that all the features will be retained then since if I can currently operate a tool from my keyboard in FCP7 then surely that same tool will be available in FCPX.
On a side note Lethal wanted to know whether the keyboard was programmable not if it was the same layout.
Hmmm could have been positioned better personally but its better than nothing!
yeah, you're onto an old issue..but, hey..
many of these are from non full time editors if you read posts over time..and if you follow the site, the usual suspects pick up on part of somebody else's post, try to put a twist on it, and post it without having real understanding of the heart of the topic. we started on avid in first project in film school through four years of filmmaking, then onto feature jobs, and this system rocks. murch, coen bros, coppola, lots of features using fcp and endorse it totally. people in my pops generation started on other systems and somewhere along the way, jus got tired of learning new tech, although they're still damn good editors.
many of these are from non full time editors if you read posts over time..and if you follow the site, the usual suspects pick up on part of somebody else's post, try to put a twist on it, and post it without having real understanding of the heart of the topic. we started on avid in first project in film school through four years of filmmaking, then onto feature jobs, and this system rocks. murch, coen bros, coppola, lots of features using fcp and endorse it totally. people in my pops generation started on other systems and somewhere along the way, jus got tired of learning new tech, although they're still damn good editors.
I'm confused as to why everyone is saying this is a step down from FCP7, from what I saw of the feeds apple were just showcasing some of the new features. I may be wrong but i didn't see anywhere where they said they were taking functionality out. They didn't mention color or the rest of FCS but they didn't say they were getting rid of everything. So how can people say this has dropped down to a prosumer level?
If all they did was re-write with 64 bit support then it would be a step up, but they also added some new useful features, (may not be game changing but i'm sure everyone will find something that will be helpful rather than a hindrance). In which case, in my book this still makes it pro software.
It was a first look at beta software, they haven't said they've removed anything so everything people are saying is just speculation for the sake of complaining.
If all they did was re-write with 64 bit support then it would be a step up, but they also added some new useful features, (may not be game changing but i'm sure everyone will find something that will be helpful rather than a hindrance). In which case, in my book this still makes it pro software.
It was a first look at beta software, they haven't said they've removed anything so everything people are saying is just speculation for the sake of complaining.
$299 is impressive.
I've been saying that if they put FCX online for $79.99 I'd buy immediately. I'm confused why Apple has an online App store and yet they offer paltry bits of programming.
I've been saying that if they put FCX online for $79.99 I'd buy immediately. I'm confused why Apple has an online App store and yet they offer paltry bits of programming.
A professional is someone who makes money from their work. So someone who gets paid for a project they make in iMovie is a professional. Perhaps you need to make a living at it though to be a true professional
As for Final Cut Pro X, jury is still definitely out. We all need to try it, make sure the features we still need are there and make sure the new features don't make our computers crash.
No mention of delivery (DVD Studio Pro or Compressor functions) nor enough information about sound editing. So again, the jury is still far, far out.
As for Final Cut Pro X, jury is still definitely out. We all need to try it, make sure the features we still need are there and make sure the new features don't make our computers crash.
No mention of delivery (DVD Studio Pro or Compressor functions) nor enough information about sound editing. So again, the jury is still far, far out.
Wow - DRAMAQUEENS here
Seriously - most you guys could walk into the Gates of Heaven, look at Jesus, and say "Is this all? This sucks."
I don't think I've read a comment here that even makes sense of the importance of this update - seriously - we have posters afraid that 10 year old kids will steal their jobs (get real people!)
The most important part of this update?
FCP is now 64 bit, using ALL parts of the processor, meaning that rendering is a thing of the past (depending on how souped up your system is) - that right there defeats Avid
This is a great update and one to be applauded - thank you APPLE for continually making video editing a cheap endeavor, that can remain professional - further pushing the forces at Avid to reduce the costs of their software
God Bless you Apple
(and last note - good editing happens because you're a GOOD EDITOR - not because you can 'afford' the right system)
Seriously - most you guys could walk into the Gates of Heaven, look at Jesus, and say "Is this all? This sucks."
I don't think I've read a comment here that even makes sense of the importance of this update - seriously - we have posters afraid that 10 year old kids will steal their jobs (get real people!)
The most important part of this update?
FCP is now 64 bit, using ALL parts of the processor, meaning that rendering is a thing of the past (depending on how souped up your system is) - that right there defeats Avid
This is a great update and one to be applauded - thank you APPLE for continually making video editing a cheap endeavor, that can remain professional - further pushing the forces at Avid to reduce the costs of their software
God Bless you Apple
(and last note - good editing happens because you're a GOOD EDITOR - not because you can 'afford' the right system)