Apple Refocusing Final Cut Pro? Jobs says "Next Release Will Be Awesome"

[MorphingDragon]

I hope they can turn that perception around, WWDC 2010 doesn't look too promising with the focus on the iPhone and iPad.

The Mac desktop platform is being neglected. The irony is that without it the iPhone and iPad are useless.

XCode and Simulator for Windows.

Bleep, macs fall off the radar.

 

[Atkins]

Apple should really push Mac OS X into the forefront of 3D and special effects compositing. I'm surprised they haven't done this yet. Its right there with content production. I intentionally left Motion out, I see it as either an express type application or possibly along side iMovie. Nuke/Shake destroys both Motion and yes After Effects.

What packages would you like to see Apple put together?

Well, in 3D we have enough choices. I would say a competitor to Photoshop - they already have some good base with Aperture. They can pull this off.

 

[charlituna]

I was going to say...

Anyone who has used Final Cut Studio and then looked at Final Cut Express know that there's NO FREAKING WAY that "Apple now primarily sells the Express version". That's total BS.

thing is, because of the much lower price, FCE probably does sell very well.

however, Apple has responded to the stories and stated very firmly that they are not reducing FCS in anyway.

so the power that is there will stay. new interface, double modes like they do in some other programs perhaps. 64 bit likely
which makes sense because as has been mentioned, major movies are using FCS and that's not a market they are going to let slide back to Avid and Premiere

 

[Nuvi]

Ron Brinkmann is the only man for the job that is capable to take the helm in turning Final Cut Studio into pro quality software.

http://www.digitalcompositing.com/blog/?page_id=4

Apple should buy The Foundry to bring him back then Steve should let him make the decisions in the direction FCS takes along with compositing and 3D.

I honestly don't think Ron Brinkmann would re-join Apple no matter what. He is dedicated to high end post production development but Apple did what it did when they canned Shake. The sad part is that Apple had all the human resources they needed when they bought Shake and then lost it all. Its crazy that the same guys who created Shake were canned and when they leave they create new Shake aka Nuke which creates tremors all over post production industry.

Regarding Randy Ubillos; the comment made me LOL.

 

[Nuvi]

thing is, because of the much lower price, FCE probably does sell very well.

however, Apple has responded to the stories and stated very firmly that they are not reducing FCS in anyway.

so the power that is there will stay. new interface, double modes like they do in some other programs perhaps. 64 bit likely
which makes sense because as has been mentioned, major movies are using FCS and that's not a market they are going to let slide back to Avid and Premiere

There is really no real evidence of Apple cutting or not cutting FCP features. Regarding FCP in feature films; there are few that have used FCP but vast majority is Avid. FCP had their foot on the door but its slipping back. Regarding Premier, the never even had foot in the door when it comes down to the feature film editing. Regarding the future, Avid MC5 will be very FCP editor friendly and if Apple can't develop FCP aggressively they are in real danger of loosing the pro market back to Avid. If Avid pushes MC5 upgrade aggressively with cross grades we will see lot of FCP editors jumping ships. Its all down to Apple's dedication towards professional post production. The real question, is there such dedication or is Apple refocusing? One liners from Steve (or some person replying to steve mail) don't matter. Until we see at least a feature set list we can't really say anything.

 

[Nostromo]

Well, in 3D we have enough choices. I would say a competitor to Photoshop - they already have some good base with Aperture. They can pull this off.

Aperture is a RAW processor and by no means comparable to Photoshop.

There is currently no Photoshop contender out there that's worth mentioning.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I work in the TV/film production industry, and one of my jobs was to install Avid suites. About 3 years ago i heard that Apple had poached the designer of the Avid Adrenaline.

Now im not a 100% lover of Avid, its based on code that was written for the old AVB systems and it doesn't matter what PC system you put it on its slow and can only do one thing at once (you can export a QT but you can't carry on with anything else, no render farm option), so FCP is a good system (although has weird differences in editing compared to Avid). FCP could be a brilliant system if A) they stop all the multi formatted in/outputs it does (its a nice idea, but having the option to have your project, sequence and output settings all at a different rate is mental!) and B) they don't go the imovie route and really mess it up.

Actually, Avid runs pretty well on a PC, and much better on the Mac. Avid really wants you to buy one of their custom systems to run the software on, which is why so many people say its WAY expensive. I've never run it on the customs but we used to have edit suites with Avid, Premier, and FCP all running on Power Mac G5s and a few HP workstations running Premier, Avid, and Media 100. This is back in the day when they trained real cutters and photographers though.

On a second note, Avid does support render farms, and the Avid Mojo is a concept I wish Apple would adopt. And having mixed formats and media in a timeline is wonderful, just not on FCP in which you'll have to render whatever footage doesn't match your source timeline . . . i.e. other editors like Premier Pro and Avid.

 

[backdraft]

Apple can always buy Adobe

As for 3D, compositing, editing, color grading, and sound engineering I would love to see a fully integrated suite similar to how adobe bundles CS.
Working across applications could be easier, let's say I want to embed a nuke composition in Houdini and tweak it then put it back into nuke, or jump back and forth between apps leaving files in their native format.

The current workflow forces you to export footage/images then import. It should all be a non-destructive workflow where I can change anything, anywhere at anytime by drilling down.

I have only seen this tight integration in CS. Ps files in Pr, AE... AI objects, AE comps in Pr and vice-versa, Fl and Dw etc....

If Apple or anyone could pull this off, I'm there! Along with a slew of pros!

Well, in 3D we have enough choices. I would say a competitor to Photoshop - they already have some good base with Aperture. They can pull this off.

 

[Digital Skunk]

... Apple or anyone could pull this off, I'm there! Along with a slew of pros!

Another reason why many pros are moving to the CS. The same reason many moved to FCP. If a pro that's pulling triple and quadruple duty can buy a software package that has 80% of his/her software titles for half the cost of the alternative they'll ask why not.

A few years ago it was Final Cut, Motion and DVD Studio Pro, then it was the entire suite for $1299 . . . or just Avid for $2500+ (at the time) and you'd still need other titles. Sure, you got less functionality, but you got software that a true pro could work with.

Now, the same pros are still putting on and taking off many hats, and mixed media is becoming the thing to work in, so software packages that give the most for the best price will win out.

Why pay $1000 for FCP and still need the $1700 CS5 Design Premium and Aperture/Lightroom? I can save close to $500 and get the Master Collection and Lightroom/Aperture.

 

[z4n3]

Looks kinda like my first FCS keyboard

 

[z4n3]

I remember when everyone on this website called my a troll for stating my opinion that the mac was turning into one of these.

Looks kinda like my first FCS keyboard

 

[zedsdead]

Looks kinda like my first FCS keyboard

That's were I see the ipad coming in. I'm sure apple could come up with a cool controller type of app for final cut studio if they wanted to.

 

[michaelflynn]

Not sure how many other people have said something similar but...

I do freelance editing for a small company that uses Adobe products on Windows machines. They have been beta testing Premiere specifically since CS2 I think. The day this story broke they mentioned that one of the main dudes from Premiere team sent out an email saying how good this sounds for Adobe right now.

I do think that maybe we jumped to conclusions though. Hopefully they aren't planning to dumb it down.

 

[Vulpinemac]

A very simple question:

Why, if someone wants to purchase Final Cut Pro, do they have to buy all the other junk that they don't want? I own a copy of FCE and I have to admit the limitations are annoying, but what I want isn't offered in any of the add-ons, it's only in FCP itself. I'm not willing to spend $900 when what I want out of that package only costs $500.

I can't tell you how close I came to buying into a third-party solution, but even they broke it up into so many overpriced modules that it wasn't worth the cost.

 

[Vulpinemac]

Believe it or not, I'll agree -- to a point.

Aperture is a RAW processor and by no means comparable to Photoshop.

There is currently no Photoshop contender out there that's worth mentioning.

However, Aperture does quite well when compared to most of Photoshop Elements. Unfortunately, it's more because Elements is so poorly designed than because Aperture can do all the same things; it can't. Currently the best comparison to PSE or even Photoshop itself is Paint Shop Pro Photo, which unfortunately is a Windows-only app, more's the pity. I've used all three and even GIMP, and while GIMP gives you almost all the same power as Photoshop itself, it's even harder to use because it's so hard to find what should be common tools.

The problem is, this is an article about FCS, not Photoshop. Apple appears able to incrementally nibble away at what Adobe's applications are dominating, but it's really time for Apple to pull together some power apps that can compete both productively and economically. Rather than using Aperture to compete with Lightroom, maybe Apple needs to invite Corel's Paint Shop series into OS X, or better yet, create their own full-featured photo editor. Maybe rather than 'modifying' FCS, they could offer FCP separately for greater sales and offer the Studio modules as either an add-on package or an all-in-one kit for those who want those additional features.

The point is, Apple is working so hard on making hardware that people want and seem to be ignoring the software that got them there. I've been an Apple user since 1979; I've never been without an Apple computer in my house since then; but more and more I'm forced to step over to the 'dark side' for the capabilities I need.

 

[toke lahti]

I, like most, have a laundry list of things FCP needs, here are some:
(1) Multi-Core / Multi-Thread Support for all processes
(2) Open CL support
(3) 64-Bit Cocoa Rewrite
(4) Interface Upgrades
(5) Native AVCHD Support
(6) Background Processes for rendering

I could add there:
(7) All FCS apps COLOR MANAGED!
(8) 10/12-bit color support for nVidia's GPUs in Color
(9) Converting from color space to another

When Steve said that Adobe were the last company to move from Carbon to Cocoa I thought to myself "That's not true, Apple WILL be the last company to do it when they rewrite Final Cut Pro".

This is the sad, cold & hard fact and evidence to that Apple is in no hurry.
How is FCP or FCE improved/advanced in last 3 years?
Or DVDSP in last 5 years?
How many years will it still take for Color to support 10/12-bit colors with nVidia's GPUs?
Looks like if blu-ray will dominate next decade, Apple couldn't introduce blu-ray authoring in that time even if they wanted!

What FCS needs the most, is some real competition to kick some ass in Apple to really develop the whole suite.
Something like what Red has done in camera business.

 

[bki122689]

I could add there:
(7) All FCS apps COLOR MANAGED!
(8) 10/12-bit color support for nVidia's GPUs in Color
(9) Converting from color space to another

This is the sad, cold & hard fact and evidence to that Apple is in no hurry.
How is FCP or FCE improved/advanced in last 3 years?
Or DVDSP in last 5 years?
How many years will it still take for Color to support 10/12-bit colors with nVidia's GPUs?
Looks like if blu-ray will dominate next decade, Apple couldn't introduce blu-ray authoring in that time even if they wanted!

What FCS needs the most, is some real competition to kick some ass in Apple to really develop the whole suite.
Something like what Red has done in camera business.

I don't think it's worth introducing blu-ray. Blu-ray will not have a life span as long as DVD had and still has. And it certainly won't be for the next decade. SD cards anyone?

 

[AidenShaw]

I don't think it's worth introducing blu-ray. Blu-ray will not have a life span as long as DVD had and still has. And it certainly won't be for the next decade. SD cards anyone?

With 50 GB BD movies selling for $9.99, and 64 GB SDXC cards at $220 - it will be a while ....

 

[toke lahti]

I don't think it's worth introducing blu-ray. Blu-ray will not have a life span as long as DVD had and still has. And it certainly won't be for the next decade. SD cards anyone?

Hmmm,
they are selling more bd-players than iPhones.
More bd-movies than appstore apps.
Which are more significant?

People want to watch movies with their laptops.
People have bought bd-players for living room.
For most of this planet there's no movies in iTunes.
Sd cards will be too expensive for the next decade.
(When you get 32GB for $2 it will beat optical media.)
It will also take more than decade to get average internet connection on this planet fast enough for streaming bd-quality.

Either all bd-movies have to offer "digital copy" or people will start to consider macs as no good for entertainment.

Or maybe mac people will keep buying dvd's even when everybody else is buying bd. By then dvd's will also have "premium" price...
How about iMac with integrated vhs-vcr?

 

[Cave Man]

I don't think it's worth introducing blu-ray. Blu-ray will not have a life span as long as DVD had and still has. And it certainly won't be for the next decade.

Nothing like a little pure speculation to start the day.

SD cards anyone?

You can't press SD cards. Production costs would skyrocket if content were provided on flash memory. Optical media are here for a long while to come.

 

[toke lahti]

Did you guys noticed this:
http://www.physorg.com/news193896595.html
25TB, cheap metrials, no hazardous waste...
I guess optical media is here to stay!

 

[Digital Skunk]

Did you guys noticed this:
http://www.physorg.com/news193896595.html
25TB, cheap metrials, no hazardous waste...
I guess optical media is here to stay!

Oh yeah, I can't wait to see some of that high capacity hit the market. Including the Seagate 3TB HDDs as well.

The hype boys and girls clamouring about the death of optical media and HDDs just don't do enough real work that needs such tech on a daily basis. Their computing lives consist of consuming media, which they'd rather receive as a download to their iPads.

I don't have a problem with that, but for those that are actually creating the media . . . we need some real storage options at a low cost. SSDs and flash memory have their places, but they won't replace the HDD and optical media for another 10 or more years at best.

 

[toke lahti]

What if,
now that Panny's 3D camera is out, next FCP focuses on 3D?
And all of a sudden Apple forgets all old problems and upgrades that never came?

 

[mBox]

Well, in 3D we have enough choices. I would say a competitor to Photoshop - they already have some good base with Aperture. They can pull this off.

we tested Maya 2010 on our latest MacPro Xeon Quad Core 2.93 with FX4800. Still not as stable as Boxx 8400s with similiar Intel chips. Only diff is that the Boxx has a FX5600 but our problems start with render speeds not openGL.
Im a long time Mac user and have started my 3D career on the Mac.
You dont know pain like running formZ and EIAS on a PowerMac 6100 AV

Aaah good times

 

[Digital Skunk]

You dont know pain like running formZ and EIAS on a PowerMac 6100 AV

Aaah good times

I don't but is it anything like Casablanca's Kron?