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Final Cut Pro for Beginner/iMovie Expert

C

Cannoli.

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2011
25
0
I am extremely interested in film and such, but I am currently limited to the tools of iMovie. I have continued to use iMovie 6.0.3 (on my 6 year old iMac), because I like the layout and have learned all of it abilities. I like the way the timeline area is set up too. My questions are as follows:

What are the differences in layout?

Would this be a good purchase for a young film lover who is not looking to do anything over-the-top?

Would it take me 5 years to learn how to use everything? (lol)

What would be the best version?

I want to get more advanced and take everything to the next level, but I do not want to buy something I will hate/never enjoy using.

Thank you for any help, and if this is on the wrong section please move! :)
 
I tried FCPX after using iMovie11 for years.
Personally I prefer iMovie. For my needs (basic YouTube videos, a few DVDs of the family, etc) it is fine. FCPX does not have a steep learning curve as its very similar in style and layout to iMovie. I just didn't like the constant rendering etc all the time - Im not used to that with iMovie, and found it to be a bit of a pain.

If you are looking to buy a new system the FCPX will be good for you, as I found it needs a pretty hefty system to run nicely. I like to think I have a decent setup, and things ran nicely, but the CPU was always busy with rendering, causing the laptop to heat up, the fan to go into high speed, and so on. I can edit in iMovie for hours and never feel the laptop heating up etc.

On the editing side of things, its an ideal step up from iMovie - its whether you actually need all the extra features for your videos. I used FCPX for a while and found I was still only doing the stuff iMovie would do fine for me anyway.

Remember, iMovie11 also has a lot of new features that will be quite a development from iMovie6 - why not give that a shot instead?
 
Ifti said:
I just didn't like the constant rendering etc all the time - Im not used to that with iMovie, and found it to be a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...

That is either due to the footage being transcoded to a proper editing format in the background.
2012_01_28_pC1_FinalCutProX_ImportDialog_Transcoding.png
Or if you disabled that option and import compressed videos, which do not use a proper editing codec (H.264 is NOT an editing codec), applying effects to such footage in the timeline will result in rendering.

iMovie transcodes footage during import into a proper editing format, thus there is no rendering involved during editing.

Sadly, Apple, and many others, don't include some basic guides about file formats and codecs for their consumer applications, thus the consumer, never ever touching such subjects, would actually understand, what the application does in the background and why it does that.
It is a shame, especially since Apple aims at consumers and prosumers with FCP X and thus those proconsumers should at least gain some knowledge and better understanding, it is not really that hard to understand anyway (though I have an editing background).
 
simsaladimbamba said:
That is either due to the footage being transcoded to a proper editing format in the background.
Or if you disabled that option and import compressed videos, which do not use a proper editing codec (H.264 is NOT an editing codec), applying effects to such footage in the timeline will result in rendering.

iMovie transcodes footage during import into a proper editing format, thus there is no rendering involved during editing.

Sadly, Apple, and many others, don't include some basic guides about file formats and codecs for their consumer applications, thus the consumer, never ever touching such subjects, would actually understand, what the application does in the background and why it does that.
It is a shame, especially since Apple aims at consumers and prosumers with FCP X and thus those proconsumers should at least gain some knowledge and better understanding, it is not really that hard to understand anyway (though I have an editing background).
Click to expand...

Ah, so if one transcodes when importing the rendering will not be required??

I did try this but quit when I noticed that the file sizes were much larger then those that iMovie imports - almost twice the size. Is this correct?
Does iMovie transcode into a different format then FCPX does??
 
Ifti said:
Ah, so if one transcodes when importing the rendering will not be required??
Click to expand...
Yes, unless the effects are too complicated.

I did try this but quit when I noticed that the file sizes were much larger then those that iMovie imports - almost twice the size. Is this correct?
Does iMovie transcode into a different format then FCPX does??
Click to expand...
iMovie transcodes to a .mov file using the Apple Intermediate Codec, which takes up to 49 GB/h for 1080i60 footage, FCP (X and earlier) uses the ProRes 422 codec, which takes up to 60 GB/h.
 
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