New Final Cut Pro Described as 'Dramatic and Ambitious' - Due in Spring 2011

[wonderspark]

"Ditto and then some. Using PP on a home built Gulftown machine with a FX3800 Quadro, I was just editing some EOS7D footage."

That's the problem with this arguments. People who play at being video makers/editors with home video format. I can tell you that Premiere "pro" has not cut even a minor DENT in any of the professional users anywhere in my city. Be it television, film, commercial. everyone still edits their broadcast or HD on their Final cut station with aja card. Nobody cares about using FCP to edit your uncle's photo camera videos. People overestimate the importance of that "market" because these "editors" spend their non productive days haunting the forums, posting about their imaginary careers.

You seem to be taking the threat from other systems personally. I'm impressed by what people put on screen, not what they used to do so. If I see a technical flaw, I might ask what they used and how they used it, but only to compare the limits of that system for my own potential use.

I've had Avid Film Composer, Media100 and currently Premiere, and they all have pros and cons. They all produce nice images on the screen. I'm looking to buy FCS because I want to see what all the options are, and I'm not married to any system. I've been first camera for Hal Needham, directed Jay Leno, edited a feature film and currently I'm creating an HD piece for Dell, using Premiere. Perhaps your career is way more impressive than mine, or maybe it isn't, but one thing is certain... Using FCS doesn't turn water into wine or straw into gold.

 

[rimcrazy]

"Ditto and then some. Using PP on a home built Gulftown machine with a FX3800 Quadro, I was just editing some EOS7D footage."

That's the problem with this arguments. People who play at being video makers/editors with home video format. I can tell you that Premiere "pro" has not cut even a minor DENT in any of the professional users anywhere in my city. Be it television, film, commercial. everyone still edits their broadcast or HD on their Final cut station with aja card. Nobody cares about using FCP to edit your uncle's photo camera videos. People overestimate the importance of that "market" because these "editors" spend their non productive days haunting the forums, posting about their imaginary careers.

Yea, the BBC are a bunch of rank amateurs. You know, the fact that you believe only your particular niche is professional and anyone else is some amateur just shows your ignorance of the entire market. Wake up and smell the coffee. FCP, PP, AVID and the host of other lower cost editing software is democratizing editing in general. Yea, I use PP. I also use FCP and I use Smoke. You have know idea what I do and what I work on. To imply, that simply because someone uses PP or builds their own hardware is somehow not professional? What a joke.

 

[sockgap]

Randy Ubillos wrote Premiere (which started at SuperMac and was sold to Adobe), so he basically invented modern video editing software. The only real precursor is Avid, which only comes bundled with their custom hardware and costs more than a car.

Randy also wrote Final Cut Pro in the first place (that project started at Macromedia and got sold to Apple).

 

[LethalWolfe]

Randy Ubillos wrote Premiere (which started at SuperMac and was sold to Adobe), so he basically invented modern video editing software. The only real precursor is Avid, which only comes bundled with their custom hardware and costs more than a car.

Avid has been available as software-only for years now and third-party hardware support has been added. It's not your father's Avid.

Lethal

 

[handsome pete]

This looks encouraging:

http://www.larryjordan.biz/app_bin/wordpress/archives/1365

 

[4God]

I thought native is not as good as transcoding it to an intermediate format, such as ProRes.

True, ProRes is much better. However, I don't need all my projects to be in that high quality format. Transcoding takes forever on my 8 core. Plus it would be great to drop some clips in iMovie and not have it choke on the files. So if not native then at least can we have faster transcode times? Please?

 

[i make movies]

I'd love to see the option of using an iPad as a BT control surface for FCP. Imagine the 3-Way Color Corrector, or even the whole Effects pane on an iPad. That'd be sweet.

-Brian

http://www.tangentdevices.co.uk/products_vwave.asp


Merry Christmas.

 

[chameleon81]

With the push for handheld devices and discontinuation of X-serve I think many mac users have been somewhat worried about the state of the mac. A solid release of final cut that is well received by industry will rebuild confidence I think. This is good news.

BTW, iWeb? Really? With the options and themes available for wordpress and the near industry standard of Microsoft Sharepoint, does iWeb really have a future? I loved iWeb in 2006, but stopped using it a few years ago when I learned how to manage sharepoint and wordpress services which are both incredibly simple.

share point , wordpress ? I think you don't understand who iweb is targeting

 

[i make movies]

it better be able to handle RED.r3d files and DSLR H.264 footage natively and astonishingly efficiently.

Inability of handling red files are not the fault of FCP or Quicktime or OSX. You need a red rocket card to even play 4k footage in realtime. (a super-fast raid will also help)

Anyways, why would you want to edit with 4K? Every RED project I've ever worked has transcoded to ProRes422HQ for the offline edit.

The H.264 stuff...H.264 is a finishing codec. I'd love it if we could edit with it, but it's so compressed to start with.

edit - added *not* in the first sentence

 

[samcraig]

So does anyone know if they will market this as the best software to produce blu-ray titles yet still not actually have blu-ray in their devices?

Just asking... because I have always found it a bit funny. More than a bit.

 

[OddyOh]

iMovie 08 was horrible

Hopefully FCP still has a timeline...iMovie '08 is horrifyingly awful.

 

[garyhendry]

New UI

I am looking forward to the completely re-designed UI. Autodesk went through the same thing with Maya 2011. The UI is completely new (now using QT), but all your hotkeys and knowledge of the software is still the same. The first time I opened Maya 2011, I still knew what and where to click...

 

[SnakeDeath]

"Randy Ubillos, the developer behind the completely redesigned iMovie in 2008"

That should read "the guy that ruined iMovie"

Lets hope this idiot does not butcher FCP as well.

Here's some pics of this douchebag .... Link

Dude, Randy Ubillos is the guy who designed Adobe Premier through version 4 and went on to create Final Cut Pro. I think the guy knows what he's doing.

 

[chirpie]

Add me to the camp of companies waiting and seeing what Apple releases. If they release something underwhelming we'll be installing CS5 a week after FCP's announcement.

Really though, my wish list is so short, I'll be shocked if they can't meet it.

- Multi-core support
- Better codec handling
- Better Compressor exporting
- Something to address Blu-ray. Maybe not full on author support, but having to take a project to Toast to finish what the mighty FCP can't , is mildly embarrassing.
- Fix the darn Quicktime gamma export bug
- Auto export settings for multiple iDevices (kind of like what's in Quicktime 10)

Everything else would be gravy. Frankly, for me, it all rests on multi core support. If that feature isn't there, I will recommend to my supervisor that we jump ship.

 

[steveh]

Complete redesign of the UI? Does that mean every production company will halt in its tracks while everyone relearns how to use their tools?

"Complete redesign" isn't always a good thing...

Any company, or professional user for that matter, with a lick of sense would roll it in gradually, while using the existing version for paying work, until it's proven to work reliably.

This isn't rocket science.

 

[Moof1904]

Say hello to the father of FCP--Who is the "douchebag"?

Agreed.

I worked with Randy at Macromedia. I remember him being a nice guy. Not a big fan of the iMovie changes, but I don't think he deserves the douchebag label.

 

[berkut]

To all those hoping for 64 bit.... I doubt it, at least in Snow Leopard, at least not in any meaningful sense.

The only QuickTime API that can be compiled in 64-bit is QTKit, and that API is beyond pitiful in Snow Leopard. You cannot do any editing other than the most absolute extreme operations(cutting/copying/pasting that kind of thing). And even then most of the actual work is handled in a separate 32 bit process.

I would be absolutely shocked if Apple released a 64-bit Snow Leopard compatible FCP. Now Apple could very well release 10.6.8 or whatever that includes a revamped API, but although they have done that in the past it's pretty rare. Usually the only time you see major API changes is with a new version of the OS.

Now Lion is another story, I would hope Apple has been hard at work improving the API for Lion(though it really hasn't improved a whole lot since it first debuted in Tiger....) If they upgrade the API to have the same capabilities that the current Quicktime API has, then there is no reason they couldn't create a 64-bit FCP.

No, it's definitely possible - just more work on Apple's side. They'll have to create a helper process which is 32-bit which talks to the useful 32-bit QT API, and will use IPC (shared memory or sockets) to talk to a mirror 64-bit process which is embedded in FCP 64-bit.

The Foundry had to do this for Nuke 64-bit on Mac, as did Adobe for After Effects 64-bit on Mac.

 

[Kevin Monahan]

Premier CS5 has crappy video export options.. something about the formats they use don't always "work" with other video programs even if it's supposed to.

Lets hope FCP is not a file of dog ****.

I don't know what you're talking about. Premiere Pro CS5 can export any format you'll ever need. It's multicore aware too, so it's gets the job done very quickly. If you need ProRes, you'll need to have FCS installed on the same machine, if that's what you mean.

If you can be specific about your complaint (which codec you find is not supported), then send me a note. I can pass it along to my co-workers here at Adobe.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[berkut]

With all of that said, I have complete faith in Apple that this redesign is going to be EXCELLENT! We're talking the company that produced PIXAR, the most graphics-heavy movie company in the world --- if FCP cannot handle a Pixar editing project, I wouldn't imagine that Apple would even release this software

lol - sorry to burst your bubble, but Pixar use Linux pretty exclusively.

Until *very* recently, they also used in-house software for pretty much everything other than compositing (flame, shake), and only in the last 6+ months have they started using off-the-shelf software for more stuff.

 

[Nuvi]

Randy Ubillos wrote Premiere (which started at SuperMac and was sold to Adobe), so he basically invented modern video editing software. The only real precursor is Avid, which only comes bundled with their custom hardware and costs more than a car.

Randy also wrote Final Cut Pro in the first place (that project started at Macromedia and got sold to Apple).

Car under $2500 and for university students under $300? Avid Media Composer is no longer a turnkey solution. You can get it around $1500 during some special events etc. I've heard some have got it under $500 and its the normal (non edu) version (not sure if they were cross grade licenses).

 

[Kevin Monahan]

In addition, anyone who mentions "Adobe Premiere" in the same sentence as FCP and Avid needs to STOP!!! Premiere is NOWHERE near those two

You slight Premiere too much. And this is coming from a Final Cut editor. Whether you want to admit it or not, it has drastically improved while Final Cut has largely remained dormant. And it has entered the playing field that Avid and Apple already occupy. Hell, the BBC switched over to Premiere a couple of years ago. There are other big time studios doing the same.

A lot of your praise for Final Cut is because of how it plays with its sister programs, but that has been implemented by Adobe as well and probably better (at least in my experience).

Your Pixar history is a little misguided too. I'd also be willing to bet that they cur their stuff on Avid.

Ditto and then some. Using PP on a home built Gulftown machine with a FX3800 Quadro, I was just editing some EOS7D footage. So nice to not have to recode just to work on it and wow, if I make an edit like say just move a clip from one track up to another an not shift it in time I don't have to waste half the morning re-rendering just so I can see the change. PP with the Mercury engine rocks and completely blows the doors off FCP speed wise for editing HD footage, and while you can make a very high end MacPro system get close, you can put together a Win/CS5 system for less than half the price. I can put up with a fair amount of PP idiosyncrasies for that exchange in dollars.

Guys, thanks for a little reality check on this thread. Need to cut tapeless now? Look at Premiere Pro CS5. You'll be celebrating "Miller Time" while others are still transcoding to ProRes.

BTW, HandsomePete. They use Avid, FCP and CS5 at Pixar. FCP isn't used for cutting the movies, Avid is. FCP is just for the pre-viz stuff. I know, I worked on "Nemo" and "WALL•E" as an After Effects pre-viz artist.

 

[Soura2112]

Fear..

I understand everyones fear of " whats going to happen" for all of us who use FCP. though I don't think Apple could be so dumb when it comes to FCP. After all they are a company who wants to be ahead of the game. Will AVID still rule the film makers world, yes. IMO I believe Apple wants to be the best it can be in every area so I predict a great overhaul.
Just cause IMovie was messed with has nothing to do with FCP, 2 different programs. A person can have two visions on how a product should be. There's the low end and high end.
Everyone summed up what I want from the new FCP (a new IWeb would be cool too, why not it's free). It would make no sense for Apple to have these amazing Mac Pros without really using it's power.
Yes FCP could fail, it would make no sense though. I personally think it will be a great update, thinking positive. Just use what it already has and upgrade everything we want and a nice UI.

 

[peppespizzapie]

Still old ****!

New coat, new looks, but STILL no blu ray support!! They NEVER learn at apple!! support for HD DVD which went bankrupt 6 years agoo!!
More of the same, it LOOKS nice, it costs a fortune, and VERY VERY old fasioned and old.

 

[Kevin Monahan]

Inability of handling red files are not the fault of FCP or Quicktime or OSX. You need a red rocket card to even play 4k footage in realtime. (a super-fast raid will also help)

Anyways, why would you want to edit with 4K? Every RED project I've ever worked has transcoded to ProRes422HQ for the offline edit.

The H.264 stuff...H.264 is a finishing codec. I'd love it if we could edit with it, but it's so compressed to start with.

edit - added *not* in the first sentence

Adobe Premiere Pro can edit native 4K right now with the Mercury Playback Engine (H.264 even more easily). No Red Rocket card is needed. You can even edit it on your laptop!

Why edit 4K? You can edit faster with no transcoding and you can easily send your edit to After Effects for conforming.

 

[ILMSTMF]

or even the whole Effects pane on an iPad.

What a thought. I'd buy an iPad for that purpose! Effects tab and dropdown menu are both workflow inhibitive (for me, anyway). This iPad idea...damn, that'd be great.