Questions about FCE 3.5

[roland.g]

I am considering getting Final Cut Express HD 3.5 for my new iMac. I would like to move beyond what iMovie offers and to add the extra features that LiveType and Soundtrack bring to a project, but I would still be using this for home movies and personal projects, not on a professional level.

As an ex-Apple employee, a long-time Mac user, and a pretty good amateur photographer, I am quite computer literate and can use most any software that I lay my hands on. However, I also hear that learning FCE can be difficult and frustrating and was looking for any input as to how hard/easy it might be and what resources - books, classes, etc. - would be useful in learning it.

Lastly, it seems like 3.5 has been out for some time and Final Cut Studio had a somewhat major revision in the spring, is it likely that we will see a 4.0 sometime soon?

 

[zioxide]

It comes with a tutorial dvd which should give you a basic overview of the interface. Besides that, the easiest way to learn more is to just play around with it. 4.0 is coming eventually but it will only be 99 bucks to upgrade to it, so just get 3.5 and upgrade when you feel like it. Most likely if you're just using it for DV, 3.5 would be good enough for a while anyways. 4.0 will probably add AVCHD support and stuff.

 

[roland.g]

Actually I heard that the tutorial wasn't that good, but not sure how reliable that is.

 

[zioxide]

I have 3.5 and I've seen the tutorial. It gives you a good overview of the basics of the interface on how to capture and cut clips together. After watching it you should be able to dive right in. The easiest way to learn more advanced filters/motion keyframing/etc is just going to be to play with it.

 

[bmcgonag]

I have 3.5 and I've seen the tutorial. It gives you a good overview of the basics of the interface on how to capture and cut clips together. After watching it you should be able to dive right in. The easiest way to learn more advanced filters/motion keyframing/etc is just going to be to play with it.

I have to disagree here, I tried diving right in after getting the basics of importing, and cutting together clips. Not easy nor intuitive in my opinion.

I bought a tutorial called Final Cut 101, which covered FCP, but was just as useful for FCE. totally worth the 40 or 50 bucks.

I suggest it highly at www.macprovideo.com

Brian