FCPX The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Scott Crawley]

You can perform the same exact edit in Premiere without the timeline being "magnetic". A magnetic timeline is nothing more than a timeline that is always in ripple edit mode.

I find there is more to it than that. For instance, when you ripple edit on the magnetic timeline stuff stays together, and there are no clip collisions holding you back.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

The bad for me, other than not having the ability to export legacy project types like regular/limited xml that slow-on-the-uptake pundits sometimes need (without 3rd party plugins), is the inability to choose the playback resolution -- 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and full... Especially now with 6k and 8k?! I'm sorry Apple, but even the top-o-the-line trashcan is gonna run into difficulty at 5:1... mix in slow-mo and/or hdrx and its game-over man

Also think traditional colour wheels would've been better... there's nothing advantageous about current thing; just seems like they were trying to be different for different's sake.

Definitely think the "background" tasks that aren't really background (as you can't edit while they're going) is useless, and I completely hate that the project file just continually gets larger and larger as you re-render the simplest of tweaks... It's just asinine... And it also makes it less than ideal for sharing projects back and forth (whereas before, you just share a 2meg project file, relink the media, and you get everything, easy-peasy.)

EDIT: As for Just Let Go; Desmond might be a constant, but NLEs certainly aren't.... Am I right, or what?!

I agree, more playback resolutions would be welcomed.

It's very easy to integrate 3rd party color tools (some are free I think). Color Finale seems promising but I get that it's extra money. But seems like getting traditional 3-way isn't too expensive.

Which background tasks are you referring to. I seem to have very few issues playing back while things are rendering in background, but maybe I haven't come across the same scenarios.

On the project file getting bigger. I keep my cache files separate which makes backing up the library easy.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I find there is more to it than that. For instance, when you ripple edit on the magnetic timeline stuff stays together, and there are no clip collisions holding you back.

Yes, a bit more to it than ripple mode. Not saying it's perfect though. Certainly some things I'll address in The Bad. But the magnetic I see referring to the connected clips and secondary storyline magnetically attaching themselves to the primary storyline. Yes, the storyline does default to ripple which can of course be turned off.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Another one of those that was completely infuriated when X was introduced. It was an incomplete software with many bugs and the whole interface was targeted to bloggers, with workarounds needed to export even simple master prores files. It was a "one stop solution" concept, almost closed on itself, which worked in non collaborative-round trip environments.

Fast forward to the current 10.2.1, and its simply my editor of choice. Currently working on 2 international broadcast commercials on it.

FCPX 10.2.1 plays nice with other software like Davinci, has an excellent editing "philosophy" that once you get the hang of it and understand the language change, becomes second nature and incredibly fast. Its rock solid, and 3rd parties are coming up with excellent software and plugins that make this 300 editor a workhorse that arguably can "smoke" - sorry for the pun- other more expensive competition.

I particularly like the color correction tool in 10.2.1. Its no Da Vinci, sure, but the inclusion of masks and the variety of customisation (while maintaining speed!) with native RED Epic Dragon and MX footage (in a 2012 Retina MacBook Pro) is just incredible. I have a Rocket X and save for those very quick turn around jobs (or with lots of footage layers) I don't miss it much.

I have to say I'm still not much satisfied with the audio workflow and roundtriping with audio software. Unfortunately the industry standard is still Protools over here and round tripping, even with X2pro, is a bit hit and miss for me. Still, if you go to a studio with Logic X available, its a breeze.

Bottom line:

The Good:

fast
rock solid (the main reason I switched back from CS6),
you actually OWN it
Very good on editor color correction
Plays very nicely with Da Vinci
Plays very well with R3Ds
Intuitive and innovative UI (has a bit of a learning curve, but in my view, well worth it)
If you have a not so fast machine, by going prores 444, you have a very capable on the go workflow with practically lossless quality
300 USD, 800 with Compressor and Motion.
Great 3rd party plugin integration and environment. Lots of very good software on the market at very affordable prices.

The Bad

Its Audio outputs are still not very reliable.
When it crashes, or when the unlikely situation something gets corrupted, you panic because you don't know where your autosave files are. They exist by the way. But since the software autosaves everything, you think you have a corrupted project and its all over. There should be a more painless way to recover projects.

Also, sometimes your files get corrupted, and in that situation the software doesn't allow you to export (but plays fine!). You have to find out individual what file is creating you problems. In a project with a vast amount of files, it becomes like looking for a needle in a haystack. Note that this happened to me, but its very, very rare.


Overall, Highly, highly recommended.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I think you meant to say $400 with Compressor and Motion. You can throw in Color Finale for another $100.

 

[David Battistella]

One feature I would like to see implemented is the COMPARE TIMELINE feature that avid has. Sometimes when you are versioning or for various other reasons it is really handy to be able to see TWO timelines at once. To make this even better it would be nice to be able to gang the two timelines and scroll simultaneously. This would be extremely useful for those times when things "accidentally" get moved one frame out of sync or something or you need to do shot replacement or shot comparison between timelines.

That is one feature that I would really love to see implemented.

 

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

A magnetic timeline is nothing more than a timeline that is always in ripple edit mode.

Not completely true. A big part of what makes the magnetic timeline what it is, is that you can have no clip collissions anymore. The vertical assignment of clips adjusts itself automatically to have no clip collissions. This is not what you had in a normal ripple timeline mode.
There is the Roles metadata/Timeline Index that helps with organising audio.
And then there's also the relationship between clips in primary and secondary storylines, that have to do with connection points and a parenting model instead of absolute time.

is the inability to choose the playback resolution -- 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and full... Especially now with 6k and 8k?! I'm sorry Apple, but even the top-o-the-line trashcan is gonna run into difficulty at 5:1... mix in slow-mo and/or hdrx and its game-over man

Also think traditional colour wheels would've been better... there's nothing advantageous about current thing; just seems like they were trying to be different for different's sake.

Definitely think the "background" tasks that aren't really background (as you can't edit while they're going) is useless, and I completely hate that the project file just continually gets larger and larger as you re-render the simplest of tweaks... It's just asinine... And it also makes it less than ideal for sharing projects back and forth (whereas before, you just share a 2meg project file, relink the media, and you get everything, easy-peasy.)

You have a best performance and best quality setting. For me personally, that's enough. You often just want to see things OR full Quality, or you want to have as much of a full framerate as the computer can handle. Let the program figure out which quality that needs to be.
Your mileage may vary of course.

I wanted color wheels to, when it was released, but now I kind of like the color board more then color wheels. If you want Color wheels? Take a look at Color Finale.

I agree about the background tasks that aren't really background. You can edit, but they pause the render. I don't know it it's also the same case on a trashcan, but on a laptop it is. I would hope that they do it that the computer uses one core or something to slowly render in the background.

About the project file becoming bigger: since 10.1.2, released more then a year ago, you can easily set cache and render files on another location. And relinking with small project files: I have done so already many times, so there is nothing impossible about it.

 

[Mark Toia]

I use all 4 edit platforms and not at a amature level.
fCPX is the top of my list at the moment.
Purley for speed reasons.

 

[Scot Yount]

The bad for me, other than not having the ability to export legacy project types like regular/limited xml that slow-on-the-uptake pundits sometimes need (without 3rd party plugins), is the inability to choose the playback resolution -- 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and full... Especially now with 6k and 8k?! I'm sorry Apple, but even the top-o-the-line trashcan is gonna run into difficulty at 5:1... mix in slow-mo and/or hdrx and its game-over man

I don't know where you get this idea about the trashcan. Mine works just fine without any slowdowns. I edit everything I do from the .r3d files (admittedly MX, not Dragon) with no transcoding and no problems on Yosemite with no RED Rocket Card. In addition, I have been beta testing El Capitan for the past several months on an SSD equipped early 2011 Macbook Pro and will soon move my trashcan over, because I have found almost no problems. That will speed things up even further.

Also think traditional colour wheels would've been better... there's nothing advantageous about current thing; just seems like they were trying to be different for different's sake.

I don't know if you know, but the HSL qualifier in Resolve works with the same linear color board.

Definitely think the "background" tasks that aren't really background (as you can't edit while they're going) is useless, and I completely hate that the project file just continually gets larger and larger as you re-render the simplest of tweaks... It's just asinine...

Not sure why this is a problem. I just turn background rendering off. Maybe it is my machine but I don't have any problems playing or cutting material that is un-rendered. The only place I have problems there is in big Cinema 4D projects, but pretty much no mortal machine can run that kind of project in real time.

 

[Scot Yount]

I use all 4 edit platforms and not at a amature level.
fCPX is the top of my list at the moment.
Purley for speed reasons.

+ 1.

 

[Oliver Peters]

It's very easy to integrate 3rd party color tools (some are free I think). Color Finale seems promising but I get that it's extra money. But seems like getting traditional 3-way isn't too expensive.

For third party color correctors Color Finale and Hawaiki Color get my vote. But it's also not to hard to build your own color tools simply using existing filters from Motion and turning them into FCP X effects as Motion templates. For example:
https://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/building-fcp-x-effects-update/

- Oliver

 

[Oliver Peters]

Regarding Steve's "good" comment about export speeds, I've run some direct tests, which echo that. FCPX vs. Premiere Pro CC and Motion vs. After Effects AE. In both comparisons, FCPX and Motion were significantly faster. The tests were run on similar Mac Pro towers.

- Oliver

 

[Scot Yount]

You can throw in Color Finale for another $100.

I bought Color Finale when it first came out, and overall I like it, but it is lacking in some pretty important features...simple things, you know...like....UNDO!! FCPX saves everything you do, keystroke by keystroke (or click) but for whatever reason, Color Finale isn't part of that equation. I get that I can clear out a curve if I don't like what I have done, but that's not usually what I want, I want to undo the last action, not all of them.

It is a great way to add LUTs to REDLogFilm.

 

[Michael Tiemann]

I bought Color Finale when it first came out, and overall I like it, but it is lacking in some pretty important features...simple things, you know...like....UNDO!! FCPX saves everything you do, keystroke by keystroke (or click) but for whatever reason, Color Finale isn't part of that equation. I get that I can clear out a curve if I don't like what I have done, but that's not usually what I want, I want to undo the last action, not all of them.

I'd vote that as being part of The Ugly!

 

[Kalechi Noel]

After having taught FCPX to graduate college students and industry professionals alike .... I can say that EVErYONe of them have made the switch and not looked back. That speaks volumes! Once one grasp the concept and editing paradigm shift ... It's by far the easiest , fastest and arguably best NLE out there. I do own premiere CC, and do jobs when I HAVE to, but it feels so old , archaic and basic. tasks require 2 or 3 steps just to get done . Fcpx flies ! One can't simply watch some videos but rather , DO A PROJeCt ... Learning as you go ! I promise you will be a concert also .

 

[Oliver Peters]

I'd vote that as being part of The Ugly!

Well, not really. CF really runs a bit like a separate application in the background and constitutes a bit of a workaround to get away from the UI limitations of FCPX. All of the third parties that need a custom plug-in UI have all come up with their own workarounds - HUDs, overlays, floating panels, etc. I guess the "ugly" for FCPX wouldn't be the CF undo, but rather the UI design criteria for plug-ins within FCPX.

EDIT: FWIW - Hawaiki Color (which also uses a custom plug-in interface) does permit undos. And, as an aside, I believe when Apple Color was first released, it only allowed a single undo.

- Oliver

 

[Scot Yount]

*sigh* I shouldn't start writing here...but....
My Take on FCPX


Call me kooky, but I jumped in head first when FCPX first came out, version 10.0.0
Today i am very glad I did that. I had some frustrations at first, but what got overshadowed by a bungled rollout was what I thought then, and still think are mind blowing changes. I was initially bummed when I couldn’t just import my old FCP 7 work and upgrade, but once you find out how much of a rethink FCPX is, you realize there was no real fool proof way to do it. Elements from legacy FCP simply didn’t exist in the new software. Intelligent Assistance did (and still do) a good job of translation, but it is far from perfect.


If you think about it, the only reason we have a timeline in an NLE is because when it was invented, it had to bear some similarities to the way we had been thinking about editing before, to gain acceptance. Film and then tape. Sprocket holes and control track. It was a linear process, and for most people, mentally, it still is. But why? Why can’t the timeline be vertical? Or 3D? It could be anything really. I think Apple wanted to rewrite the way things were being done, not to piss people off or just to be different, but to allow for under the hood changes that make everything work and flow better.
Tracks for instance. Why have them? (I know that in order to play well with other pieces of software tracks were very important to some people, but roles have solved that in many instances.) Everyone here knows the Will Smith film Focus was cut on FCPX.
People often say that what drives a great film is story. It is no coincidence that Apple named the narrative line in their new software a storyline. I love the way storylines work. I think of them as a strand in the middle of a rope. The fibers of the rope are the bits that get wound onto the storyline, like audio, b-roll graphics and the like, but at the center, is the string that holds it all together, and I get to decide what that string is. It could be music, narration or an interview. Anything really. In short, no need for traditional "tracks".


I use Avid, Premier, Edious and Aurora Edit, but these days only when I have to. I have yet to find something I couldn’t do in FCPX. It needs improvement in lots of areas…(audio of course, and WHY can’t we have a scrolling timeline? Why oh Why?) but I really think the way it works (databases under the hood) is the way of the future. Just look at Resolve’s latest version. It sure smells like FCPX--especially the multi-cam. I would bet the only reason that they stuck with tracks is because the XML data from other NLEs require it.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I agree that keeping a linear model as the core of an NLE is old school thinking. That said, time is linear and being able to overview a project laid out in tracks makes it easier for me to stay oriented. With more experience I might feel differently, but on my first few forays into X with the magnetic timeline I would often cut a segment and during playback discovered clips were not where I expected them to be. Doubling down on that frustration, "fixing" the sequence would create new changes for inexplicable reasons.

In short: I'm open to the "new" way to edit, but I feel like I need a hypnotist or something to re-wire my editor brain.

Cheers - #19

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Okay, here's a homework assignment for anyone that has FCPX and a screen capture program. Record yourself using the magnetic timeline. It would be fun to see how each of us approach it and perhaps learn some tricks from eachother. I can't do this until next week but if anyone wants to take a shot at it, feel free to post. One thing that's kind of an interesting learning technique is to make several clips that have their frame numbers on the screen. Just use text tool to create them. So Clip 1 would look like this for each frame 1.1, 1.2,1.3,1.4,etc. That helps I think visually see what's going on when you trim and move things around.

Any takers?

 

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

In short: I'm open to the "new" way to edit, but I feel like I need a hypnotist or something to re-wire my editor brain.

Hi Blair,

I can only say this, which is just a quote from myself earlier in the thread:

The magnetic timeline is one that is the most difficult to get used to, because it's the one that counts the most of muscle memory. And muscle memory is something that can only change by doing it 'the other way' until your brain clicks with it. There are reasons for using the position tool and connected clips, but I've noticed that I just made my life more difficult doing that. My brain just needed to adjust, and once I started thinking in terms of primary storyline, connected clips, secondary storyline, it started to slowly click. Now it's just the way I think when I'm working in a timeline. I used to have to kind of GUESS how the magnetic timeline would work (and would get frustrated if it didn't do what I think it would do) but now I know how it works, my brain and my muscle memory too, and most of the time, I'm faster and more efficient with it.

Your quote about "not understanding completely what the magnetic timeline does, and it doesn't do what you think it will do and getting frustrated" is pretty much what I talked about above. It's very recognisable. You don't need a hypnotist. You just need time, patience but above all experience with the program. Rewiring of the brain works like that