FCPX 10.0.8 PRE-RELEASE DISCUSSION

cseeman wrote: At this point I'd guess that the release would be the Tuesday before NAB which is April 2. Maybe break with Tuesday and do it Friday April 5.

That's what they did last year. Released 10.0.4 on the Tuesday before NAB, then had their 1 on 1 update sessions on the Weekend before the show started.

But with the interval date so much longer this time [117 days if they release Apr 2], I'm having a hard time reconciling the proximity to NAB, and the long gestation time with a maintenance update.

I've heard about exciting announcements tangentially related to FCPX. But whether that means Apple with be there themselves is a crap shoot.

Apple's secret meeting is happening. It seems to be "select media."

Interesting...

canelson wrote: If this is going to be a small update with bug fixes and a few new features, I would like to see:

Secondary Storyline parameters in the Inspector.
Scale, X-Y position, opacity, crop and enable/disable options.

Attach a clip to a timecode
Instead of connecting clips to clips, let me connect them to the TC bar at the top, so they can stay locked at that position.

Individually drag-adjustable Timeline lane heights.

Drag an effect
From the Inspector to a clip or selected clips in the Timeline or Event Browser.

Great suggestions!
Have you mailed them to Apple?

**********
We cant be quite sure that Apple has secret agents roaming these forums, so be sure and send these suggestions to Apple as well.

Hey Sidderke...sorry for that...while reading the first part of the email..and not the last part..I immediately had the same reaction and hastily wrote my response in complete agreement with you!

:ohmy:

canelson wrote: If this is going to be a small update with bug fixes and a few new features, I would like to see:

Secondary Storyline parameters in the Inspector.
Scale, X-Y position, opacity, crop and enable/disable options.

Attach a clip to a timecode
Instead of connecting clips to clips, let me connect them to the TC bar at the top, so they can stay locked at that position.

Individually drag-adjustable Timeline lane heights.

Create auditions from clips/storylines stacked over each other in the timeline.
This would make auditions more useful.

Open sync and Lock gang sync modes.
Timeline playhead matches the corresponding Event Browser clip frame and syncs/locks the Timeline playhead to the matched Event Browser clip Playhead.

True ramp speed effects.
Continuous gradual keyframed ramp speed timing changes rather than the four segment method that FCPX uses now.

Drag an effect
From the Inspector to a clip or selected clips in the Timeline or Event Browser.

Apart from the first one, these are brilliant suggestions!

I didn't send them to Apple because those ideas have been on Richard Taylor's FCPx Top Requests for more than a year, I'm pretty sure Apple reads that list.

A few from this list were my ideas, others are obvious necessities.

@ canelson

you should still send feedback to apple. the more people report on one topic, the higher the chance it will be implemented or fixed...

Absolutely agree. There may or may not be folks within the Apple apparatus that read Richard Taylor's blog, but even if they do they have know way of knowing what the rest of users think or want if we don't engage directly.

Kind of like writing your representatives in government.

Ohh yeah. You must send it to Apple. I will and so should every one else, with whatever they want.

I'd like to think that the more Apple gets the more serious they take certain issues....

Ok, I got the point... I'm filling a feedback form.

Just to point out the obvious.

Attach a clip to a timecode
The tilde key does this function for now.

Create auditions from clips/storylines stacked over each other in the timeline.
Pretty easy to do now. Storylines can't be selected, though. Select a clip, , drag the range from the Browser to the destination clip, "Add To Audition".

Drag an effect
From the Inspector to a clip or selected clips in the Timeline or Event Browser.[/quote]
Right-click a clip in the Browser, select Open In Timeline, add effects.

Hi BenB,

What the tilde key does is not the same as what I meant. I do a lot of TV Commercial all of them are always 30 seconds, last 2 seconds with the company logo. I want to attach that logo at 00:00:28:00 and edit everything else as I want using all the possibilities the magnetic timeline gives to editors and forget about that logo because from the first cut to the last, it will be always in that position and I know it won't move.
If the logo is attached to a clip, when I move the clip to another place, the logo moves with it, if the logo is on the primary storyline and I move something to another place, the logo changes position. If I have to create an empty primary storyline just to lock an image to a TC, that would be a loss of space in my screen for an empty track (sorry for using that word )

About create auditions from stacked clips... this option will be much faster than going back to the browser and carefully select material. As auditions work now, they change length for every clip, if I need alternatives for an specific length, I could stack alternatives, trim, move, check them in realtime and when I'm fine with them, select all the alternatives and create an audition, to have those alternatives whenever the client ask for them without changing my project length.

From the Drag Effects, I'm talking more about how Avid Mediacomposer effects work. You scale a clip and you can drag that "scale configuration" to any other clip or save it as a template in the timeline. Copy/Paste Attributes could work but those are many many more clicks and they can't be saved in the event browser.

The main reason for all these changes is to do as less clicks as possible to get to the same result.

PS: I hope I explained myself right, english is not my first language so some thoughts could not be very clear or easy to read for a native english speaker.

Throw the logo on last as a workaround.

No "Carefully select material". The range is already there. Right-click, drag the range to the audition, delete the original. Fast, easy, simple, very few clicks. But I guess dragging a clip directly onto another clip would be interesting. My point is, the workaround is super easy and fast.

Command-C, Shift-Command-V, not a lot of clicks for a workaround. I'm just saying.

Sorry, I didn't get what you say about the logo. But why do we need a workaround if we can have a super easy solution. Now we select a clip and press CMD+OPT to move the connection point to another place of the connected clip. Instead of clicking on the clip to move the connection point, click on the TC bar at the top and that clips is connected (and locked) to that position.

I'll take a look about what you say about the auditions. But I think that when your client is sitting next to you asking to see different shots to replace an specific cut, test them and see how they cut, is always easier to stack them and enable/disable each shot to see how they go (as I do in FCP7).
When Apple showed Auditions in FCPx 10.0.0 the first thing I thought was about this and how it will help my workflow, but every time I tried to use it, it was cumbersome. Stack, get the right cut for each shot and create an audition from the stack to sow the client will push this feature to be more useful and used.

canelson wrote: ...is always easier to stack them and enable/disable each shot to see how they go (as I do in FCP7).

I find it is super fast, super easy, way beyond having to enable/disable a bunch of stacked clips. Learn the keyboard shortcuts, and learn the preview playback functions. I would never want to go back to stacking clips and having to turn each on and off.

As for changing length, they can if you want them to. They won't if you don't want them to. Using them in a Connected Clip I find is really handy, also.

But that's just me.

I also have this on my wish list. Sort of long, so I'll just point to it here.

Basically, it is a way to use the existing tools and metadata models inside the FCP X Browser, to speed up narrative editing, in the Timeline itself. It could also lead to a way of tracking what clips have been used in a Timeline. I call it the "Auto Trim" function.

I really think that because it's been so long Apple has a big surprise for us.

Call me an optimist.

I think it will be something like this…



It ties those rumours of the "AppleTV" and the new MacPro together nicely.
Plus it explains why initial reports of Apple refusing to entertain a dual monitor configuration for FCP X.

How would you feel about editing like this? I know I would love it! In a way it's almost a return to a more tactile edit bay. One where the editor really has their "hands on" the material.

Yeah, that would be nice, but it may be beyond the reach of many in the short term.

Hmmm..... a six foot (2M) touch sensitive desk..... now, where do I put me tea?