Is FCPX still trash?

[hijodeibn]

2 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

This is true. It isn't trying to be premiere, vegas or avid. Its something else.
But believe me. It gets so good. Its like learning to drink Coffey. Nasty in the beginning but once your hooked...

And I can't stress enough how much I don't recommend trying weird stuff like empty blocks and such instead of learning to work with the magnetic timeline instead of against it. Now using an NLE without a magnetic timeline feels like the biggest step back ever.

Push through, I believe in you!

Mattias.....you are the best seller ever.....I will load FCPX later today and I will start learning it.....I really think it will make my life easier eventually....

[Mattias Burling]

Or use a compound clip.

1 minute ago, hijodeibn said:

Mattias.....you are the best seller ever.....I will load FCPX later today and I will start learning it.....I really think it will make my life easier eventually....

There definitely is light at the other end of the tunnel.

[homestar_kevin]

FCPX has been great to me/for me.

But I've been a fan for awhile now.

It's absolutely great for most things, just need some time to wrap your head around it.

[manueldomes]

I'm on a mid-2012 MBPr and FCPX edits my 400mpbs all-i 1080p GH5 footage like a breeze without transcoding. Wonder if it could do the same for 4k, but I'm SD-card limited

For the kinds of projects I do, everything is there, and very intuitively so once you've wrapped your head around it. Never looked back.

[hijodeibn]

2 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

Or use a compound clip.

There definitely is light at the other end of the tunnel.

I just got a training in FCPX, so I guess I will see the light early than later

[Jim Giberti]

While I agree that it can be less than intuiitve at times especially if you're coming from another NLE - like FCP, it is extremely fast and with the new CC enhancements and LUT support it's a pretty complete package.

Because we work in Resolve as well (although I personally eschew that for the ease of PreRes HQ and FCPX) I get a chance to compare the two from time to time as I did just yesterday with a mixed raw and ProRes footage project. That's when you can see the benefits of the MT as you move clips around the timeline...same with connected audio per clip.

Regarding Andrew's point on screwing with a music bed, I wrote a tute over at the Cow when we first migrated to X and there was a lot more to frustrate about. I developed a couple of simple work arounds, especially for people (like me) who don't have the time with project turnaround to deal with Roles as a way to manage things.

Here's a simple way to secure a music track for instance, so that it's immune to being dragged around as a connected clip (as everything outside the main timeline is.) Start your project by inserting a one frame place holder at the top and drop in your music track. It will always be anchored to the top of the project as you build you're edit in the timeline. And even though I'm a music producer and work in Logic in the same studio w/ a mixing console, I've gotten really comfortable grouping distinct, multiple audio clips into compound clips where they become like tracks in Logic and I can apply Logic comp EQ etc to each group separately.

Also Andrew, to ease the pain of the magentic approach, get friendly with "P". That will allow you to move things freely around the timeline like in other NLEs.

[Andrew Reid]

So is doing opacity keyframes the only way to do a fade from black and fade out to black, without resorting to the crappy way they implemented cross fade?

Or can I create the opacity keyframes once, save them as a preset and drag and drop my fade-in/fade-out to any clip in future? You know, that would be kinda a lot easier than having to do the keyframes every time. And I need the fade-in/out speed to be identical at both ends of the clip, with a black screen either side of 1-2 seconds.

This is basic stuff and FCPX isn't making it easier!

Some of my other concerns beginning to fade now though as I get used to the shortcut keys.

[Mattias Burling]

If your just want a quick fade to black you can also drag the little dot at the end of the clip.

[Axel]

15 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

No, scratch that - first thing I tried to do was a drag and drop of selected media from Finder to the media panel in FCPX. Won't work. Have to go through the shitty import panel!

Though you can do that (Deadcode wrote), it's not recommended. FCPX is not good with clips that are isolated from their card-structure bundle. Through the import dialog, FCP will copy selections from the card by wrapping them in a Quicktime container. That's the way it works. But keep in mind: 

1. because of the skimmer, you can browse the card very quickly, find your shots and import only selections - in case you think you need to save disk space.

2. you can alternatively just import everything and do the qualifying and organization later on (you did it in the Finder? - waste of time). Forces you to copy from the card. Into the Library or to an external folder. Links to clips without copies ("leave files in place", the Premiere way) is possible (by copying only the MTS files to disk or by drag&drop), but you shouldn't do that!

3. either way you can start editing while the clips are still being imported = in effect that's editing directly from card.

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Doesn't having a magnetic timeline knock your audio out of sync constantly?

Say you have a separate WAV file of a band in a recording studio and 4 different takes, spread across multiple clips.

Just adding a fade in and fade to black (Fade to colour transition) wants to trim the size of a clip, which is nuts.

The concept of the primary storyline. In this (e, w, d, ctrl+shift+y) you create the spine of your narration. If you have text (off comments or an interview), you put that to the primary and all illustrating clips are then connected (q). For a music video, you'd first select the music track and hit q. From there on, you connect everything to the black slug. Connected clips can move freely (no need to use p). The magnetic timeline is locked. To lock a connected clip in it's position relative to the music, just overwrite it to the primary storyline by hitting cmd+alt+down.

The following 10.3 show is staged of course. But it's done by a master. You think FCPX is inferior to Premiere? Watch it from beginning to end, particularly what he does in the timeline, and imagine what ordeal this had been in a track-based timeline:

 

[Jim Giberti]

The easiest way to do that is Control/V to open the animation window above the clip. Then you have handles to drag front and back of the clip. To use this on other clips in the timeline just Command C and then Command/Shift V to any clip you want to apply it to. There is another step where you have to choose just Compositing from your options to copy but it's all fast...a few seconds.

[TARS]

33 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

So is doing opacity keyframes the only way to do a fade from black and fade out to black, without resorting to the crappy way they implemented cross fade?

Or can I create the opacity keyframes once, save them as a preset and drag and drop my fade-in/fade-out to any clip in future? You know, that would be kinda a lot easier than having to do the keyframes every time. And I need the fade-in/out speed to be identical at both ends of the clip, with a black screen either side of 1-2 seconds.

This is basic stuff and FCPX isn't making it easier!

Some of my other concerns beginning to fade now though as I get used to the shortcut keys.

At the Dropbox link below I have created a "Fade In" and "Fade Out" title that you can use. Drop them over whatever you want to fade in or out and drag it as long as you want it to be. By default it is 2 seconds.

I also put a saturation rig on it, so in the title inspector you can keyframe saturation if you feel like bringing something up in black and white and then adding colour as part of the 'fade'.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7x8hrct0tvte9mb/Fades.zip?dl=0

To install them, just unzip it, then put the "Fades" folder in Users>yourname>Movies>Motion Templates>Titles

Then restart FCPX.

 

EDIT - Or do what Jim said.

[Trek of Joy]

Once you get use to doing things the FCPx way, every other NLE I've used - Premiere, Avid and Grass Valley - is just so slow in comparison. The above video Axel posted is one of a few I watched after the 10.3 update that convinced me to spend some time really learning FCPx after working with the others for years. Now I can't go back. Resolve just doesn't jive with me at all either. FCPx is my do-it-all solution. YMMV.

Chris

[Andrew Reid]

Look how many words we are writing about a simple fade in/out to black.

Apple fucked up.

Should be routine, simple, a matter of 2 seconds looking at the UI and 2 seconds applying one. ridiculous!

1 hour ago, Jim Giberti said:

The easiest way to do that is Control/V to open the animation window above the clip. Then you have handles to drag front and back of the clip. To use this on other clips in the timeline just Command C and then Command/Shift V to any clip you want to apply it to. There is another step where you have to choose just Compositing from your options to copy but it's all fast...a few seconds.

Thanks Jim

What I did was exactly that, then Save Effects Preset to create an effect called Fade-in-out

Now I can drag that instantly to whatever clip on the timeline needs it, without having to do the cmd-shift-v to paste attributes.

It scales the fade keyframes to the length of the clip... But not sure if this slows down the fade on a longer clip or not. Need to test.

[Jim Giberti]

Glad that's resolved and it makes sense to save the preset if that length of fade is something you're using a lot obviously.

If I'm creating any effects of value I'll do them in Motion where the real tool set is and then publish them to the FCP FX browser.

But you're geting in the groove now.

Plusses and minuses considered, from media mgmt to the delivery interface w/ Compressor I find we get projects together and out a lot faster with FCPX than anything else we've used over the years - specifically Avid and FCP 7.

[Axel]

5 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Look how many words we are writing about a simple fade in/out to black.

Apple fucked up.

Should be routine, simple, a matter of 2 seconds looking at the UI and 2 seconds applying one. ridiculous!

You can save the keyframed opacity as an effect preset for fade in, fade out or both at once. Double clicking will apply either of them. You can lift a clip from the primary and apply cmd+t to either left or right bracket or whole clip. 

You are married to Premiere, Andrew. Move on.

 

 

[Dustin]

My current laptop would probably love it if I used fcpx but I don’t really want to switch. I’ve seen all the tests though. On some stuff doesn’t the latest resolve actually beat out premiere?

[Andrew Reid]

So when saving a preset, "Maintain Timing" does the trick. A fast fade-in-out, at each end of a clip no matter the length of it.

Preset is working well.

Now, I would not have known how to do this if it wasn't for Ctrl-V on a clip. Why isn't there an option which is clearly visible?

Along the same lines, can I open a larger view of the keyframe animation editor elsewhere in the workspace - or can it only be viewed on the timeline? When the timeline is zoomed out, it's too small to place keyframes accurately, timings wise.

Another question for you!

When the In and Out points are set to a particular section of the whole timeline, and I just want to render out that section as a H.264 or ProRes Master File and not the whole timeline, why does the export (Share) function still insist on exporting the whole timeline?

[Axel]

Look, Andrew, this makes no sense. It‘s very hard to switch if you are used to another NLE. You are constantly looking „for the blue button“, as Mike Matzdorff put it. It‘s easier for a newbie actually. Either you learn FCP as if you knew nothing about editing or you will go on to compare and complain. Would be the same the other way around. 

[Oliver Daniel]

@Andrew Reid, I don't know how many times I've recommended for you to ditch Premiere and go FCPX. 

I've been using FCPX since the very first version, and because it was so different, I couldn't even put two clips together. But I persisted. 

To this day, I'd say FCPX has been the greatest creative decision I've ever made. Editing is more enjoyable, it's faster, it's seamless, it's a time saver. 

You have to regard that FCPX is not Premiere and does everything it can not to be like Premiere. It's a totally different machine. You don't try and drive a car like you would a motorcycle! 

When you learn to use it fluidly, your head starts shaking in utter shame of the people who trash it day in, day out. Their loss. 

To me, Premiere feels like a dinosaur with broken legs. It's still editing the "old way". FCPX was an ambition ahead of it's time, and now has matured into what I think is the best editing program today. 

Persist with it, learn it, and I'm certain you will love it. 

[Andrew Reid]

It grows on you, that's for sure

Just wish they would have kept SOME things familiar for existing FCP and Premiere users. It cost them a lot of customers!