Macworld Forums: Final Cut Pro 7 - Macworld Forums

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I would love it if they improved their media management tool. Avid's not perfect in this realm either, but they are a whole lot better.

More of a feature round up than a review

Uncredibly, as it seems, the FCP awful titler hasn't been touch a bit, it being a real nightmare in FCP since day 1 and had never been touched since then. The very single part of FCP wich was badly needing a serious update remains just like it was when it came to life.
Première is doing it far better for years! And now, LiveType is gone too! So even simple decent titling is through Motion only, or a third party plugin. At least Apple used to bundle Boris Calligraphy with FCP 5, which was already no longer working in FCP 6, btw. Why do we have to go to another app, for such a simple job, providing we want something a little bit decently looking?
I really don't understand Apple logic here...
And what about DVD Studio Pro, not even Blu-Ray capable, with still no news of any Blu-Ray hardware in Apple products? Is this a joke or what?
My opinion is that Apple is turning its back to its Pro applications. It just does want to tell us like that, instead keeping the products alive with minimal maintenance, like support for new codecs, to maintain our illusions about its commitment. That's sad...

Paul, if you can't take the time to head over to Motion to create some titles, then use iMovie. If you're really still using crap like Boris Calligraphy, then you're a hack and you have no business commenting on a pro level app. I'm sure you think you're some editing wizard, but if you can't use pro level apps to master your craft, then go troll someplace else. As for Blu-Ray, the delivery of that medium is slowly dying. Every heard of online distribution? I upload so many files now via FTP that I dust my Blu-Ray burner off every once in a while because I feel like a fool for paying so much for a paper weight. Clients are quite happy with that process, and it saves a ton of time: upload to the TV station's server and you're on the air in no time.

I agree completely with your comment about text options PetitPaul.
While Motion templates can work for simple situations, I rarely find that I can use them. The text animation capabilities of Motion need to be built into FCP directly. This would be a huge timesaver, and would also mean less files to have to work with.
I am however extremely excited about the ease in, ease out time remap option. The current time remap tool is clunky and nearly everyone I know finds it difficult to get the desired results. While I can eventually get what I want, it takes me more time that I would like, and if I have to make an adjustment later, it takes nearly as long again.
I hope on the list of "improved markers" is the ability to move markers with your edits. This is seriously a pain at the moment. If you think you are done with a project and have your markers laid out and then find you have to make even a slight adjustment to a clip early in the timeline. You then get to spend a ton of time readjusting every marker in the timeline. Not fun.

As an academic user, I'm disappointed that not only can you not upgrade the academic version, it costs $899 which is only $100 less than the regular verison. This is a bad deal... you lose the ability to upgrade and pay almost as much.
I can't afford the new Final Cut Studio, so I guess I'll use Adobe CS4 Production Suite instead.
Does anyone know if Apple will be releasing a new version of Final Cut Express?

"if you can't take the time to head over to Motion to create some titles, then use iMovie"
This comment is ridiculous. All "pro app" upgrades I know of (Photoshop, FCP, Maya, and many others) focus on time saving features. Calling him a "hack" for wanting to save time is absurd, especially since in this industry time = money more often than not.

Mike: do you know if the Apps have been re-written for Cocoa? Rather, will they be 64bit / openCL compliant when Snow Leopard is released?
Seems odd that they're hyping Snow Leopard, 64bit, and OpenCL so much but there's no mention of any of these in the FCS pages.

pherplexed said:

This seems to be the question that everyone is asking. But I think it was answered by this statement:

"While Apple states that there will be performance benefits from running Snow Leopard with Final Cut Pro 7, no new features are enabled by running it."

So, it seems like there will be NO support for 64-bit and OpenCL once Snow Leopard ships. My guess is that it will come in the NEXT major upgrade in a year or so.

He never said anything about saving time. He said he wanted to make something that looked nice and didn't want to have to leave Final Cut to do it. Well, I don't want to leave Final Cut to edit a PSD either. But you know, I also want my work to be professional. So, I start up Motion, make my text, animate it even, then go back to Final Cut. After a 5 second render, I'm done. So yeah, my comment was flip. But it was still relevant.

These are pro apps. Pro work takes time. Time is money and so is professional work. If you can't take 3 minutes to make some professional titles, then use iMovie. It will do an adequate job.

Besides, complaining about something that hasn't been updated in what, 10 years, seems stupid.

How's the workflow going between Final Cut Pro 6 and 7?
My post facility has a pimped-out (one-time performance champ) G5, which though it struggles with Motion and can't run Color, still does great work in Final Cut, Soundtrack, Compressor (with smaller jobs), and DVD Studio Pro. But as of this update, this system will no longer be able to run the newest software. I'd hate to relegate it to web server duty.
I know FCP 6 had an XML format designed for taking a project between separate FCP versions. Is that still there, and how well does it work with FCP 7? If we avoid the new codecs, is there any way to keep using the G5 as a cutting station while doing the color and effects work on the Mac Pro?
Thanks!

PetitPaul said:

I've been using Boris Calligraphy's Title3D plugin (from the Final Cut Studio bundle) with Final Cut Pro 6 for a while now, and it works as well as it always has on both PowerPC and Intel, and both Tiger and Leopard. I do almost all of my simple title work with it. Though I absolutely agree that a good native titler would be a far better solution. Come on, Apple!

I've almost never used LiveType. Most of its stock effects look more like what I'd expect in iMovie, and it seems pretty limited when it comes to custom titling effects (though I might be missing some pro animation features in there). Motion is a much better program for titling, and its support for templates (edit the text right in Final Cut Pro) really leapfrogs it past LiveType. So I for one won't be missing it.

ncj37 said:

I read that statement oppositely. 64 bit and OpenCL provide better performance, not user-visible features. So "performance benefits" + "no new features" means they likely are useing OpenCL and/or Grand Central in Final Cut.