FCP X 10.4 Announced – Let The Whining Begin!

Posted by fcpxpert1 on October 28, 2017
Posted in: Opinion. Tagged: . 9 Comments

As everyone knows, FCP X 10.4 has been announced. And Apple, uncharacteristically, has allowed people to talk about it. With pictures! In case you live under a rock, here are some links to the most comprehensive roundups from fcp.co and Provideo Coalition.

But this post isn’t about the new features, it’s about the reaction in some circles to these features. Not the usual “This isn’t what I personally wanted! Fail!!” whining that pops up every time FCP X is updated.  That’s as predictable as the sunrise, and is laughable at this point. No, the whining I’m reacting to is that Apple has “stolen” these ideas – and others –  from Current FCP X plugin developers.

I just want to go on record as calling bullshit on this. I will now provide examples. 🙂

“Apple stole the new color tools from (insert color correction plugin developer here)!!”

Bullshit. Color correction tools are A) not some new idea that these devs invented and B) Apple had their own Color Correction software years before any of these current plugins appeared. They bought the company that developed it, Silicon Color, in 2005 or so, meaning they already owned the tech.

Apple Color

“Apple stole the idea for the “Flow” morph transition from the mMorph transition!!”

Bullshit. Morph transitions are not a new idea. mMorph came out in reaction to Adobe’s Morph Cut transition, which was inspired by Avid’s Fluid Morph transition which came from the Elastic Reality software they bought… in 1996. The FCP X flow transition is just Apple’s version. Honestly, I wish it was more like Fluid Morph and didn’t need to freeze the A and B overlap. 🙂

Elastic Reality

“Apple stole 3D text from mObject!!”

Bullshit. 3D text is not a new idea. 3D environments are not a new idea. Cinema 4D has been around since 1990, and on the Mac since 1996. Motion has had a 3D environment forever, Apple just added the ability to create 3D text objects. Maybe they’ll eventually add in true 3D obj support.

It won’t be “stolen”.

Cinema 4D

Honestly, the idea that Apple “stole” 3D text from anyone is particularly ridiculous. Why? Here’s why:

“3D text app” web search (partial results)

Please.

In reality, if Apple want a technology/software that is truly unique, they just hire the developer or buy the company. The 360 video tools in FCP X 10.4 are from Tim Dashwood, and who knows what Wes Plate is cooking up.

Look, I’m not some “Apple can do no wrong” fan boy – the term “Sherlocked” exists for a reason – but regarding the stuff we’re seeing implemented in FCP X they’re not doing anything shady at all.

10.4 seems to have some very cool new features, and they’re not stolen from anyone. I’m really looking forward to it’s release. Hurry! 🙂

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Quick Tip – EZ Title Font Switch

Posted by fcpxpert1 on July 14, 2017
Posted in: FCP X, Tips. Tagged: . 5 Comments

Here’s the TL;DR version. Pasting text copied from any text app into an FCP X title will change the title font to that of the pasted text. Really cool. Text pasted into the Inspector won’t change the selected style.

EDIT: Works with text copied from a web browser too, So it’s a Mac OS thing, it works when you paste styled text into any text app.

I got this from Brian Elliot Tate, who noticed that if you copy and paste text from a font browser into an X title it will change the font. Here’s a link to the video he made showing this.

So… I poked around a bit and discovered that this works with text copied from anything. Text Edit, Pages, Word, even PDF’s. Any styled text. If you have the font, it’ll work. Try it!

Just For Fun – Quick 3D Logo Animation

Posted by fcpxpert1 on May 24, 2017
Posted in: Random Junk, Tips. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

In a recent thread on Creative Cow, we were discussing the difference between Pr CC’s new Essential Graphics Panel and FCP X Motion Templates. As is often the case, it somehow morphed into a discussion of 3D Object creation and animation an NLE. Or something… I dunno, it’s the Cow, it gets weird over there sometimes. 😉

Anyway… at some point I made a quick little animation to show what you could do in FCP X without leaving the NLE. It literally takes 10-15 min to whip up a decent looking animation, and I’m sure it would look better if you spent more time.

NOTE: The stock Basic 3D Title – which I used for this – has no X/Y/Z rotation keyframes.
For more animation fun, a while ago I made a version that is keyframe-able if you want it:
“Marginally Better Basic 3D“
forgive the lame video names and descriptions… I hadn’t planned to post these…

Someone then wondered how it was done, so I did it again, and made a little movie showing the entire process. I’m sure there are actual tutorials about doing this if you look around, but here’s the basic idea…

1-find a picture of the object/logo you want to use

2-make it into a font and install the font

3-animate it as 3D text.

Again, other than making the font, this was all done in FCP X without using any 3rd party tools or other programs. It’s very easy. Apple certainly doesn’t advertise FCP X as 3D modeling software, but it’s pretty cool what you can throw together without leaving the timeline. None of this required rendering either, which is a bonus.

Here’s the 15 min process condensed to ~1 minute.

Titles – Essential Graphics vs. Motion Templates

Posted by fcpxpert1 on May 21, 2017
Posted in: FCP X. Tagged: , . 3 Comments

The new Essential Graphics Panel in Premiere is a welcome addition, and is being compared to FCP X’s Motion Templates.

While I’m sure that – like FCP X – 3’rd parties will make some cool stuff, let’s take a quick look at the stock titles in Premiere vs the stock templates in FCP X.

Again, this is only the standard titles included in each app from the factory.

Timeline History – A Method To The Madness

Posted by fcpxpert1 on March 27, 2017
Posted in: Timeline Tips. 4 Comments

Finally! This is something that probably everybody knows, but it’s been driving me crazy for years. “It” is the fact that, if you have multiple Projects open in the Timeline, sometimes they just “randomly” disappear from the Timeline History.

Say I have Projects 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5 and 6 open. I work on each, open a new one, attempt to go forward to another and… half of them are now gone from the History. Why?!?! Well… here’s why, and it’s really simple.

When you open any Project, it becomes the last thing in your history. So, if you have Projects 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5 and 6 open, are working on Project 3, and then open a new project (Project 7), Projects 4, 5, and 6 are now gone and 7 is now the last Project in the History.

So, now that I know this… if I want to open a new project and keep my History intact, I just go to the last project in the History, and then open the new Project. Easy.

There’s a catch though….

When you  open a Compound Clip from a Project Timeline, the Compound Clip becomes the last thing in your history. So, If I want to open a CC from Project 3, and keep 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the History, I go to the Browser and double click Project 3 which then makes it the last thing opened and moves it to the end of the History. So I now have Projects 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3 and a CC as my history. Out of order, but all still in the History.

Anyhow… hope you find this helpful, I sure did.