What we like about FCP
General
- Value for money.
- Final Cut Pro is a single piece of software to learn. No missing software features because you only chose the entry level product.
- From DV to HD, your system can grow with you. Add low cost third party hardware for uncompressed SD, HD and 2K input/output capabilities.
- Amazing user community - websites, tutorials, video tutorials, podcasts, help forums. FCP users are very willing to share their knowledge.
- Have multiple projects open at the same time.
- Resolution independent - import high resolution graphic files and use directly in the timeline.
- Integration with other applications in the package – Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Compressor.
- Search for clips across all bins, whether they’re currently open or closed.
- Totally customisable window layouts - put any window anywhere on screen and save that layout to disk
Editing
- Easily move clips in the timeline - no segment mode.
- “Select All Tracks Forward” tool makes it very quick to open up a gap in the middle of a sequence - no need to insert filler.
- Trim directly in the timeline.
- FCP makes it easier to keep clips in sync.
- Zoom and scroll timeline window without playback stopping.
- No need to disable sequence side track patching when making a new edit - only connected tracks will be overwritten or inserted on the timeline.
- Enable/disable individual clips on the timeline.
Effects
- Easily stack multiple filters on the same clip. Enable/disable and reorder them.
- Built-in support for composite modes on every clip - e.g. create a layer of smoke in Motion and easily composite it with screen mode over background clips.
- Paste Attributes and Remove Attributes for handling effects on clips.
- Dynamic RT for flexible previewing of sequences with complex effects. No need to choose the quality level, FCP does it automatically.
- Wide range of low cost third party plug-ins.
- XML import/export which opens up possibilities for third party extensions to FCP
- Work directly with media files in external apps - no conversion to/from OMFI required.
- Every clip has its own aspect ratio making it easier to mix 4:3 and 16:9 clips in the same sequence.
Audio
- Play up to 99 tracks of audio simultaneously without rendering.
- Output of up to 24 channels of audio.
- Import 44.1kHz audio files and have real time sample rate conversion in the timeline during output to tape.
Import/Export
- XML import/export opens up many possibilities for third party extensions to FCP.
- FCP handles both straight and premultiplied images and movies.
- Import Motion projects and render directly in the FCP timeline.
Comments
March 14th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
When I first purchased Final Cut Pro, I came to the realization that just the added functionality that LiveType gives added so much value. With it, one can generate all sorts of animated backgrounds. With Motion that ability is enhanced even further.
Some people have paid almost the same amount for animated background libraries that it now costs to purchase Final Cut Studio. For that price you not only have infinite customizable backgrounds but animated character generation (LiveType and Motion), sophisticated audio editing and mixing (Soundtrack Pro), DVD authoring (DVD Studio Pro), media encoding (Compressor), compositing (Final Cut Pro and Motion) and, oh yeah, video editing (Final Cut Pro).
It sure seems like a great deal to me.
March 15th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
The best thing about Final Cut Pro is that is runs on Mac.
Stable and solid, we can work long hours without having those error messages.
Not only it saves time but also it gives a good impression to the directors and costumers.
From 9h00 to 16h00 i work with FCP and from 16h30 until 0h00 on a Avid Adrenaline HD, OS Windows. I can tell that there is a biiiiiggg difference…
March 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I agree with all the above except maybe “Resolution independent - import high resolution graphic files and use directly in the timeline.” When ever I used that feature and did any basic 2D moves, it looked really bad so I ended up replicating this in After Effects.
One thing that Avid has is it’s responsiveness with really large projects. I have seen FCP slow to a crawl, really snail slow on semi long projects where as the Avid was still really responsive.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
And please don’t get me wrong, I really like FCP and wished that Avid was cheaper and could catch up with modern editing system like FCP. I favor Macs over PCs but in the end when I am editing it all comes down to stability and if you follow Avids specs, they can be rock solid. With FCP same thing, don’t rush on any updates to any Edit Systems, ever. Way for the guinea pigs to figure it out and only update when you really need it and only between projects.
Cheers,
JJ
March 15th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
JJ: I thought I was having the same problem with graphic files and putting them into FCP, but it turns out it’s not so. Thing is: you have to render them, and in order to render them you have to check the “Preview” row in the Render All menu.
It also may be one of the reasons why it’s so slow - with all those undrendered files in the timeline, it gets a little frantic preparing to play all that video. Still, I sympathize: I just cut a movie on a machine with only 1GB of RAM, and it was rather painful. I wish I could’ve upgraded it, but it wasn’t my machine.
I agree with you that the best thing about FCP is that it’s on Mac, though. Most places I work on Avid (Windows or Mac), they can’t update the OS software ever or it will break Avid. If you’re on Windows machines, this means they prefer that you never go on the internet. In fact, most places won’t even hook it up.
Which of course, is ridiculous. How am I supposed to download files from my graphics guys’ FTP site? How am I going to send my director rough cuts over AIM? This is 2007, the internet is crucial for this stuff.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:48 am
No JJ is correct, even when rendered, moving images in FCP will never be as smooth as After Effects. It’s not quite there yet for proper animated graphic onlines. Also when a project reaches 10 or 15 mins long it will often slow down even with a fairly simple timeline.
March 16th, 2007 at 10:28 am
I’ve cut numerous hour long docs and a 90 minute feature film on FCP and I’ve never experience a slow down timeline.
THAT IS A MISCONCEPTION!
It may take a while (meaning one whole minute to 90 seconds) to open up but timeline and trimming navigation is not slow down after the project is open.
The only sole exception I’ve seen one particular update made certain system’s timeline trimming slow down but that was a isolated situation.
CHL
March 16th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
CHL - please. “may take a while to open up”???
i don’t know you’re editing background or skills, but you’re the reason i have a hard time crossing over to FCP…you’re all fanboys, not editors.
March 17th, 2007 at 2:40 am
I know of only one way FCP being slow, is that when you have multiple sequences nested in one sequence and they all are opened in the timeline. When you change something, like an effect in de nested sequence, on the background it will change this as well in the original sequence. Then you really have to wait long! Is my many years of experience with FCP as a user and teacher, it has only been slow for that reason.
March 17th, 2007 at 7:39 am
JJ,
I’d like to know which Avids you work on. While it is true that a hardware-based editing system like the Avid Meridien products are rock solid, I find that the newer software products, like Adrenaline, have the same problems as FCP, another software product.
As far as incorporating large stills into the timeline is concerned, have you tried using Motion? I find that that can make a difference. If not Motion, what about Shake? You can add Shake to the mix for about 1/2 of what After Effects Pro costs.
March 19th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Kerry,
I also am not a fan of FCP’s scaling engine with hi-res stills, however, this appears to be mainly an issue with SD and not HD. In other words, I’ve been quite happy with cam-style moves on stills in HD projects. The problem isn’t one of the scaling engine’s math but rather the lack of sub-pixel filtering and anti-aliasing. The moves are simply too accurate and therefore don’t look good when tiny lines and textures “beat” against the pixels of most displays.
I have tried Motion, but when I compare Motion or FCP to Boris Red, Adobe After Effects or Canopus Imaginate (PC-only), Motion and FCP are not as good. Of course, IMHO, none of these methods is as nice as a real human camera operator doing moves on actual photographs.
Sincerely,
Oliver
March 20th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
# Final Cut Pro is a single piece of software to learn. No missing features because you only chose the entry level product.
# From DV to HD, your system can grow with you. Add low cost third party hardware for uncompressed SD, HD and 2K input/output capabilities.
Doesn’t the second statement contradict the first statement?
March 20th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
DSguy
Yep. I’ve updated it so now it reads “No missing software features…”
Thanks for pointing that out.
March 21st, 2007 at 3:35 am
If you don’t like what FCP does on still moves, try lyric’s “Pan Zoom Pro”. Does what it says on the tin, just as good as AE. Also, swith the motion filtering tab to “best”.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:16 am
A few more things to like:
A vibrant develop community with a wide assortment of low cost and even free utilities and plug-ins that are truly useful and not just glitzy.
Efficient Send To functions for LiveType, Motion and SoundTrack Pro.
Easy-to-move custom keyboard and window layouts that don’t affect (corrupt) the project itself.
Availability of control surfaces for hardware audio mixing control.
Ability to mix timelines and media of different project formats and frame rates. This is still a good thing in spite of the required rendering.
Availability of useful compressed SD and HD codecs in DVCPRO50 and DVCPROHD (DV100). Note, that I think this is still better in Avid, but if you compare to other NLEs that only do uncompressed or very highly compressed, this is a big plus.
Availability of a choice of 3rd party hardware for I/O (AJA, BMD, Matrox).
Sincerely,
Oliver
April 16th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
>>you’re all fanboys, not editors.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
‘not u’ said : you’re all fanboys, not editors.
“not u”, this is not a place to bash either FCP or AVID, or FCP users or Avid users. We’d appreciate it if users could please respect this rule.
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