FCPX Worst production!!

Ok, Through much pain editing my second video on FCPX I had to end the pain. 1 week left on the 30 day trial and still not sure if I should purchase it. (keep in mind i am just learning how to edit). It took me two weeks just get this much done! I don't know how you guys do it!! Your videos make it look easy. Uhg!

I'm assuming you are one the actors (age wise). You seem to have fun with it, so go for it. Are you looking into editing generally, or into FCP specifically?

Our movies might look great, because we read a lot of books, went through tutorials. Some even had "real" training. Mot important thing, though, is practice and building experience.
Showing your work of to others for critique helps a lot (not on YouTube!)

Keep on shooting and editing.

Thanks cgbier. I am looking into editing. Still have a lot to learn. I really stumbled on FCP just by seeing the free trail download and then just gave it a shot. Not knowing anything about editing I wasn't sure what to look for and what I need. I messed around with two videos and quickly learned about keye framing after effects. The amount of time it took me made me realize some type of auto tracking is something I could benefit from.

I was leaning more towards FCPX and Motion 5 but I really don't know what is out there to choose from. Also having limited knowledge I could easily pick the wrong one.

I still have a lot of unanswered questions about the programs capabilities and how to perform some task. So I don't even know if what I have or what I might get is going to work. Not looking for answers on this specifically but just add some detail what I am talking about:

- Taking an after effect like fire and having an object in the clip pass in front of it. Example would be like the fire video's when they attach it to a hand and the hand moves around and ends up behind them.
- Motion tracking

- Are all these programs functioning in one program, like Motion and FCP.

- why so many are used for editing? I read things like taking iMovie to FCP then to motion. I have no idea why they do that and what i am missing.

- What steps to follow when editing, like load clips in story line, change overall color/saturation/..., add special effects, change speeds FF/SLM. ( The video I posted today on youtube took me two weeks and more hours then I can think of because I had to continually re-due key framing, appearance didn't match,.. blah blah blah) I change one thing in the middle of the clip like make a cool slow mo and the rest of the video didn't match with other overlays.

Well thanks for all the help. Hopefully I can decide on what I need in the next two weeks and will be covered to do most of the basic editing I need.

If you plan on doing stuff like in your movie, you'll be absolutely fine with FCP X and Motion. It is about the cheapest way to get into editing right now.

There's no need for going from iMovie to FCP you can start your projects directly in FCP. It only would make sense if you had started iMovie projects prior to purchasing X.

I recommend you watch the video tutorials you find from more serious sites than YouTube.
Izzyvideo has a free 10 part beginners tutorial on his site (it was for the first version, but still useful to watch)

MacBreak Studio also has a lot useful info on how to work with FCP and Motion. If you go back to episodes from a couple of years ago, they even give you some crash courses on editing techniques.

Then there is a whole bunch of paid tutorials around from Rippletraining (the same guys who also make MacBreak Studio) and others.

also, don't start adding vfx while your edit isn't done. you'll just waste time because you may change a scene later and then you have to re-do the fx all over.

check out this tutorial form corridor-digital. they give a good rundown what to do after you've finished shooting. for beginners like yourself it has good information so you wont rip out your hair because you want to do all things at once.

Reminds me of the old "AlumDV" days. Man, that was an app I wish got picked up by one of the big A's.

Get formal training, read, join a local users group, read, practice, practice, watch and steal from pros.