10.08 released!!

BenB wrote: All you need to know is Control-Option with the up and down arrow keys, that's it. The numeric stuff is too bulky.

Yep, that's gonna be a timesaver. I'm constantly changing the clip appearance to the solid bar to avoid the slow re-draws.

Dave

First post:
So my FCPX trial ended yesterday. I know I'm going to buy FCPX for sure, but I was waiting for NAB next to see if Apple announced FCPX 10.1 and its release date/upgrade plan. I'm worried I may get stuck with 10.0.8 with no way to upgrade to 10.1 without having to pay full price again in a few weeks or few months.

Now comes this 48-hour Magic Bullet Looks 50% sale. I don't know what to do. I'm just a hobbyist though, I don't know if I should spend $200 on this plugin. (Plus the $300 for FCPX one week before NAB). But then, I've always heard MBL is the gold standard for giving videos a "hollywood" look. Also, I plan on doing my shooting on 2 iPhone 5's and a GoPro(mounted to a quadcopter) so I don't know this plugin is worth it given my shooting gear.

Looking for your advice.

If they were to release 10.1 next week, they hadn't brought .0.8 this week.

If you are always afraid to buy something, because it might be obsolete next week, you never could buy anything.

Can't tell you about ML. I use Resolve.

I would be shocked if Apple were to release FCP X 10.1 anytime this year. Buy with confidence.

I've never understood people paying soooo much money for a basically a bunch of colour correction presets.
But then if you're going to be shooting on Go Pros and iPhones then I suspect that you have no interest in learning how to colour correct or grade.

So yes I think for you it's definitely for you and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense.

edited

Seanus wrote: I would be shocked if Apple were to release FCP X 10.1 anytime this year. Buy with confidence.

I've never understood people paying soooo much money for a basically a bunch of colour correction presets.
But then if you're going to be shooting on Go Pros and iPhones then I suspect that you have no interest in learning how to colour correct or grade.

So yes I think for you it's definitely for you and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense.

No offense taken, like I said I am a hobbyist. I would love to have more time to devote videomaking. But since you are bringing this up I did purchase a good book on color correction about 3 years ago. I started the excersises but never finished it. It was a facinating subject to be sure. At this point, would still need to get through the FCPX book before getting back into the color correction one. Having a full time job and a family doesn't help my prospects; but you're reply has intrigued me...

Can I get the same results of MBL using the color grading tools the FCPX comes equipped with (provided I put in the effort of learning to grade)? Also if that's the case, is there somewhere I can download FCPX grading presets?

I've also considered purchasing video stabilizing plugins for shots in the quadcopter. I've tried the FCPX stabilizer and found it does not work that well. Same question, can I get the same results if I only found a magic "sweet spot" in FCPX's stabizer handles? Thanks for taking the time to reply.

edit: Forgot to mention I'm using the high end retina Macbook Pro from summer 2012. These ar the specs:

2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
512GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory

So far it works beautifly but I haven't made any large projects or used too many effects. I did test some 2.7 K footage from the GoPro and it handles it like a champ. I mention this because I don't know if Magic Bullet Looks will choke my mac.

sirdavidabraham wrote: FCPX is an awesome product but Apple is unpredictable...If I were in your shoes I'd wait until after NAB.

I'm also expecting that Apple will invest heavily in it's own plugins over time the same way Logic Pro has ton of excellent plugins. preset "Looks" may not be the best 3rd party investment in my opinion.

Good to see someone who shares my concern. And thanks for the insight that Apple is investing a lot into Logic Pro plugins. I did not know that and this certainly gives me even more pause. Besides, I've never liked the idea of 3rd party plugins to begin with. Too expensive, and then you may have compatabilty issues to contend with. (Not that FCPX is bug free).

I don't see any reason to wait until after NAB. A paid upgrade is a ways off. Whatever roadmap features that might be announced at their press briefings will be for 10.0.9- which would be another free update. That would come out in June at the earliest. Which would mean that the NEXY major update would be another 6-8 months away. That's a very long time to wait.

As for Magic Bullet Looks, I think it's unfair to call it just another looks plugin. It is fairly verbose, and I'd consider it an intermediary colour option between FCPX's build in toolset, and Resolve which even in its free version is hilariously deep and powerful. But also a big time investment to learn.

I haven't purchased MB Looks myself, but I am considering it, but I could also spend some $ on Resolve training instead...

Absolutely you can get the same looks as MBL. You just need to know how and that takes time.

I've played with MBL and for me it was not a pleasant experience. Great if you want a look and don't tweak it. Painful if you do. These 'looks' are never going to give you consistent results because the source footage isn't always the same.
It can try it's best but nothing beats the human eye (with a good set of scopes)

In a fit of discount fever I bought a set of looks' the other day (not Red Giant) and was horrified at how inflexible they were. To make matters worse they weren't even broadcast legal!

So in the end I guess it's a bit like choosing between a coffee capsule machine and what you get from a proper espresso and a barista.

sirdavidabraham wrote: FCPX is an awesome product but Apple is unpredictable...If I were in your shoes I'd wait until after NAB.

Why wait? We just got 10.0.8 yesterday. Nothing new is coming out for at least three or four more months.

We have 10.0.9, then 10.1.0 through 10.9.9 before we'll ever see 10.11. What's not to understand?

As for plugins, there are some really nice color grading plugins for FREE here on this forum. Such as this one.
www.fcp.co/forum/colour-correction/6094-...cation-effects#23442

Resolve LITE is easy to learn. Ripple Training made sure of that. VERY worth getting and learning. Will take you way further than plugins will. You may also want to get the coloritst bible, "Color Correction Handbook" by Alexis Van Hurkman.

Absolutely no reason to wait. Apple has made itself very publicly clear about the direction FCP X is going, nothing unpredictable about it. IMHO

Does anyone know what the update of the ProApps Quicktime Codecs means in essence, or what it does or adds?

BenB wrote: Why wait? We just got 10.0.8 yesterday. Nothing new is coming out for at least three or four more months.

We have 10.0.9, then 10.1.0 through 10.9.9 before we'll ever see 10.11. What's not to understand?

We can't be sure of that, Ben. Based on the type of features that have been included in releases to date as 10.0.X, I think it's more likely that just like OSX updates, MAJOR new versions of the software will be defined by 10.1, 10.2, and so on over the "10 year plan" Apple has for the software. But in the short term, there's nothing stopping Apple from going from 10.0.9 to 10.0.11, 10.0.12 and so on; meaning they can make the move to 10.1 whenever they're ready.

But we won't know for sure what they're numbering convention will be until whatever comes after 10.0.9- which will be sometime later this year.

Apple hasn't ever jumped dev numbers without major reasons before. There physically was a v.8 and a v.9, but they were trashed due to unexpectedly and sudden leaps in the OS technology development. That was a rare instance. Being afraid of FCP X updates like that, IMHO, is paranoid conspiracy theory thinking. And even if they do skip a number, so what? What is the major fear there? The dev numbers mean nothing, that they are pumping out updates faster than anything else on the market is impressive and shows very solid commitment. That's all that matters. IMHO

I got MBL last year when FCP 10.0.3 came out and MBL was on 50% off sale.

Since then I only used that maybe twice or so and decided to do the grading myself. Don't get me wrong this plugin is so cool but it's way too sloooooooow to render

BenB wrote: Apple hasn't ever jumped dev numbers without major reasons before. There physically was a v.8 and a v.9, but they were trashed due to unexpectedly and sudden leaps in the OS technology development. That was a rare instance. Being afraid of FCP X updates like that, IMHO, is paranoid conspiracy theory thinking. And even if they do skip a number, so what? What is the major fear there? The dev numbers mean nothing, that they are pumping out updates faster than anything else on the market is impressive and shows very solid commitment. That's all that matters. IMHO

I put zero stock on the version numbers too. And that's why I'm concerned. Since the mac appstore still has no upgrade pricing, I'm concerned I'm buying at the very end of the cycle and that I'll have to shell out another $300 in a few weeks or a few months to have the current version.

The fact they put out 10.0.8 to correct bugs just before NAB makes me even more hesitant because it would make sense for them to announce 10.1 at NAB and say: "Ok you got all those new features for free and the bugs have been corrected, you can't complain about having this new version (10.1) and asking full price again". I just think 10.0.8 could be the one to polish the last rough edges before they drop 10.1 on us at NAB. I find the 10.0.8 timing suspicious.

Thanks for all the replies, I think I'm going to hold off since my main motivation to pull the trigger now instead of waiting to see what transpires in NAB was the MBL sale. And you guys have put me off from MBL.

With me it's almost the same as with Pollux, I mostly enjoy doing the grading myself. Then again, there are certain times when I like using MBL. It's especially nice to play around with the different "stages" you apply your filters on - the whole flow is lot of fun if you want to go for an extra touch. And just the "cosmo" filter to denoise skin tones is lovely.

What I'd really recommend, though, is Neat Video to denoise your footage. It works again with 10.0.8 and can so polish your results, you have no idea. Very interesting if you have to shoot lowlight.

Good luck with your work!

El Cuajinais wrote: Thanks for all the replies, I think I'm going to hold off since my main motivation to pull the trigger now instead of waiting to see what transpires in NAB was the MBL sale. And you guys have put me off from MBL.

I don't think I would wait. My guess is that the next major upgrade to FCPX will be an "In-App" purchase. That way Apple could get you in the door for 299 and then whoever wants to upgrade to the "best" features can pay the upgrade price. I would also expect to see plugins as In-App purchases starting at NAB.

edited

BenB wrote: Apple hasn't ever jumped dev numbers without major reasons before. There physically was a v.8 and a v.9, but they were trashed due to unexpectedly and sudden leaps in the OS technology development. That was a rare instance. Being afraid of FCP X updates like that, IMHO, is paranoid conspiracy theory thinking. And even if they do skip a number, so what? What is the major fear there? The dev numbers mean nothing, that they are pumping out updates faster than anything else on the market is impressive and shows very solid commitment. That's all that matters. IMHO

I don't see how what I'm suggesting is jumping numbers.

Final Cut Pro X is now the brand name for the software, just like OSX is the name of the Mac operating system.

OSX has moved in major increments over the past decade identified by 10.1 to where we are now at 10.8, with incremental updates in-between (we're currently at 10.8.3)

If I'm correct, then we will continue to creep along with 10.0.9, 10.0.10, 10.0.11 and so on, until Apple has a case to make for a paid upgrade. That paid upgrade will be 10.1. After that we'll be back to iterative improvements as 10.1.1, 10.1.2 and so on.

If you're agonizing over FCPX's built in color grading vs Magic Bullet you might want to check out Color Grading Central. Both their FCPX and MBL tutorials are free. That might give a good sense comparison coming from a professional colorist showing how to best take advantage of either.
www.colorgradingcentral.com

They also have DaVinci Resolve tutorials although that isn't free.

FCPX have very good basic grading tools. There are a few things I wish it did have though.
Tracking Masks
Being able to easily compare two shots on the timeline
A white/black balance picker.
The ability see multiple scopes for each shot.
If one wants to go "really deep" then the ability to change the crossover area and rolloff between the "pucks," that would truly be getting into Resolve territory.

Some of the above can be added with some very inexpensive plugins. I do wonder if Apple will add these features. The ability to do in app color grading is a major advantage so I do hope Apple considers the above.

That said, MBL is fairly deep. You're in no way tied to the Looks. They can be jumping off points, examples to examine how things can be constructed, completely ignored. MBL is much closer to in app grading than going out to Resolve. That's important for projects where you or the client tends to do a lot of revisions or experimentation.

Color grading in FCPX is such an interesting topic it may be worth a separate thread.

BTW, I have a hunch that FCPX color tools, especially multiple scopes will come with higher GPU demands and that's where the push to the new MacPro may come in. I wouldn't be surprised if FCPX in app grading may take advantage of two GPUs just as high end colorists use with Resolve.