What's the word on the latest version of FCP X?

One thing to bear in mind about Creative Cloud (and something that has profoundly annoyed a lot of pro photographers I know): if you stop paying the monthly fee, you can no longer use the apps. It's not that you no longer get upgrades - you can't use them at all. At least when you buy software outright, you can carry on using it for as long as you like. This could be an issue if you have files in proprietary formats.

It's true that, if you were the type who always upgraded to the latest version of the software when it came out, or use all of the CC apps, then CC makes good economic sense.

However, a lot of people (myself included) were in the habit of only upgrading applications like Photoshop every two or three versions - simply because new versions didn't have enough must-have features to make upgrades worthwhile. In this case, CC is a much more expensive route than the old scheme of buying software & upgrades.

ZolaScope said:

One thing to bear in mind about Creative Cloud (and something that has profoundly annoyed a lot of pro photographers I know): if you stop paying the monthly fee, you can no longer use the apps. It's not that you no longer get upgrades - you can't use them at all. At least when you buy software outright, you can carry on using it for as long as you like. This could be an issue if you have files in proprietary formats.

It's true that, if you were the type who always upgraded to the latest version of the software when it came out, or use all of the CC apps, then CC makes good economic sense.

However, a lot of people (myself included) were in the habit of only upgrading applications like Photoshop every two or three versions - simply because new versions didn't have enough must-have features to make upgrades worthwhile. In this case, CC is a much more expensive route than the old scheme of buying software & upgrades.

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You make some good points. I do wish Adobe would at least let you continue to use the current version of the software you have installed on your system - you just would stop getting the upgrades. However, I guess the reason they don't do that is because everybody would just stop paying and they'd lose out on a bunch of money!

I am the type who likes to stay updated with the latest and greatest, which is one of the reasons CC seems like a good idea to me - for $600/year, access to all the cool CC apps like Premiere, Ae, Photshop, Audition, Lightroom, and everything else they offer is an incredible bargain!

It's just the matter of coming up with the $600 that's proving... difficult.

You can probably find an older version of the creative suite for cheap(ish), then you wouldn't have to worry about paying an ongoing fee. Not the "latest and greatest" but certainly capable.

I have thought about buying CS6, but it's about $1600 - so CC is still the significantly better deal!

Well, I have done a lot of research, testing, watched a lot of videos, and have finally come to another conclusion.

I would love to go the Adobe route, since it's a much better workflow and way more bang for your buck, but I just can't justify the cost of $50/month, or can hardly afford $600/year (my job is minimum wage, so, yeah, you can do the math there! ).

Now, I have done a lot of testing with the new trial of FCP X. There is actually a LOT of cool things about it, and now that I've experimented with it for about a week, I've really started to love it!

I've learned how to deal with the magnetic timeline and use it to my advantage - it's true that once you get used to it, you can definitely make new edits without worrying about losing sync. And there's actually a lot of audio editing features that are sort of hidden - if you Option-Click you can add keyframes to any audio track and adjust volume levels that way, and I believe (though I could be wrong) that I read that you can integrate effects made in Logic Pro X in your FCP X project, so that's cool.

At this point, I'm certain I'm sticking with FCP X, as the only thing that I dislike is the lack of proper DVD/Blu-Ray creation. There's just no customization ability at all - you can burn a disc that has the option of playing the movie and then a scene selection, that's it. No ability to add more menus, no way to create a special features section of the disc. Why do Adobe and Apple want to kill DVD support?!?!

Anybody know if Compressor has any better DVD/Blu-Ray authoring capabilities? I don't think it does but you never know.

Sorry for bumping, but I was wondering if any of you guys know of good DVD/Blu-ray burning software for Mac that I could use to replace FCP X's completely featureless DVD/Blu-ray options?

I'm still up in the air as to whether or not I should stick with FCP X or bite the bullet and sign up for Creative Cloud - there are at least three reasons I would love to go with Adobe right now:

1 - Dynamic linking. Being able to edit a sequence in Premiere and then choose clips to add effects to in After Effects, then go back into Premiere and having the clip automatically replaced with the effecti-fied version is just really freaking cool.

2 - The new SpeedGrade integration - just save the project in Premiere, open that same project in SpeedGrade, add the adjustment layers and color away, then save the project again and the next time you open it, it will be graded. That is also really freaking cool!

3 - Detail preserving upscale. I have seen a few instances of this work now, and it's amazing. I have a bunch of old SD video footage I would love to upconvert, and that would be the best way to do it!

However, here are the advantages of FCP X over Creative Cloud that I can think:

Color grading - You don't need a separate application for coloring, since the color board is quite powerful (albeit confusing!), and there are all kinds of cool stuff like color and shape masks you can use for secondary color correction, all right in FCP X, no extra rendering in or out required!

Speed - FCP X is quite fast (after it loads! Takes about 10 seconds to load each time since it automatically loads the last project), and background rendering on clips usually doesn't take much longer than a minute to achieve, so even after adding a few effects it can be played back almost at full speed again in very little time. Pretty dang nice.

Compound Clips - I know Premiere has similar features, but I really like how FCP X does compound clips. It's really easy to create your basic sequence and then add the same effect to multiple clips, just by creating a compound clip. This is especially good for color grading!

Libraries - These are just super fantastic and probably the best way to manage media and multiple projects! They keep everything so clean. I love them.

Audio - Sure, there are a few things missing, but there are all kinds of effects built in that you can customize and save as new effects, and I believe there's Logic Pro X support. You can bring audio into Logic Pro X, add effects there, then save it out and take it back into FCP X, which will give you a little more flexibility in audio effects.

And the last one that I really like - Audition! That's just a really cool way to test out different clips to see which one will fit the scene/feel of the film best. I haven't really used it yet but still, it's a great thing to have!

The only reason I'm (leaning towards) choosing FCP X over Adobe right now is because of the affordability of the software, and all of the things I listed above. Adobe still has a bit of a better workflow that I like, I just wish I could afford the $50/month or $600/year - maybe someday when I can actually start making money off of my videos!

But back to the original point of this post, if anybody knows of good DVD authoring software for Mac, I'd love to hear it!

Bump again, haha! Sorry. :\

Just wanted to say I will definitely be going with Adobe Creative Cloud. I read a lot of reviews, read lots of the fine print, and I don't see any immediate downsides - I only see very immediate upsides!

Plus, the features of Ae CC alone are well worth the CC subscription. Check this out, it's awesome and makes me drool like... well, something that leaks a lot, I guess!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtHrGCsL_yI

Not to mention the new "refine edge" tool. You'll just have to look that up yourself!

So really, the point of the bump is - I don't need anyone to tell me about DVD software for Mac because I'll be able to use Encore CS6 now.

I think I'll get the subscription soon so I can try out some of the fun stuff with Ae.

Unless encore has significantly improved you may still want to explore other options, it used to be REALLY buggy

Financially, I spent $1000 on Final Cut Studio and shake. 10 years ago. I'm at $100/ year with no specific upgrade necessary at this point. How much is creative cloud?

Creative cloud is $600/yr. But that's full access to the entire Adobe suite of products, and includes ongoing updates pretty consistently. So there's not really a direct comparison to Final Cut studio + shake.

Yeah, for full access to the Creative Cloud, it's $50/month, which sounds like a lot at first until you look at what you get. Instead of spending close to $2000 (or above!) for the entirety of a Creative Suite, it's just $600/year for ongoing access, and you don't get charged extra for any upgrades or anything.

While Adobe do reserve the right to raise the prices of all plans (which of course they will more than likely go up eventually), I doubt it'll go up any time soon since CC got off to a rather shaky start.

Can't afford CC. Can't justify the continued expense at this point either as paid video work is few and far between. The onetime windfall / save and spend once model fits my life much better.

knightly said:

Can't justify the continued expense at this point either as paid video work is few and far between.

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See, this is my major concern too - I'm still working two minimum wage jobs in order to afford the equipment and software I need, and so the monthly charge does sort of make me weary. But if I can earn some sort of extra income from doing video work, then I could try to use that to pay for it.

Problem is, I don't know what I'd do to get money from videos, other than monetizing on YouTube. That certainly wouldn't be enough, though.

Kind of back to my post about After Effects... I realized Blender does the exact same thing with its camera tracking and 3D compositing capabilities. So that major attraction for me literally just flew out the window!

knightly said:

Can't afford CC. Can't justify the continued expense at this point either as paid video work is few and far between. The onetime windfall / save and spend once model fits my life much better.

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All of the outraged adobe users that hate the subscription model agree with you.

On a somewhat related note, the release date for the public beta of the mac version of lightworks has been announced. June 11th!
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/04/release-date-for-lightworks-for-mac-public-beta-announced/

Ooh, I will keep a close eye on that! Since it's that close I'll hold off buying a CC subscription - had more second thoughts about it anyway once I realized that

1) the only way I could justify it was if I shot something every day
2) the only way I could afford it was if I gave up my cell phone
3) saving up $600 for a prepaid subscription is difficult when I still need to buy other equipment to help even use some features in the software.

I wish it were June already, though!

Well, I went ahead and did it anyway - I bought the month-to-month Creative Cloud subscription to see how well I would like it.

I LOVE IT.

Seriously, After Effects and Photoshop alone make this subscription entirely worth it. SpeedGrade is fantastic, I can make my footage look pretty darned great, and since everything is linked together sending one project from Premiere to After Effects and then into SpeedGrade is just super simple.

Although I will say that I'm not such a big fan of Premiere's interface, it feels a little bit clunky. Luckily everything is completely customizable so I just have to find the right organization for me - then I can sync my settings to the Cloud and never have to worry about setting them up again if I get another computer - they'll just automatically be there!

I will more than likely commit to the $50/month plan soon, once I drop my current cell phone provider. It is definitely worth the money. You don't realize how much of a value this truly is until you use all of the applications!

EDIT: Uhm. Well. This is a few days later and rather awkward, but I've sound several things I don't like, and went so far as to even get a refund and purchase FCP X after all...

1 - Premiere Pro's editing just felt... clunky, I guess. I couldn't edit anywhere near as fast as I could in FCP X, and I also couldn't do a few basic things I could do in FCP X - like figure out how to store media files.

2 - Premiere Pro was slow. Rendering took quite a long time when compared to FCP X, and applying effects REALLY halted playback. In FCP X, this is a non-issue thanks to the efficient background rendering system.

3 - Premiere Pro crashed at least twice while I wasn't playing back any video, just doing simple edits, it just stalled and wouldn't ever "wake up". Very frustrating!

4 - As cool as After Effects was, I didn't like it nearly as much as I like Motion, although Masking was certainly a lot easier. But Motion just makes things really easy with behavior filters and pre-animated particle effects.

5 - PhotoShop, while awesome, was virtually useless to me since most of the things I can do in GIMP and PixelMator already. The 3D environment was cool, though!

The final straw? Encore is going the way of the DoDo bird, and at least Apple have a DVD burning option inside of FCP X - as long as I can at least burn projects to discs, even without fancy menus, I'll be happy. Adobe just seem to be abandoning DVDs completely.

So those were my thoughts. In the end, I ended up picking the program I originally had a huge dislike for, but ended up falling in love with. Strange how our brains work out sometimes, eh?