This morning Apple announced Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3, an update that should close the gap on key features previously found in FCP7 but still missing in FCPX, notably multicam editing and video out support for broadcast video monitoring, both promised last September. The update went live in the Mac App Store this morning at 8:30 am ET/5:30 am PT. It is free to existing users and remains a $299.99 download for new users.
Apple's reimagining of multicam features automatic sync and can handle up to 64 different camera angles of varying formats, resolutions and frame rates at once. Other new features in 10.0.3, which follows a small bug fix last November, include a chroma keyer with advanced controls, the ability to manually relink projects and events to new media, and support for layered Photoshop files. Apple has also improved the functionality in FCPX's new version of XML, paving the way for several simultaneous third-party device, App and plug-in releases that take advantage of the NLE's new architecture.
One such App, a $9.99 XML translator from Intelligent Assistance called 7toX, will be a godsend to editors with existing FCP7 projects. Developed by Philip Hodgetts and also available today in the Mac App Store, the tool converts FCP 7 XML to the new flavor of XML in Final Cut Pro X—itself updated to version 1.1 in this release—letting you bring projects forward from Final Cut Pro 7 directly into Final Cut Pro X. "When we first released Final Cut Pro X, we talked openly about the fact that we were not going to attempt conversion between XML versions because we knew the fidelity wouldn't be perfect," Apple's Richard Townhill, senior director of applications product marketing, said yesterday. "We knew it would be impossible because of all the differences between 7 and X, from the fact that projects and the timeline are approached completely differently to the fact that we have a new and improved effects engine and completely different effects plug-ins. Phil Hodgetts really impressed me with the work that he's done. He's gotten astonishingly accurate conversion from FCP 7 XML to FCP X XML and we're very pleased to have that App available at the same time."
Compared to Hodgetts' earlier Project X27, which Scott Simmons covered on our blog in October, the new translation tool takes full advantage of the expanded fidelity in FCPX's improved data transport functions, which now let you do color correction and audio keyframes via XML. "Final Cut Pro X XML is just richer overall than Final Cut Pro 7 XML, and it's a lot easier to move your media from less rich to more rich than it is to go the other way around," said Townhill. The App also takes advantage of FCP 10.0.3's new relinking tool, smoothing out, and in most cases, shortening tasks that took much longer to do in FCP7.
The tweaks to Final Cut Pro X's original chroma keyer, used on air this season by Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, offer up more controls to fix edge problems that result from sloppy greenscreens. "People wanted to make adjustments and for that they had to go to Motion," said Townhill. "A lot of the feedback we got was that as editors, they really didn't want to leave Final Cut to clean things up. So we stuffed those controls back in 10.0.3 so you can pull a near-perfect key without leaving the NLE."
It may have been conspicuously absent since June, but FCPX's new multicam editor, now that it's here, is a point of pride for the Apple product team. "We think we have the industry's best implementation of multicam," said Townhill. "We can now deal with 64 different angles, which means you can cut between 64 sources with different resolutions, codecs and frame rates, something you won't find in other NLEs. And with the magnetic timeline, you can skim through each angle individually." A new angle editor lets you adjust or rename the angles as you go and even apply FCP or third-party effects to your angles.
The key to getting a good multicam, added Townhill, is keeping everything in sync, and this gets tricky when cutting source material from DSLRs or the GoPro, neither of which have timecode. "Final Cut Pro X lets you use date and time, so you can pick up the date-and-time metadata from inside the video stream and synchronize based on that," he said. "But if the date and times aren't set properly ahead of time, you won't get what you planned on. We wanted to make this aspect really, really easy so we went one stage further, letting you sync your camera angles based on audio waveforms. In most cases you're shooting your four or six or more angles with cameras that have scratch audio, even if you're recording the clean audio (which can also be one of your angles) to a broadcast recorder. To fine-tune your sync, FCPX will analyze the audio waveforms and match them so that all the camera angles synchronize."
Broadcast Monitoring and Effects
While Townhill stressed the importance of the update's new features— "not just moved forward into a new architecture but greatly improved upon"—he was quick to point out the critical role third-party developers have always played in Final Cut's evolution. "One of the reasons for Final Cut's historical success is because of the vibrancy of our third-party ecosystem," he told said. "It's that open nature of Final Cut that has allowed and continues to allow the development network to build some really cool tools. I've been in this industry a long time and I can honestly say our developer ecosystem is vaster and more vibrant than I've ever seen it before."
Broadcast monitoring, officially still in beta while manufacturers like Matrox and Blackmagic Design ready their drivers for release (AJA released a compatible PCI-express card last Friday), will get additional boosts over time as Thunderbolt devices roll out.
Townhill also highlighted visual effects plug-ins Red Giant Magic Bullet and GenArts Sapphire Edge, both of which have imminent releases of new versions compatible with Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3. "They are probably two of the most popular visual effects plug-ins that people are using in Final Cut right now," says Townhillhe said. "And these two companies have been able to do things with the new architecture that they simply couldn't do before, like on-screen control, which takes advantage of all the pipelines we've got under the hood." (Red Giant did, however, publicly express concern this summer about a bug in OSX 10.7 Lion that caused Final Cut to ignore custom data in Looks and Colorista II; Townhill said that bug has been fixed and Magic Bullet will be now fully compatible with OS X Lion and Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3.)
Transitioning to FCP 10.0.3
Radical Media's CTO Evan Schechtman, a Final Cut Pro X beta tester and by his own reckoning likely the earliest adopter of Final Cut Pro X, calls this update an even bigger deal than the original release. Radical Media cut HBO's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the West Memphis 3 documentary now nominated for an Academy Award, on Final Cut 7 and Schechtman says the New York- and LA-based facility is ready to transition completely to Final Cut Pro X now that broadcast monitoring and multicam editing are in the mix. "The executives on up to the CEO are all are behind the move. We plan to do some TV shows in the first or second quarter completely within FCPX, and then go into DaVinci and Smoke for finish," he said. He used a recent project for the Gagosian Gallery, an iPad App featuring 360-degree video of Richard Serra sculptures, as a test balloon for Final Cut Pro X and got great results. "We shot full-frame 360-degree videos that come out as 4K distorted files," he said. "We had to do color-correction. I thought, 'Let me see what happens.' I drop them into FCPX, I played them back in real time from my internal drive, I applied four or five layers of color correction and then I exported. That's 4K color-correct on nonstandard format in real time. Without FCPX, I would have had to go first to DaVinci Resolve and transcode those files."
Schechtman was trying out Intelligent Assistance's 7toX App for the first time yesterday when I reached him at his office. "I was sitting in front of a job earlier today and started relinking my media the old way, by opening up a Final Cut 7 project," he said. "It was just old and slow and the media is a mess. I was having a really hard time relinking. So I thought I'd see how the App could get me out of my mess." With an old drive connected, he started to relink his media to Final Cut 7, he said, "thinking I had to and then realizing I didn't have to. I did my XML export and I dropped it on the 7toX. It opens up Final Cut Pro X and it relinked everything automatically, whereas Final Cut 7 couldn't do that. I took a series of audio files offline on purpose because I wanted to use the update's new relink tool and the relink tool is telling me things the old version (7) didn't. It was effortless and it looks gorgeous. I'm looking at nine tracks of audio and four tracks of video, clip connections are maintained and things that were turned off are hidden. And while this is a shorter piece than many we do, it's fairly complex, and it played back with no problem. I think a lot of people are going to eat their words when they start using FCPX this way."
While not every Radical Media project is multicam, the majority are. Schechtman said he particularly likes the way FCPX's multicam "synchronizes clips together, but also uses audio for fine synchronization to refine based on timecode, time of day or even markers. The cool thing is, you can put markers in by a sync point, but it doesn't even have to be frame-accurate. It will just hone in where the audio needs to look for fine synchronization." These are not revolutionary features for a nonlinear editor, he admitted, but they are "unique in their implementation because of the groundwork that was laid. And this is still within year one."
Radical Media also has "an enormous XSan implementation, with another 280 TB literally sitting in boxes" to add to it, bringing the facility's storage capacity to nearly a Petabyte. "In our workflow here, we see FCPX as a really good digital asset manager. If you look at just the organizer window almost as an application unto itself, it's going to help us get through more media faster than any program. People are going to be able to get to their basic rough cut and story cut, in my opinion, faster than in any other editing system. Now once the cut is polished, we will export to DaVinci Resolve for color correction and Pro Tools for audio. We still will use their exporter with various Roles, because that is how we will do language and other versioning for broadcast. Even internally, how we show an agency or a client different cuts, this will be automated by metadata."
One steep learning curve remains, however. "Now there's a different kind of responsibility put on the assistants to come up with a specific set of naming conventions on the head of a job," said Schechtman. "That's going to be a new set of standards we'll be working in but as of today, now that I've had a chance to really bang on the new version, we're ready to take the plunge."
Comments (31) for "Apple Reinvents Multicam Editing in Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 Update"
1.
I know this is a un-objective post, but please wait and don't write an article about FCp X until you can title it "It doesn't suck anymore"
Posted by cougfan on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 @ 12:35 PM
2.
'Let me see what happens.' I drop them into FCPX, I played them back in real time from my internal drive, I applied four or five layers of color correction "and then I exported. That's 4K color-correct on nonstandard format in real time. Without FCPX, I would have had to go first to DaVinci Resolve and transcode those files."
Yeah like FGCPx color correction is really useul. Bleh. Call me when they get the timeline back!!!!
Posted by ldtowers on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 @ 02:37 PM
3.
Almost 1 year later and this is what we get? lol, it's great progress even though it still needs a lot of work....
Posted by ricardo on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 12:40 AM
4.
Apple never used to have to play catch up... even with it's own products... WTF happened?
Posted by Joe Miraglilo on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 11:15 AM
5.
Looking forward to using this new application
Posted by Jared Carter on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 11:41 AM
6.
Apple did for FCP what it did when transitioning from OS 9 to OS X. It was a painful process taking many years to put back useful features. Eventually the competition will have to do the same. They are the ones falling backward.
Posted by veggiedude on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 01:43 PM
7.
1 year later? Nope, it's barely six months later.
Posted by BenB on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 02:04 PM
8.
Final Cut X was released just over 5 months ago (June 21, 2011). Less than half a year is not 'almost a year'.
Posted by Chris on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 08:10 PM
9.
I'm teaching editing and the uni I'm at is moving to avid. Get your act together Apple. We are in the front line and need to teach a professional used product. Apple you dropped the ball and Avid is running with it.
Posted by guy on Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 12:46 AM
10.
Quote: Apple never used to have to play catch up... even with it's own products... WTF happened?
Apple has always had to play catch up to its older products when it came out with a new platform or paradigm. Apple would usually reveal a simpler user interface then gradually add more features.
For example, 10 years ago, Apple had to play catch up in the transition from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X. Mac OS X 10.0 had numerous features missing that were in Mac OS 9. Gradually, Apple added almost all of them back. Then Apple surpassed in Mac OS X everything that can be done in Mac OS 9.
For example, iWork is a much simpler version of AppleWorks when it first came out. Gradually, iWork grew in sophistication to completely surpass AppleWorks.
Posted by James Katt on Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 01:33 AM
11.
They play this game where they release product they know has missing features for one of three reasons...1. To capitalize on the early adopter cash, then release a revised version 2.0 soon thereafter. 2. To test out new market ideas and refine it if it doesn't take off (e.g. AppleTV - "it's a hobby"). or 3. To teach those that are so quick to jump ship, that doing so never works out for them in the end. They soon learn the pain of having to take the walk of shame back to the best in class product (which is the Apple product). This way people become loyal.
Posted by michael on Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 02:30 AM
12.
The update has a major bug when it comes to text. I had to revert to 10.0.2
Posted by Lance on Thursday, February 2, 2012 @ 03:22 PM
13.
I'm pleased that multi cam support has been added, elevating Final Cut Pro X to an almost useable product. The sharing functionality, in particular down sampling from HD for YouTube and Vimeo is badly broken - crashes 100% of the time. I have to export to full resolution mov files, import to iMovie or Final Cut Express then export from there to get demos to the web. A really lousy work flow IMHO. C'mon Apple, get your act together. Other competitors are already doing this with success.
Posted by HankH on Friday, February 3, 2012 @ 12:41 AM
14.
"To capitalize on the early adopter cash..."? You are kidding right? At $300 USD, do you honestly think that would make a dent? LOL!
Posted by Eric Santiago on Friday, February 3, 2012 @ 11:54 AM
15.
I won't convert from 7 to X until I hear that I can export from the timeline to multiple formats. Is that feature coming to X soon?
Posted by Tom Catlin on Sunday, February 5, 2012 @ 12:33 PM
16.
I am amazed at the things that you people know. I am just an editor and had to learn how to use a computer. I remember when computers just could not do the job. iMovie 06 fixed that but that is now gone and anything since is an inferior product. FCP 7 is great but how is it that a simply single canvas system (in FCP X)is supposed to do a better job? All I see is lots toys and gimmicks. I try to use it but it is like going back to a PC and Microsoft. In other words it doesn't work or at least just doesn't do the job very well.
Posted by Peter Turner on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 09:08 AM
17.
I look forward to the day when everyone stops kissing Apples ass and does objective reviews in a professional production workflow environment. As Walter Much said a few months ago " Cold Mountain in FC Pro 3 was tough - but i can't use this. Maybe in a year." They don't call it a 'timeline ' for nothing, sharing projects, support for EXISTING hardware, etc., etc., . You get what you pay for. and in this toy world - you also don't get what you don't pay for.
Posted by Walker Bell on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 05:04 PM
18.
Even with these "fixes" it's still not there ... What we all really wanted in retrospect was FCP 8. Apple, there is still time to fix this. We are all still working in FCP 7, but most of us are about to jump to Avid Media Composer 6 for our next big job.
For starters, call a sequence a sequence, not a project. Call a project, a project - - not an event. I mean, whose brilliant idea was that?
Posted by Er-nay on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 @ 08:33 AM
19.
Note to Apple: Stop reinventing things that don't need to be reinvented. Release FCP 8!!!!!
Posted by frank muldoon on Thursday, February 9, 2012 @ 01:02 PM
20.
One word "TIMELINE"
Posted by AD on Friday, February 10, 2012 @ 02:59 AM
21.
The multi-cam editing is very useful and very user friendly but the update that came with it slowed FCPX down immensely. I have used it on two different 27" top end computers and it is so slow to edit. They need to put out higher quality products fast or I'm starting to look at adobe.
Posted by Nate on Sunday, February 12, 2012 @ 10:22 PM
22.
Eventually the competition will have to do the same. They are the ones falling backward.
Posted by Komik Oyunlar on Monday, February 13, 2012 @ 05:37 PM
23.
Hey, I am Happy with the new release. With several hundred project files from past HOF Festival years, I can now pull from all the archived footage. All right a few minor glitches, but have you ever bought a new car - new model year.
Posted by Larry Schock on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 01:59 PM
24.
Wow, what a bunch of whinners. FCX and the updated version simply BLOW AWAY FC7. It was outdated, bulky, slow, brutal on the eyes, crashed when you blinked and the list goes on and on and on. I have done everything from 3 minute music videos to 28:30 HD TV shows to a 90 minute documentary... al on FCX and all without a glitch. So those of you that keep gripping, maybe Premiere is where you need to be... I'll stick with Apple.
Posted by Daniel Martin on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 09:27 PM
25.
No thanks. Please continue with 7. I have NO interest in this garbage.
Posted by Joe Mahma on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 10:25 PM
26.
Great Article, nicely written. Very exiting content. Keep up the work.
Posted by Sebastian Scholle on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 @ 04:05 AM
27.
I have to agree with some of the posts, I work for a major university 2, and we are moving over to Avid Media Composer 6. It is sad to see that it had to come to this. Great job Apple.
Posted by Dee on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 @ 10:08 AM
28.
For starters, call a sequence a sequence, not a project. Call a project, a project - - not an event. I mean, whose brilliant idea was that? Er-nay
Exactly. No timeline, bins, sequences...etc are huge deficiencies. Do we need to see every freaking "event" you've ever worked on even if they have nothing to do with the current project that you're working on? FCP X's media management and organization are a travesty. Apple really needs to address the structural problems of FCP X in addition to adding missing features.
Posted by Carlos on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 @ 10:32 PM
29.
An Event is something that happens in this world. A Project is a process to create other perceptions, other worlds, other times...
Posted by David Esp on Friday, February 17, 2012 @ 11:09 AM
30.
All these people whining about timelines, sequences, projects, wah wah wah. I remember all the whiners when the transition came from tape to non-linear and the ones who weren't willing to change were soon out of a job. I was one of the first to use AVID Media Composer with the horrible resolution to just spit out an EDL so I do know a little. If it wasn't for Apple you guys would still be paying 200,000 for a Media Composer. Keep it up Apple. It took me all of 10 minutes to figure out FCPX. I think you will improve on it and I'm glad you don't keep Status Quo.
Posted by Robert on Friday, February 17, 2012 @ 09:47 PM
31.
Grab a tutorial with extra bucks you saved.. it doesn't work like fcp7, In many ways it is light years ahead of it. You have to think differently. The 10 year olds will figure it out, and will teach you for free on Youtube. The timeline is not broken- it's better. That said, I want timeline markers..
Posted by James on Monday, February 20, 2012 @ 02:14 PM
Post your comments below
