Final Cut Pro X initial observations

Out of the box, Final Cut Pro X has one *huge* strike against it as a potential vidding platform. It does not support importing DivX/xvid files.

I'll repeat that. It does not support DivX/xvid.

For me, this means the majority of source I've acquired over the years is worthless without conversion. Pretty much the only files that I can work with are the ones that I've created myself by ripping and then converting to H.264 or DV.

Just poking around, the interface is weirdly iMovie-esque, but I am already in love with the ability to tag my clips within an "event". Conceivably, I can add tags for "left-to-right motion" , "blue", "close-up", and "long shot". Although to be perfectly frank, I'm still trying to wrap my head around events, clips, and collections, the three elements of organizing source within FCPX. Also, I still haven't worked out how to break up "clips" (which in this case are the complete media files that I've imported) into, well, clips.

I'm confused by the interface, but I'm slowly finding my way around. I don't actually consider this a strike against the program. It's an all new interface and it's going to take time to find stuff.

I'm going to work on recreating one of my older vids in the program, just to get a feel for the tools and options available to me. I'll post more when there is more.
 

More on Final Cut Pro X

Vidding in FCPX is frustrating, due to its "helpful" magnetic clips. Basically, if you drag a clip onto the timeline, it will automagically close the gap between itself and the last clip in your timeline.  This is particularly useless for vidders, because how often do we have a clip we *know* goes with the lyric at 1:27 in the song before we put down anything else? If you try to drag that clip down on an empty timeline, FCPX will move it to 0:00 for you. Because that's what you wanted all along, right? I have yet to find a way to turn this "feature" off.

There is a workaround. FCPX has two kinds of clips that are meant to just fill space -- placeholder clips (which have an image on them) and gap clips (which are just blank). If you put down a gap/placeholder on your primary video track that is the length of your entire song, you should be able to place video where-ever the hell you want on the video tracks above.

One point in its favor for Vividcon goodness. It has a native export to DVD function which, when you select your output device as "Hard Drive" will create your demuxed video and audio files for you. The video file is m2v (yay!) but the audio file is ac3, which I don't think Vividcon will support, so you may still have to convert that.

That said, the native export options are severely lacking otherwise. They are all built around the notion of the specific device or website you're exporting to.  You have to buy Compressor to get the extras like determining resolution and stuff.

Next time, I'll do some mucking with the speed options (which look magical) and the effects (there's a transition that I am calling the "Milly transition", because it's comic book panels. Seriously).