Final Cut Pro 3.0

Among the realtime effects in Final Cut Pro 3.0, thecolor-correction tools include a software waveform, vectorscope,histogram, and RGB parade.

Apple's Final Cut Pro 3.0 continues the blistering development ofthis hit Mac product and establishes it as the desktop NLE product tobeat. Although FCP 3.0 is exceptional software, merit alone does notaccount for its success. It has also benefited from the considerablebuzz surrounding Apple's comeback since Steve Jobs' return and itsreemergence as a leading graphics platform.

On top of that, the FCP story is great copy, beginning with the exitof Adobe Premiere's development team to create a new NLE product atMacromedia that, as we all now know, became Apple's Final Cut Pro.Randy Ubillos, formerly the senior engineer for Premiere, is currentlythe senior software engineer on FCP. Ubillos is getting a rare secondchance to correct in FCP all of Premiere's limitations whilesimultaneously building on all of Premiere's successes.

There comes a moment for most successful software products when thefeature set achieves a level of performance and completeness such thatthe very challenge it was created to overcome is solved. As aneditorial solution, FCP 3.0 is very close to having reached this point.Within the limits of the hardware, nonlinear editing in FCP is moreabout artistic decisions than technical bit wrangling.

A quick survey of the top of the pyramid for NLEs shows that Aviddominates commercial and mainstream feature editorial. Although FCP 3.0could be considered a serious alternative to Avid, it's very difficultto unseat any incumbent software in our industry. The main reason isthat producers hire editors, not editing systems, and most editors inthe film industry work on the Avid. FCP 3.0, however, has come in theside door by winning the hearts and minds of today's DV filmmaking. Goto any independent film festival, and the tech talk among thedocumentary and narrative filmmakers is FCP and DV cameras. The reasonis price and performance. FCP is a stable, full-featured NLE coming ata time when workstation processing power, hard drive cost, outputquality (Digital Voodoo, Aurora, CinéWave, AJA), and OS stability(OS X) have converged to provide an affordable editing solution, givingAvid serious competition.

For years, it has been possible to animate, edit, and manipulatevideo on the desktop if you were a reasonably technical, driven,patient, and slightly masochistic personality. Only recently hasdigital production for small shops begun to resemble the rational,predictable workflow for any critical task found in other industries.If you are cutting together a short, commercial, or feature, FCP 3.0 isthe best offline solution in its price category and very competitive ona feature-by-feature comparison with such packaged systems as Avid,Media 100, and Discreet's Edit. Two other possible contenders on thedesktop side are Avid's very impressive Xpress DV (which is a DV-onlysolution) and Adobe Premiere 6.5 (which is not released yet). FCP isalso a terrific choice for online output of DV shorts and features aswell as uncompressed output to DigiBeta. If, however, you are usingyour NLE for intensive graphics or titling of the kind found incommercials, broadcast graphics, or corporate communications, alldesktop applications including so-called realtime solutions have theusual problem of extensive rendering times.

The latest version of Final Cut Pro is a major upgrade to a productthat was already on the right track in just about every category. I'llstart with the new realtime capability, but for the Millimeteraudience there are many more relevant features that confirm Apple'scommitment to high-end production.

Promises of realtime effects on the desktop really mean a previewmode solution, but it is actually an offline tool because while theeffects previews are good enough for timing and editorial decisions,they are not final renders. G4 Realtime Effects are not available onanything less than a single-processor G4 500 or a G4 with dualprocessors. The faster the processor, the better the performance(picture quality). However, effects are previewed on the desktop, notthe NTSC monitor connected to your DV camera. For that capability youwill need Matrox's RT Max board, but if your video card has an S-Videooutput, you can still preview to an NTSC monitor. Realtime effectsincluded in FCP 3.0 are Cross Dissolve, Iris Transitions (Diamond Iris,Oval Iris, Rectangle Iris, Star Iris, and many more), Wipes (Center,Clock, Edge, Inset, and many more), Color Corrector, and motion effectsthat include Opacity, Scale, Center, and Offset. The latest G4dual-processor Macs can even process multiple effects. In addition tothe realtime effects, many After Effects filters also work in Final CutPro, and FCP ships with Vol. 2 of CGM transitions and filters (35 inall) that are written in FCP's native language and take advantage ofthe Mac's AltiVec engine and multiprocessing. The bottom line is thatyou will still be waiting for effects to render. This is a limitationof hardware; not software.

At NAB, Apple announced the inclusion of Cinema Tools from FilmLogic. This provides enhanced management of 24 fps editing capabilitiesin 16mm and 35mm, as well as support for film cut lists and 24 fps EDLsfor HD video. For feature film editors FCP 3.0 is now a very completesolution.

Color Correction is one of the realtime effects, but it's a majornew feature on its own. 2001 seems to be the year that softwaredevelopers discovered color correction, Combustion 2, and FCP 3.0, andseveral plug-in developers for After Effects and Premiere havedelivered professional color-correction tools for 16-bit per pixelcolor space. FCP's built-in color tools include a software Waveform,Vector-scope, Histogram, and RGB Parade, but you will still need aprofessional NTSC monitor to make accurate decisions.

Both primary and secondary color correction is located in the Colortab that sits in the Viewer window. The Color Correct filter does notwork in realtime at full frame rate, but it is realtime on stillframes. This may seem like a limitation, but as it turns out, colordecisions are actually easier to make without motion in the frame, andmost colorists use still frames throughout the correction process. FCPalso allows you to play a series of color-corrected clips in sequencebut not at the full frame rate.

Within secondary color correct, you can isolate a particular area ofthe frame using the Limit Effect controls. This is useful in manysituations, but it is a great companion for chromakey effects. Forthose of us who routinely book tape-to-tape color sessions on a daVinci or some other dedicated system at the end of a desktop-createdproject, FCP's color-correction tools are a major breakthrough.

One of the smarter Color Correction enhancements is the ability toapply the color-correct settings from one clip to another clip. This isan efficient way to work and helps maintain a consistent “artdirection” from shot to shot. The settings become a standardstyle frame for any given scene based on numbers, not just the usualvisual reference that the artist “eyeballs.”

FCP's color tools work in 24-bit (8 per channel) color depth ratherthan the 16-bit per channel provided by Combustion 2 and Adobe AfterEffects, but this is still a big step forward for editors and offersextremely subtle color control of an image. Hopefully, editors andmotion graphic artists will be able to find good tutorials on theintricacies of color correction because none exists in Apple's manual(more about the manual later).

Another new feature I particularly liked was the Add Voice Overeffect. This allows you to record a voiceover track to RAM while asequence plays. The personal video essay and the exploration of text,voice, and image have seen a great deal of experimentation in the lastdecade, and this tool makes it possible to easily explore commentaryover images. Technologies like Add Voice and cigarette-sized DV camerasbring much-needed spontaneity to a medium all too bogged down intechnical processes. Because Add Voice is RAM-based, you will needenough free memory to capture long voice passages (approximately 6 MBper minute). Fortunately, RAM, like talk, is cheap.

FCP 3.0 also features an improved Media Manager. Asset and mediamanagement doesn't sound sexy, but it's at the center of an editor'sworkflow. The new Media Manager allows you to remove the trimmedportions (heads and tails) for selected clips or create a new projectfile with only the trimmed clips. You can also copy media files andmake an offline project.

Another management tool new in FCP 3.0 is the Autosave Vault. Asimple window lets you set the frequency with which FCP automaticallysaves your project along with the maximum number of copies of a projectand the number of projects that are saved. In the vault you can easilygo back to an old version of a project by selecting the RestoreProjects windows.

Also new is OfflineRT, an alternative space-saving codec (photoJPEG)that provides 320 × 240 pixel offline files that are very compact.FCP 3.0 accelerates the codec using the G4 Velocity engine and buildsthe DV acquisition of NTSC and PAL into the system using Easy Setup.OfflineRT provides a very good image while saving considerable harddrive space.

I tested FCP 3.0 on OS X and found that the new operating systemtakes getting used to. The Mac's stability has always been an issue,and while OS X is reportedly rock solid, I have had little problem withFCP 3.0 under OS 9.1. FCP 3.0 is identical in either System 9 or OS X,though with the addition of video I/O cards there are some wrinkles. Atthe moment, Digital Voodoo, CinéWave, and RTMac are not OSX-ready. This is also an issue with certain disk arrays. However, everyhardware vendor I spoke with plans to support the OS X by Siggraph.

There are more features in FCP 3.0 than can be covered in thisoverview, but here are some of the most important. It has betterintegration with DVD Studio Pro. Essentially, you can set chaptermarkers in FCP 3.0 that are recognized in DVD Pro 2 along with the nameof the marker. There are also Compression markers that areautomatically set (but can be overridden) at each new shot. All thismakes DVD export of movies simpler. Another big feature is QuickView, aRAM preview that stores and plays (from the Canvas or Viewer) full-,half-, and quarter-resolution sequences. You can also define selectionareas such as play In and Out or play from the In Point to the end.

FCP 3.0 ships with Boris Calligraphy and text generators that takeadvantage of (unanimated) realtime playback. Vector-based Calligraphycomes with a very complete text control that includes tracking,kerning, leading control as well as five shadow effects and five edgeeffects.

I've read more than one article complimenting Apple's documentationfor FCP 3.0. I have to disagree. This manual does not cover many of thenew features, for instance, importing CD tracks. The manual for FCP 3.0shows an import window that does not exist in the current software. Asit turns out, the 3.0 manual is a slightly revised 2.0 manual.Fortunately, FCP has built-in support available within the program.This is a good approach in terms of accessibility, but more depth andtutorials could also be included here.

FCP 3.0 comes of age with this latest version. The documentationcould be better, but third-party books, CDs, and DVDs, such as TheIntelligent Assistant for Apple's Final Cut Pro, help fill the gap.FCP 3.0 combined with OS X is a great solution for NLE and is a clearindication of Apple's commitment to the high end.