Final Cut Pro X – GUI For You?

iMovie Pro or FCP X? The editing world awaits!A quickly re-arranged Final Cut Pro User Group SuperMeet at NAB 2011 resulted in the announcement of a brand new version of Final Cut Pro called X or ten. This is a completely re-written 64-bit application including a new user interface, which some watchers thought looked like the company’s entry-level iMovie product.

There were ‘Apple’ roars for standout new features like background rendering, a magnetic timeline for synching audio and video and face detection, an iMovie feature. Slated for launch in June at $299 an editing world holds its breath.

Editor Adam Garstone had some concerns about the new software but also was glad at some long awaited inclusions. “A ‘ground up’ rewrite means many existing features may be missing for a year or two (though the rewrite was inevitable).

“If the UI is totally different, two million editors have to re-learn it. Hopefully the differences are primarily cosmetic with a few enhancements, rather than radically different like the iMovie change.

“On the plus side, 64 bit is long overdue (and needed the re-write) and the Open CL support is very exciting – should be super fast with a good graphics card. Both these were on my wish list, particularly on a feature film as you are always banging up against the memory limits of 32 bit.”

FCP had some catching up to do and now twins with some core Apple technologies from the Snow Leopard OS, like Grand Central Dispatch, the multicore optimisation process to alleviate the rendering progress bars. Rendering promises to be now in the background with the timeline finally able to support resolution independent footage up to 4k.

At the event nothing was mentioned about the rest of the cast from the suite of programs usually packaged with FCP – more of those later. Also no mention of Final Cut Express, Apple’s prosumer editing platform, which now looks expensive up against a $299 full blown Final Cut Pro.