Today, Apple released the latest major upgrade to Final Cut Pro X – version 10.3.
There are lots of new features in this version. Let me share what I’ve learned.
[ Click to see a larger image.]
KEY NEW FEATURES
Apple’s marquee features for the software include:
Within those three categories are literally dozens of changes.
From my point of view, the interface changes are the most visible, the changes to Roles and the Magnetic Timeline are the most significant and its support for Rec. 2020 video the most future-oriented.
NOTE: At their announcement this morning, Apple highlighted the new Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro. While this feature looks interesting, I haven’t used it, so I haven’t included it in this article.
THOUGHTS ON HDR
HDR (High-Dynamic Range) media is video with an extended gray-scale and color saturation. We are in a transition phase now – both in technology and terminology.
First, the terms. Wide color gamut video is the color space portion of HDR, which is defined by a new video spec called “Rec. 2020.” This is similar to Rec. 601, which referenced standard-definition video, and Rec. 709, which applied to HD.
Rec. 2020 covers UHD, 4K, and HDR media. It describes pixels with a larger image size (“more pixels”), an extended range of gray-scales (“brighter pixels”), and great color saturation (“richer pixels”). Not all video formats contain all three. Some, for instance, just support bigger frame sizes. In general, moving forward, we will probably refer to video as Rec. 2020, which is a more inclusive term.
The new 10.3 version of Final Cut and ProRes both support 16-bit video. However, our computer monitors can’t yet display it. While all current Macs CAN display a more limited representation of this extended video called “P3,” to see the full glory of Rec. 2020 media requires an external video monitor.
Final Cut 10.3 fully supports Rec. 2020 video displayed on an external monitor. In fact, the system automatically senses the correct color space – 601, 709, 2020 – and configures appropriately. Yes, you can override this. Color space can be set for the Library or the Project.
NOTE: Here’s a graph comparing color spaces (scroll down about halfway). And here’s a brand-new white paper on color space from Apple with much more detail.
THE NEW INTERFACE
In short, the interface is darker, video looks better and everything has moved somewhere else.
The Final Cut interface, which was already dark, has gotten darker. This makes video seem to “pop” off the screen, both for normal HD footage as well as a demo I saw using 12-bit video.
As I was editing with it, I realized that I needed to make my edit suite darker in order to see the screen better. The interface has become a series of medium gray shapes on a dark gray background. This had the advantage of improving the look of my video on screen, but but the dimness made it harder to read my paper notes.
Apple has moved all the clutter from the middle of the screen to the edges:
However, there are a number of very welcome changes:
The new workspaces are REALLY neat! The ability to hide the Timeline makes logging so much easier, especially on smaller screens. And seeing the entire Inspector at a glance is extremely useful. I’ve become a huge fan of these changes.
ROLES HAVE A NEW ROLE
Roles have moved from “nice to know,” to essential; especially for audio. Roles are now color-coded so you can see your audio layout at a glance, grouped by dialog, effects and music.
You can now shuffle audio layers by group – move all sound effects to the top of the Timeline to help with syncing, for example. In fact, Roles will automatically move similar clips into similar locations in the Timeline.
You can group similar audio into “lanes” in the Timeline, automatically, without dragging.
Clicking the Focus button highlights specific audio and collapses everything else.
We can instantly group similar Roles – say all dialog – into a compound clip and apply an audio filter to the compound clip. This is a very innovative way to achieve what amounts to a submix bus, without the work.
Roles can be color-coded and you have a palette of colors to choose from for a role.
Roles can be managed at the Library or Project level, you can create as many Roles as you need, and Roles can have sub-roles. For example, a Title Role, can have sub-roles of “English,” “Spanish,” “French,” allowing you to enable each language with a single mouse click, even if dozens of titles are involved.
The features Roles provide are deep and sophisticated. It’s going to take me a couple of weeks to really understand these. I’ll have more on Roles in future articles.
SMALL THINGS I LOVE
Yes, I agree. Changing the interface is always risky. (Especially when it forces me to re-do all my training because everything now looks different.) But there are lots of small touches that I really like.
In the center of the screen, on a line about half the height of the old Toolbar, Final Cut displays the name of your project, the total duration of your project, AND (in yellow) the duration of any selected clip or clips.
This is SO MUCH easier than selecting a clip and typing Control + D just to see a duration; though Control + D still works.
The Inspector goes full-screen! So nice!! (Here’s the secret tip: Double-click the Inspector title bar. Poof!)
There’s a new effect that displays source timecode on clips in the Timeline. (And I say again: !!!) This makes creating client review movies dead easy and practical again.
NOTE: You can apply this effect easily using an “adjustment layer.” This article explains how to create one in Final Cut.
[ By the way, thanks to the folks at EditStock for the use of these images: EditStock.com.]
We can copy and paste timecode!
[ Click image for larger view.]
The logging workspace (called “Organize”) is optimized for small laptop screens. It hides the Timeline, while enlarging the Inspector. I now find this layout indispensable.
Custom Motion projects can now be stored in the Library. This greatly simplifies moving Libraries from one system to another without having to remember to include all those custom files from your Home directory.
We can now trim adjacent connected clips without first converting them into a connected storyline. Faster.
Custom metadata is now searchable.
The Overwrite edit now has its own icon.
There’s a new “Flow” transition, very similar to Morph in Premiere Pro, that blends two clips to hide a jump cut. While I have ethical issues about using this in news or documentary projects, the same as I do with Morph in Premiere, this can solve problems with dialog where you didn’t get enough coverage.
NOTE: Unlike Morph, which pulls frames from elsewhere in a clip, Flow uses optical flow to create all new frames.
Hundreds of sound effects now ship with Final Cut.
NOTE: All the “Content Browsers” are now located in the top left corner:
You can get back to the default workspace (window layout) with a single keyboard shortcut: Cmd + 0. The Effects and Transitions Browsers are located in the middle bar, immediately below the Inspector.
And the render bar has transitioned from orange to gray dots.
THINGS I WISH WERE THERE
Every update leaves you amazed with what’s there and, like Christmas, always wanting “just one more present.” There are three things that I wish Apple had included.
Transferring logged media from one system to another via XML makes collaboration between editors easier, but Final Cut still limits us to only one editor in a Library at a time, even if one editor could log in as read-only.
There still is no internal support for closed captioning or loudness metering – both of which are now required in many countries. (Apple would respond saying that both these features are supported by third-parties, which is true but I don’t think this is a sufficient answer.)
I’m reserving judgement on Roles. They have been significantly enhanced and I don’t understand them well enough yet. My hope is that they allow us to mix audio in Final Cut much more effectively than we’ve been able to do in the past, because the audio filters in Final Cut are just outstanding; there just hasn’t been a way to use them properly.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The new update is a big deal. There is a lot here with a lot of new features and capability to wrap our brains around.
However, my usual caution holds: Don’t upgrade in the middle of a project. All Libraries will need to upgrade to the new version, which means they can no longer be opened in FCP X 10.2 or earlier. Fortunately, the upgrade process is fast and painless, unlike the conversion from 10.0 to 10.1.
I’m excited about this new version of Final Cut. So much so that I’ve created all new training to show you how it works.
141 new movies – more than 12 hours of training – covering Final Cut Workflow and Editing. It will release the first week of November and you can order it today for a pre-release price of $49. (If you are a Video Training Library subscriber, you can view the initial 35 movies in my Library today. This is a great reason to to become a member.)
This will be fun.
138 Responses to New! Apple Releases Final Cut Pro X 10.3
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Frank Burch says:
October 28, 2016 at 1:46 pm
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Larry says:
October 28, 2016 at 2:01 pm
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John Godwin says:
October 29, 2016 at 2:01 pm
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Larry says:
October 29, 2016 at 5:59 pm
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Jamie LeJeune says:
October 29, 2016 at 10:28 am
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Larry Jordan says:
October 29, 2016 at 10:49 am
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Jamie LeJeune says:
October 29, 2016 at 11:54 am
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Larry Jordan says:
October 29, 2016 at 12:14 pm
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Caesar Darias says:
October 29, 2016 at 2:49 pm
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Larry says:
October 29, 2016 at 6:00 pm
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Caesar Darias says:
October 29, 2016 at 6:24 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
October 29, 2016 at 7:19 pm
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Ben says:
October 29, 2016 at 3:28 pm
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Larry says:
October 29, 2016 at 6:01 pm
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Iain Davidson says:
October 31, 2016 at 12:58 pm
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Jimi Beans says:
October 30, 2016 at 7:29 am
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Larry says:
October 30, 2016 at 7:46 am
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Brad Bell says:
October 30, 2016 at 12:50 pm
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Larry Jordan says:
October 30, 2016 at 9:20 pm
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Claire says:
October 31, 2016 at 2:08 am
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Lee Faulkner says:
October 31, 2016 at 6:01 am
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Dick says:
October 31, 2016 at 7:05 am
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Larry says:
October 31, 2016 at 7:22 am
← Older Comments Newer Comments →Is it possible to keep a version of FCP 10.2.3 and 10.3 on the same computer?
Frank
Frank:
No.
Larry
My intention is to clone the system drive (using CCC) to a fast external drive, freezing it as it is, then do the update to 10.3 on the internal drive, and boot to whichever is necessary (I have a major client that will probably not update to 10.3 for months). That way I can maintain compatibility with that client while using the new version on other projects. Is there something I’m missing here that would prohibit that?
John:
This would work, though you could also create a dual-boot drive to achieve the same results.
Larry
You write: “To see the full glory of Rec. 2020 media requires an external video monitor.”
In fact, the only way to see the “full glory” of Rec. 2020 is to build a time machine and travel into the future because there is no monitor in existence that fully covers the Rec. 2020 color space. Even the latest, fanciest and most expensive UHD TVs cover only between 60-70%.
Apple is including Rec 2020 as a WORKING color space for the timeline not a DISPLAY color space. For display in the computer GUI Apple is relying on internal color management to collapse any out of range data from the huge working color space of Rec. 2020 so that it isn’t clipping on the GUI display. Basically, working in Rex 2020 ensures that a greater range of color data will be preserved rather than chopped off by working in Rec 709, but it is up to the user to limit that data before rendering for the viewing display that the file is intended to displayed on like, for example, a P3 digital cinema projection. Given the gamma/color inconsistency issues that have plagued Apple’s Quicktime and web playback of H264 .mov files, I have little faith that once exported the files would render properly online or on another computer display if Apple’s color management is part of the pipeline for monitoring or export.
Also, to conflate Rec. 2020 with HDR is not correct. Rec. 2020 doesn’t specify HDR at all. (You’ll note that the Apple white paper you link to doesn’t once mention HDR). At the moment, I doubt it would be possible to master HDR in FCPX 10.3, and if it is possible, it would definitely require some external scopes with the proper range as the scopes in FCPX don’t extend into the range of any of the various HDR specs. For a good detailed discussion of what it currently takes to master in HDR see this article by Alexis Van Hurkman: http://vanhurkman.com/wordpress/?p=3548
At the moment, HDR and wide-color gamuts are a multi-standard mess. Guaranteeing accurate color for multiple display outputs will require more than a simple checkbox between Rec. 2020 and Rec 709 in FCPX and users should be made well aware of this fact.
Jamie:
Thanks for your comments!
We are moving into a whole new area – similar to the change from SD to HD. There is much for all of us to learn.
Larry.
Yes, much to learn and for better or worse, a ton of client education ahead of us all. It’s already tough to explain why their video files look different online when viewed through different browsers. What happens when we hit the point that more than 50% of mobile devices, laptop computers and TVs have P3 displays instead of sRGB displays? Are clients going to be willing to pay extra for the trim passes required to have both P3 and sRGB/709 masters properly created? Interesting times ahead!
Jamie:
Well, um… Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’ve been dealing with this since the invention of TV.
I’m still watching TV in the spare bedroom on a CRT display that’s 15 years old. (There’s a reason they called NTSC: “Never Twice the Same Color.”
You only need to walk into Best Buy to realize that no two TVs ever look the same.
Larry
I’m incredibly upset.
FCP X, Motion and Compressor updated to the new versions on their own. I could not believe it when I opened it. How the F does that happen?
I was not ready to change and I did not want to do it right now. Did that happen to anybody else?
I hope there are not too many changes to multi-cam.
Caesar:
You have Auto-Update turned on in System Preferences.
Turn it off and this won’t happen again.
And, good news, multicam was essentially untouched – so everything you know still applies.
Larry
Sorry for the rant, Larry. Thank you for the good news about multiccam. At least I don’t have to worry too much.
I kept getting the flag asking if I wanted to update and I kept clicking no. I didn’t realize I had auto download on. That must be the default because I didn’t even know it existed.
What a great synopsis of 10.3. Great job. I look forward to your training videos, at least one month earlier than I planned! LOL.
I’m very disappointed about 16GB of RAM. My three-year-old MacBook Pro has 16GB. It’s not good for multicam once you get to four or more streams.
I’m also very disappointed that they still do not have easy and seamless round-tripping with Motion. They must get thousands of requests every year.
BTW, who is the new head of FCP X at Apple? Is that known or is hush-hush?
Caesar:
Happy to help.
There is lots to like in FCP X 10.3 – the more I work with it, the more relaxed I become about the changes. Once you understand them, you’ll like them.
I don’t think the “head” of FCP X has changed, at least, the product management team is the same as it has been.
Larry
Great review thanks.
I’m also interested to see that they apprently support SMB3 for libraries. Does this mean we can officially run projects directly from network storage that isn’t a Fibre SAN? Some of us have been doing this for years using the sparsebundle method on perfectly acceptable Gigabit ethernet networks with decent switches and network RAID arrays. Is this now officially supported?
Ben:
Maybe. According to Apple, what you say is correct. However, not all SMB3 devices are supported. I have one here that I’m using to record my training and it does not allow me to create libraries on it.
I’m not sure why and don’t have time for another week to check into it. However, as with all things, test before committing to the system.
Larry
Hi Ben – I would be very interested to see how to do this – could you point me in the right direction please?
Many thanks, Iain
It would have been very rewarding to have keyword collections to work with clips in a timeline / project.
Jimi:
The Timeline Index, which works exclusively with the Timeline, displays all keywords for clips in the timeline and allows you to search for them. Not quite the same as a keyword collection, but close.
Larry
Very disappointed to hear about lack of loudness support. While there ARE 3rd party solutions, they don’t work in FCPX – as far as I’m aware. This means sending audio out to Logic to use the loudness meter. It seems disingenuous to suggest there’s a third party solution. They might have equally suggested I let my sound engineer worry about it.
Shameer:
Do I agree that Apple is not focused on Pros? No.
A laptop is a series of compromises – as is any computer. You buy a laptop for portability. You buy a desktop for power. Apple focused on battery life – important to people who travel. I’m already reading reviews that the latest Apple laptop is the fastest laptop that’s ever been released. (I’d quote the source if I could remember it.)
Heat, space and battery life are the three enemies of more power in a laptop.
I only edit on a laptop when I’m in the field, need the portability and have extremely tight deadlines. The rest of the time, I’m editing on a desktop system.
There is no such thing as a perfect system – but look at the trend over time. Laptops are getting faster and smaller, yet staying within shouting distance of the same price.
Larry
I started to read your blog on Friday to prepare myself to switch then forgot I’d set my updates to auto… Monday morning, hitting the desk with a whole load of work to get done on the clock, and I’m presented with a completely new interface, eek.
Thanks to you though, I’ve remained calm and have your blog open alongside, so far you’ve answered all my questions. THANK YOU!
For those still burning DVD … the menu options have been enhanced to match what was always available for BluRay. More customizable and a loop option! ( believe it it not that’s a big deal for me!).
Oh, and if you convert an old Project which had it’s Audio tracks Expanded, it shows up strangely in 10.3 and theres no “Collapse All” that I could find. Instead I toggled on Lane View, then toggled it off. All better again…
Fascinating comments and responses. You may have to clone yourself to get the training finished by weeks end.
Dick:
(smile…) Yeah, I thought of that cloning thing, but it sounds far too painful.
Larry