Wow me Mac Nuts: Apple Video editing

[Bobtheduck]

I am an adobe fan. Adobe is starting to lose their dual-system nature, starting with Premiere... I can, right now, buy a really nice editing machine with adobe software and all that, but I still here mac nuts saying that Apple has stuff that surpasses the adobe stuff... Now, dissing microsoft is ok, but it almost seems dissing adobe is tantamount to blasphemy on the artistic scale.

Well, I would like a comparison... Could anyone tell me what Apple has to offer that would put them (and the macs) above the adobe lineup for Non-linear editing, post production effects, sound editing, and DVD authoring (as well as something to either compete with or be compatible with Photoshop? To compete with, I mean a similar program, to be compatible with, I mean among the Post Production, DVD authoring, and non-linear editing proggies)

I would like to hear something real on this. I won't make fun of mac or apple, I'll just be all ears for your case to be made. That goes for everyone else in this forum. No mac bashing, no windows bashing, and no bashing of any sort that isn't a very calm comparison, and only with the software in question.

EDIT: As an added bonus, maccas, if you convince me, you may gain another mac fan.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

generally there are 2 video editing software for Macs

1st is iMovie.... painfully easy to use and insane... cause it's so easy but only does simply stuff

2nd is Final Cut pro, which is an amazing program. I'm learning how to use it in school. Apparently a lot of television stations and companies use it for their shows/movies/channels (according to my electronic storytelling teacher, whos been doing videoediting before we were born he says)

Final Cut Pro

comparing it with other programs, that I don't know O.o

[Fsiphskilm]

Hey

[Mithrandir]

OK. You have two different animals here.

1. Simple Graphics
2. Videos

Part of my job involves looking into new tools; I think I have a pretty good idea what you want to know.

As for 1. Simple Graphics, there are only a handful of really good programs out there. Some are easy to use, some are powerful - a very few are both. That's where photoshop comes in. I don't know of any powerful graphics editing programs coming out of apple. I *MIGHT* be in dark on this one, but I suspect not.

As for 2. Video, you're looking at (iMovie/Quicktime Pro) for simple, and Final Cut Pro for powerful but not extremely easy-to-use editing. The primary competitors in this market are Adobe Premiere Pro and, to a lesser extent, Ulead Media Studio Pro. I don't really have enough space to go into a full review here, but let me tell you a story.

When I want to watch an unlicensed anime on my home theater system, it needs to get from the internet to the DVD player. here's what I do:

1. Download the files.
2. Open the files in QuickTimePro and export them as a mov file; saving a jpeg from one for the dvd background image.
3. Drag these files into iMovie.
4. Using the simple iMovie interface, I add a main menu and "jump points" to the Preview, Intro, Part I, Part II and Credits. This lets me quickly jump to the part of the anime I want to watch.
5. Press the "Burn with iDVD" button.

That's all there is to it. Very easy; very fast - not too fancy. Oh yeah, it cost $30.00 to get the QTPro license. There are probably freeware programs out there that would do this too, but I can't say I've felt the need to look for them.

Just my $0.02.

[Bobtheduck]

Hey Now...

There's Adobe AfterEffects which is Industry Wide. Used for a TON of things. Everything from Special Effects to Credits.

I am quite aware of After Effects and its capabilities. I was wondering about the Apple offering... How does Apple's proprietary stuff compare to After Effects.

How does Final Cut compare to Premiere?

How does Apple's comparably priced DVD authoring software compare to Encore?

How do all of these make use of Photoshop? I mean, photoshop integration is one of the big things about all Adobe Software...

[shooraijin]

Mom bought the Apple suite for doing editing of the public-access Bible show she produces with their church back home, and she is a former Premiere user.

Her biggest problem with Final Cut Pro is just learning the interface; some things were very similar and some things were not. Otherwise, so far, she has not found something that she could do in Premiere that she can't do in FCP.

She prefers Adobe's titler, although she really hasn't worked with Motion much. The guy at the Apple store showed her how Motion worked for titling, and she's a lot happier with it, though I do agree that the Adobe titling seems a little more seamless.

She has DVD Studio Pro, but tbh, most of us are not going to be doing an authoring job that complex. iDVD is doing the job just fine for simple menu and scene selection tasks. We haven't really done a whole lot with DSP because we don't need it, but it supports the full range of menu actions, opcodes, encoding and (spit) copy protection methods.

QuickTime understands Photoshop as a native format, so all you have to do is drop Photoshop stills right into your Final Cut timeline. I haven't tried this, but I'm pretty sure double-clicking the still will bring it up in Photoshop for you automagically.

Motion is Apple's answer to AfterEffects. Having not played extensively with either product, I can't say how they compare.

I think that you won't find any huge advantage to FCP. Mom went with a Mac because she was sick of her XP box going bananas all the time (having her daughter, her daughter's husband and her son all being Mac heads of course had no small influence), and she's been happy with Apple's support and the machine in general. She liked the classes at the Apple store a great deal. However, she went with FCP because she has no other choice on a Mac. Bluntly, if you're not interested in getting a Mac, then I don't think you should bother with FCP either. I haven't really found anyone for whom FCP is a killer app (i.e., "I gotta get a Mac because I loooooove FCP!" ... haven't heard that one yet). It does well compared to Premiere, but the products are pretty much equivalent and neither has a clear advantage other than what platform you wish to use.

For the record, I regularly use Final Cut Express and it does nicely. I miss some of the higher end features, but the price was right.