Re: DaVinci Resolve 8.1 -- now with FCPXML roundtrip support

[Walter Soyka] "If FCPX were being built in such a way that was truly developer-friendly, then APIs and XML would have been ready before launch. I agree with you that it was not quite ready, but I'm worried that you're underestimating how not ready it was.

Let me use a bad construction analogy. The user sees the finished house, but the developers work with the framing underneath.

The fact that the product is out but developer support is not suggests to me that they are are actually re-framing the house underneath the finished skin -- or that developer support is not a priority. Either one is bad."

Yeah, it all sucks. It's not how I would've picked it. But here we are.

[Walter Soyka] "EDLs aren't file based; they're reel/timecode based, so there's no need or way to connect them to the new renders. Instead, you can re-conform from the original EDL with the new render files (replacing the original media files) -- if your NLE supports such old-fashioned interchange notions as EDL and conform."

Yep.

[Walter Soyka] "I don't want to argue against expanding capabilities, but this one seems like a stretch. You are suggesting essentially wrapping the entire functionality of Premiere Pro into After Effects, without losing any of what makes AE great."

Mmmm, maybe? Why not? We have the technology. I have always wished AE was an NLE, it's just not. I have always said that Motion should be wrapped right in FCP. Soundtrack Pro, too. Soundtrack Pro came close, but not all the way there. I am decently happy with the new audio controls, though. Parts of Motion are now in FCPX, I think it should just be the whole thing.

[Walter Soyka] "The fact that it can be used so far outside of what it was designed to do shows how flexible it is, but you want to bend it more?"

Hell yeah. If it makes my life easier, bend. That way I don't have to bend as hard. Make the software work for me, not vice versa. Things, people, needs, technologies, ideas, they all change. These aren't philips head screws and nails, as the Philips head screw is still a Philips head screw, a nail is still a nail. Yesterdays image creation processes are not todays image creation processes. I am not going to stick in the past of video applications, there are new requirements today, and I think the tools should reflect that, fragmentation and all. Just like an EDL, it was a tool of it's time, and perhaps it's time has come.

[Walter Soyka] "Separate note: I would love to see Adobe take on Autodesk Smoke and Avid DS in the finishing market. They've got all the technology, spread out over a couple different applications. I'd love to see them take all those components and integrate them well. Dynamic link is interesting and can be powerful, but using it with AE and PrP shows the difference between a shot orientation and a sequence orientation pretty quickly."

They seem to be heading in that direction, let's see what happens.

On another side note, check this out:

http://vimeo.com/28962540