Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor?
by Michael Lynch
on
Oct 13, 2008 at 5:44:26 pm
Hi folks. My supervisor just told me to come up with a "wish list" to help spend some $$ before it disappears in these bad economic times (hey I work in education i.e. State Gov't)...
As I said I work in education, so I'm producing educational, instructional and promotional pieces, nothing like commercials spots or long form works.
That said, my basic software set up is FCS2; CS3; and Toast 9, plus Flip4Mac and some other 3rd party stuff we all need to get the job done. Any ideas of what you might consider "must have" software, or bits of hardware for that matter, would be appreciated.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Tom Daigon on Oct 13, 2008 at 5:49:45 pm
Trapcode and Zaxwerks plugins for After Effects (CS3). Automatic Duck to expediate the sharing of info between FCP and AE (for major effects bulding). Aja/Kona 3 card, Panasonic 2600 engineering HD monitor, Fast and Big raid (Maxx Digital / Dulce),sync generator would be on my wish list.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by david bogie on Oct 13, 2008 at 6:17:26 pm
Umm, tell us what your plans for the future might be.
For you to invest in an HDV camera would be silly but investing in an HD camera would be equally silly if you cannot afford the capture system to support it.
All plugs for Final Cut that take you into 3 dimensions require huge learning phases and even longer rendering times. Forget 3D.
Forget all that stuff.
Get a new Macintosh, a nice 30" Cinema display, a good UPS, and a huge stack of training materials to get you not only up and running but conversant with each of the roducts you already own.
Everything else can wait.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Kevin Monahan on Oct 13, 2008 at 6:30:46 pm
Storage, can never be too big or too fast. Add to that: Shared Storage is king in a group environment.
Studio Audio Monitors, not cheap game boy speakers. Make it 5.1, why not?
1 Large or 2 medium computer monitors. Make it two large ones, sure!
A HD Display, not a "TV".
A Kona 3, so you can be ready for any format AND monitor it.
Full Blown Mac Pro. Tons of RAM.
Video Deck for your main formats.
RS-422 setup.
HD Waveform Monitor/Vectorscope.
Large Plasma for Client Monitor.
Adapter units for driving Client Monitor.
Waccom Tablet.
UPS.
A $4000 Gift Certificate for Red Giant.
CS4 When Available.
Automatic Duck.
A soundproof edit bay.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Tom Daigon on Oct 13, 2008 at 6:31:12 pm
You are just fine with your current system.....
MacPro 3.0GHz 8 Core - 4GB RAM
FCS2; AE; PS
More ram is always a wise investment...training manuals/dvds are also
key to getting the most of what you have....Trapcode Plugins (not 3D)
add to the production value of your work as do the Zaxwerks (not all
of them 3D). Faster and bigger storage is always a good idea as well.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Michael Lynch on Oct 13, 2008 at 6:41:15 pm
So far so good with the responses. I understand David's comments - the 3D stuff is almost out of control. I wish we had a graphics/effects dept. That's part of the reason I was thinking of a Digital Juice library.
For the record, I've got HD cameras (mostly shoot in SD, as we don't have an HD delivery system other than the web yet), and a 30" Apple Cinema display; 5 TB of total disk space...
The Kona card has my interest as does the 5.1 audio option, although I'm not familiar with the physical ins and outs of 5.1.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Vick Sepetjian on Oct 13, 2008 at 6:32:49 pm
Hey Bogiesan , I'm thinking about putting something together too....without Goverment money. When you say ," get a new Macintosh "..... what'd be the minimum you'd get if you wanted to run all of Final Cut Pro 6 and maybe Adobe CS3 apps. I'm thinking in the lines of a Macbook Pro......but should an Imac be considered if I don't need portable ? Thanx
"It's Mind over Matter"...If you don't Mind,It doesn't Matter !
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Tom Daigon on Oct 13, 2008 at 7:24:23 pm
Digital Juice gives you a wealth of quick and generic graphics...and
Motion 3 has a wealth of content included with the software. Its like have a built in and editable DJ library right in your FCP Studio!
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Mark Suszko on Oct 14, 2008 at 1:59:13 am
My suggestions based on things I have and wish I had.
Zaxwerkes stand-alone for mac, lets you do some basic 3- d animations without the heavy learning curve. This is more powerful if you have the vector creation/export capability of Adobe Illustrator, but you can get along without that. Allows the look of the canned Jumpback animations with the customizability you want.
flip4mac WMV converter, pro version
I have Sonicfire and love it, but be sure to buy a few extra packs of songs for it. This is a good alternative to stacktraxx.
MS Powerpoint for mac ( I have to do lots of slide imports for clients, this helps tremendously)
VESA-compliant pantograph support arms for my dual cinema displays, to keep them at the right ergonomic height and distance while freeing up console table space.
Wacom tablet, if you don't already have one. Wunderbar for working in Photoshop.
Re: Suggested "Must Haves" for the FCP editor? by Tod Hopkins on Oct 14, 2008 at 6:04:00 pm
It sooo depends on what you want to do, but...
Digital Juice SFX are a nice deal.
The new Thermaltake BlacX for hard drive backups is great. Make sure you get the right connections for you. Even cheaper the SYBA Creative I/O at Newegg is fabulous. And if you're gonna go that way, buy the drives while you have the money unless you can budget them like tape.
Max your RAM. Seriously. Just Max it out. Don't upgrade the rest.
Connect systems directly via Gigabit switches if they are not already.
Lynda.com subscription.
Upgrade your speakers. Again, they are rarely ever good enough.
Decent, comfortable headphones.
Decent mic for scratch tracks.
Mackie mixer to connect it all. Don't forget the cables.
Blu-ray burner with Toast. Buffalo just intro'd a much cheaper external.
DVD set top recorder for quick outputs if you don't have one.
Custom FCP keyboard if you don't have one.
Better mouse. Wireless, optical, good mousepad.
Diskwarrior.
