New update

Apple is introducing a new update to Final Cut Pro X, the most popular version of its professional video editing software, with more than 2.5 million seats. Final Cut Pro 10.4.1 introduces a groundbreaking format from Apple, ProRes RAW, which combines the visual and workflow benefits of RAW video with the performance of ProRes. The update also adds advanced closed captioning tools that allow video editors to easily view, edit and deliver captions from right within the app. Apple is also adding complementary new features to Final Cut Pro companion apps, Motion and Compressor.

ProRes RAW

ProRes RAW is a new format from Apple that offers the quality and workflow advantages of RAW with the stunning performance of ProRes. With ProRes RAW, editors can import, edit and grade pristine footage with RAW data from the camera sensor, providing ultimate flexibility when adjusting highlights and shadows — ideal for HDR workflows. And with performance optimized for macOS, editors can play full-quality 4K ProRes RAW files on MacBook Pro and iMac systems in real time without rendering. ProRes RAW files are even smaller than ProRes 4444 files, allowing editors to make better use of storage while providing an excellent format for archiving. Final Cut Pro editors can work natively with ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ files created by Atomos recorders. The format will be available as a free update for owners of Atomos Sumo 19 and Shogun Inferno devices. The format will also be available as part of a forthcoming upgrade package to users of the DJI Inspire 2 drone and Zenmuse X7 Super 35mm camera system designed for aerial cinematography.

Closed Captioning Tools

As closed captioning becomes increasingly important around the world, Final Cut Pro now includes powerful closed captioning tools for professional filmmakers, YouTubers and students looking to add captions to their projects without the need for expensive third-party software or services. Users can import closed caption files directly into their project or create them from scratch. Captions appear in the viewer during playback and can be attached to video or audio clips in the timeline, so they automatically move with the clips to which they’re connected. An all-new captions inspector makes it simple to adjust caption text, color, alignment, location and more. Users can even create captions in multiple languages within the same timeline and easily share captioned videos to YouTube and Vimeo. And in the share window, a new Roles tab displays titles, video and audio roles in a single consolidated interface, making it easy to configure roles and closed captions when sharing.

Motion 5.4.1 and ProRes RAW enable motion graphics artists to take full advantage of RAW image quality with superb performance and flexibility when designing graphics and effects. Compressor 4.4.1 gains support for closed captioning with comprehensive controls to view, adjust and deliver captions as part of a batch or iTunes Store package.

More info about ProRes RAW in the pdf: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_RAW_White_Paper.pdf

I wish someone will be able to create a converter to transfer CinemaDNG to Prores RAW.

It'll be lot of such soon.

As for Prores RAW. Only reason of lack of similar fast raw codecs was.. RED. Who used patents to not allow this. As I understand sudden sale of Red by Apple is part of the legal deal.

Sorry, I'm lost at '3rd party apps' inside FCPX? Are these plugins? Is FCPX turning into the app equivalent of a vending machine?

Right, so Apple have published some sort of API, which other developers and use to build integrated apps.

Most probably for sale, (or download) from App Store as a signed binary. Hence it will probably be complex for any community developers to use?

I know there was a great hack for FCPX that allowed scripting, batch export, advanced features. Would be really good to see this be able to use app integration.

@kellar42 As a FCPX user (mainly) the thing is that the magnetic timeline isn't always great for everything. It would be good if FCPX included a hybrid timeline, that allowed magnetic activities, but also standard NLE editing as well.

(I am aware that one can simply place a placeholder under the whole project, and then connect clips to that - effectively turning magnetic timeline into a standard timeline- but then we loose magnetic features)... cake and eat it to I think I want.

Comic Book Effect in FCP X 10.4.4

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

Final Cut Pro 10.4.6

• Detects media files that may be incompatible with future versions of macOS after Mojave and converts them to a compatible format.
• Fixes an issue that could cause share destinations to disappear from the share menu after quitting Final Cut Pro.
• Fixes an issue that could cause the workflow extension button to disappear when resizing the interface.
• Fixes an issue in which the Select Clip command could incorrectly select the clip beneath the playhead.
• Fixes an issue in which a successful share notification appears after the share operation was canceled.
• Fixes an issue in which frames saved to the frame browser in the Comparison Viewer may appear differently than they do in the viewer.
• Fixes an issue in which frequency information for Hum Removal may not be visible in the audio inspector.
• Fixes an issue in which relinked media may appear with black thumbnails in the browser and timeline.
• Fixes an issue in which the share menu may be obscured behind the viewer when using Final Cut Pro in fullscreen mode
• Improves reliability when sharing video to YouTube.

As part of the upcoming transition from 32-bit to 64-bit technology in macOS, you may see an alert in Final Cut Pro or Motion about legacy media files that won’t be compatible with future versions of macOS, released after macOS Mojave.

These incompatible media files were most likely created using formats or codecs that rely on QuickTime 7—an older version of QuickTime that is included in macOS Mojave for compatibility purposes. However, because versions of macOS after macOS Mojave will no longer include the QuickTime 7 framework, you’ll first need to detect and convert legacy media files to continue to use those files in Final Cut Pro.

Main FCP X team seems to be busy with new editor made for totally dumb, at least rumors are such.

As Apple is leaving professionals niche and preparing for low power and bad cooled ARM chips transition they need to almost fully abandon all legacy software (yes, FCP X is legacy list internally at Apple).

The 15in MacBook Pro is the most commonly used model by video editors, according to Apple. These customers can expect up to 20% faster performance. iMac Pro users, meanwhile, will see a performance boost up to 35% compared to the previous version.

Each time I am reading such I want to ask - who wrote the previous "best" version and interface so it took up to 35% resources for nothing.

Final Cut Pro Intel version future

Note that from now on it is Final Cut ARM that will be main Apple product. Apple will also focus on optimization of software to run on big number of slow ARM cores and very limited mobile like GPUs (where shaders and other abilities are extremely restricted). Note that Apple notebooks will also face huge issue with memory bus and throughput, as even cheapest $50 GDDR5X GPU outperform Apple CPUs by wide margin.

Development team still works on Intel version, but it will be from 10 to 30% of previous resources. Development must mostly cease in 1 year time.

Rumors in the industry also are that we can see RED playing some significant role in the future of Intel based editing apps. As in 2 years it will be only top of the line desktop PCs that will remain on this architecture we can expect that RED can be sales agent and price will jump to the roof, typical for soft oriented on big companies.

I'm looking at FCPX because of the price compared to Premiere--how does realtime playback and editing of H264 compare to Premiere?