Avid vs. Final Cut

silverwater

Is there much of a difference?

I am comfortable with Final Cut Pro, but haven't seen Avid before. Just curious as to whether it'd be simple enough to figure out if I know FCP, or should I stay away from any job vacancies until I've spent some time with Avid...?

decob

I'd suggest trying to get on an avid for a few hours with an experienced user and figure out where everything is and how to do things the avid way.. should be fine at that. It's pretty strightforward tho.

extopia

Editors edit. The tools are just tools. But you need to learn the tools; obviously you'll get into trouble if you hire yourself out as an Avid editor without having used Avid, which is different in many significant ways to FCP.

Try to find Avid FreeDV, which was a very stripped down version of Avid Express. No longer officially available, but if you can find it and master it, you'll be well on your way to understanding the Avid workflow and command structure.

Otherwise, get yourself a learning edition of one of the Avid products. Very competitive pricing at the moment.

artvandulet

I started out on Avid. Stopped editing for several years and then worked with Final Cut. To be honest most of the main stuff is similar in terms of timeline functions etc so you could do a basic edit fairly easily. Remember, FCP is ultimately a rip off of Avid anyway!:D;) It's the shortcuts and other functions that take time to learn and this is what will slow you down.

singingfish

I know that AVID used to be the industry standard up until about 5/6 years ago when FCP started to become widely available. For years AVID was seen as the "professional" software and FCP was for those who wanted to do advanced "amateur" editing. But, FCP has advanced a lot in those 5/6 years and at a fraction of the cost of an AVID system is becomming very popular across all levels of user. I know that most of the post-production companies in Ireland would have tried to talk down FCP for years (they had after all made a BIG investment in AVID and didn't want their clients to know that they could effectively do the same job on a cheap piece of software), but now that FCP has really gotten a good foothold all the professional companies are starting to use them too. On balance, I'd say stick with FCP if you are already comfortable with it - its much cheaper and seems to be improving very fast.

Bob Z

If you need to use avid sometime in the futuer you should try to get a bit of practice on it now. If you get too good on final cut it will be harder to learn avid

pinecone

I have always been interested in editing but have no experience. I would love to take a basic course but it would be my preference to take an Avid course. I know FCP is meant to be more friendly but I would really prefer to learn Avid.

I am looking for something at night or on the weekends and I can't seem to find anything.

Any ideas? Should I try to teach myself?

alexlyons

generally better to start a new thread than dig up an 8 month old one.

As for an answer, I thought myself the basics of FCP through a few free videos online, the apple discussions forum, and general trial and error. took about a week of an hour here an hour there, not hard for the basics tbh.

adrianj

Personally I think Avid has a horrible interface, I never used FCP though, not a mac kind of guy. However Sony Vegas Pro is a very good all-rounder, especially in the audio department. Other than that Adobe Premiere CS4 is another good option.

af_thefragile

pinecone wrote: »

I have always been interested in editing but have no experience. I would love to take a basic course but it would be my preference to take an Avid course. I know FCP is meant to be more friendly but I would really prefer to learn Avid.

I am looking for something at night or on the weekends and I can't seem to find anything.

Any ideas? Should I try to teach myself?

Avid's Media Composer is a very advanced software. Its the industry standard cuz its aimed towards the pros working on big budget films and TV shows. For an amateur filmmaker its still gonna be too advanced to get the most out of it.

Though I find Avid's Pro Tools (which has lately become the industry standard music production software) fairly easy and straight forward to work with.

Anyway, like all Apple products Final Cut is very simple and easy to use (relatively speaking). Lately its becoming more and more popular among amateur film makers because any one with little training can get the most out of the software and start making professional looking films. Its very good for that. Its also much cheaper than Avid's Media Composer.


My advice would be if you are serious about film making/editing and wanna get a job in the industry, then learn go for the Media Composer. Its what the pro's use so if you wanna work with the pro's, you need to know to use this. But its also gonna be expensive and not easy.

If you just wanna make some amateur films and do it as a hobby, go for Final Cut. Its gonna be much easier and cheaper.

I like Final Cut cuz i'm just a hobbyist and not too keen on going pro. You can still make very good professional videos with Final Cut. But its still a step behind Avid.

Goblindancer

extopia, singingfish & af_thefragile

you all make all the excellent points in this tired old debate!

OP, all depends on where you wanna go and what you wanna do. If you're already good at editing/FCP, you will get work. Get a showreel together and prove it! In the current climate, it doesn't hurt to try to get new skills though...I work in the industry and it's FCP all the way here (all broadcast TV & film)! I know that RTE, TV3 and (I think) TG4 use Avid, though.

decisions, decisions!!!

I don't know offhand of an Avid course though, other than college degrees....I've learned everything I know myself though, and once you know FCP, Avid's not ridiculously different....