My Name is Ren fucking wood, and I approve this messege:
by fw0ng
Mac or PC?
This is a debate that I’ve been having with people ever since high school, back when Apple was a company on the verge of getting completely buried by PCs, when they actually (briefly) allowed other companies to clone their computers, and when a bizarre looking candy-colored all-in-one desktop machine was almost too radical an idea.
Since the moment Steve Jobs took back the reins of his company, much has changed. Apple went from total underdog to arguably the single most influential company in the home computing game. And while every iDevice that comes out spawns a slew of imitators, their focus on those devices makes pro users kinda wonder what’s down the road.
Apple has repeatedly stated that they’re not abandoning their pro users, but I think they are. Their actions speak louder than words.
Macs ARE PCs
For the longest time, Macs used PowerPC processors. Then, in 2005, they switched over to Intel processors, which is pretty much the equivalent of holding a pride parade at the Westboro Baptist Church. What this means is, for all intents and purposes, there’s really no significant differences between Macs and PCs (back in the day, there were all sorts of PowerPC vs. Intel charts and debates – no more).
In addition, with Boot Camp, you can install Windows on any Mac. And if you play your cards right, you can Hackintosh a Windows PC to run OS X as well. For the most part, the operating systems can be pretty interchangeable.
Hardware wise, we’re working with basically the same internals. The key difference here is that you can get an equivalent powered computer that’s a PC at a much lower price than a Mac.
This is, of course, assuming you’re willing to learn how to build your computer, which is a skillset that seems to be slowly becoming what “learning how to take apart an internal combustion engine” was for my generation. Luckily for us, we’re nerdily inclined, so we are comfortable with that prospect.
But let’s say we weren’t. Even going to a custom PC manufacturer who would have a healthy markup on a custom PC (say, OriginPC’s Genesis Pro Workstation) and comparing it to a comparable in price Mac Pro (in this case, it would be the low-end $2499 Mac Pro) yields some interesting results. Long story short, even in this case, the edge goes to the PC as far as bang for your buck is concerned – they’re pretty close across the board but the Genesis is a couple hundred bucks cheaper and has a faster processor (OC’d).
In my opinion, the only place that Apple still trumps PCs on a hardware front are their Macbooks. One day, I think, a PC manufacturer will make a notebook that doesn’t feel like a total piece of crap, but until that day, I really like the way the Macbooks are put together. Expensive? Yes. But you also get a really well put together piece of hardware.
What about software?
This is where things get tricky. Apple’s Final Cut Pro 7 was woefully out of date by the time Final Cut X came out. Premiere had the ability to playback and edit h.264 files and more in real time without the need to transcode. Final Cut X was a sorely needed update.
People who followed the release of that piece of software will remember the outcry from the professional community. What happened to multicam!? OMF export!? The response was not good.
Here’s what I’m 99% sure happened:
If you really play around with Final Cut X, there’s some really fantastic stuff in there, especially surrounding the editing process. The whole program screams of speed due to a ground-up code rewrite. The way timelines are handled, the wealth of keyboard shortcuts, the snappiness of it all – everything suggests that they were on track to create a truly pro editing system for the 21st century.
But there’s a slew of bizarre features and omissions. There are a lot of features straight from iMovie – stuff like the way you export, the file/project hierarchy. In some ways it felt like a major step forward, and in others, it felt like many steps back.
I think Apple was on track to develop Final Cut X as a proper, honest-to-goodness, fully featured pro editing application that would’ve blown Premiere, Avid, and any other editor straight out of the water. But at some point in that development process, word came from on high to change it up – to make the program appeal to a broader spectrum of users.
Hence that’s why Final Cut X feels like it’s part iMovie, part Final Cut. Thing is – their strategy worked – they’ve sold more copies of Final Cut X than they have Final Cut 7. And while they’re still putting back features that pros are demanding, I think it’s clear that those re-additions are afterthoughts.
Frankly, it just doesn’t feel like their heart is in the pro game anymore. They make a superior phone, tablet, and laptop. They don’t need pro apps or pro computers for their business to function. Take a look at their pro software lineup – they’ve basically dropped Logic, Shake, Color, and they’ve gutted Final Cut Pro. They’re not coming back.
The Alternatives
So what software packages remain? A cursory look at the pro landscape reveals the following (remember – we’re talking about pro software here. Those of you who can’t necessarily afford pro apps should stay tuned – we’re going to be discussing the prosumer/budget level in a future article)
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe has been quietly building up and improving their entire suite of products. After Effects is pretty much the undisputed king of 2D motion graphics, and it basically does everything you would need it to do as far as a compositing program goes. In addition, they’ve been building up Premiere, as well as working to integrate everything together into one cohesive software package.
Avid Media Composer
Avid was pretty much dead thanks to Final Cut, but people are starting to reexamine it in the light of Final Cut X’s shift in a more prosumer direction.
In my opinion, Media Composer is hampered by the fact that the foundation of the software was all about being as close as you can to traditional film editing so that film editors wouldn’t balk at using a new fangled computer to cut movies. Media Composer forces you to work a certain way – granted that way happens to be a very good way to work, but for those of you who are more used to computer program interfaces or flexibility, learning this program can be a bit annoying.
That being said, if you’re working on straight ahead dialogue/dramatic scenes, I prefer Media Composer. The Avid Trim Tool, which allows you to quickly dial in and fine tune cuts with just your keyboard, is a fantastic tool that in my experience hasn’t been matched by any other editing program.
Autodesk Smoke
Autodesk is a powerhouse of a company – they make 3dsMax, AutoCad, Maya, just to name a few. This last year they revealed the new version of Smoke at NAB, their super high end VFX tool, which was getting revamped to also be an editing program. Additionally, they were dropping the price of the program from a new car ($15,000) to a used car ($3,500).
They have a free trial up at their site, available for download until the full thing comes out later this year. I haven’t had a chance to play with it, but if it’s anything like the rest of their software, expect a steeper learning curve that is rewarded by a ridiculously capable and powerful software package.
So which one?
In the end, the fundamental decision of moving away from a Mac-based post-production environment was an easy one. Apple’s behavior over the last year suggests their focus has shifted, and the PC architecture allows us flexibility in regards to hardware and upgrades. We’re already on PCs for our 3D rendering, and shifting everything else brings our entire post production process onto one platform.
Software-wise, we’re still vetting out our options, but at the moment we’re leaning towards Premiere due to the heavy VFX component of our work. We’ve been messing around with Premiere and there are some bizarre bugs we’ve encountered but for the most part, it’s a fast editing system and it integrates with the rest of the Creative Suite in a very cool way.
Curious about building your own computer? Check out our video for LAN Party and scroll down for some good resources for learning how!
Give a shit? Check out their page. Or not, you jaded bastards you.
http://www.rocketjump.com/blog/why-were ... rom-macs/2