editopen Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 I've been using Final Cut Pro in its various forms for a long time now. I have recently got very interested in the concept of coding and building software (however, I am not profficient at it at all). I find it really interesting looking into all the issues of collaborative coding, and building apps collectively. I do a bit of Web coding, CSS and the like, but i'm only just starting.. Just to feed my interest and curiosity, having looked at the way Final Cut Studio works, and having used it on dedicated machines giving me experience of how fast it can actually run, and watching it effortlessly casscade between the apps in the suite, to get amazing results, I have begun to wonder how complex it is. So, how complex is an app like FCP Studio?? To me it feels like the pinacle of software (I may be wrong). I'd like to hear from users, who are coders who can enlighten me. One of my first thoughts is that this sort of app can only be built with money backing from Apple et al., rather than in your bedroom - but where does money kick in over brains? I understand that time, and jobs are key - but I mean surely it isn't just down to money as to how good an app is?? Surely it's how good the coders are. I get this feeling when I look at how good and far ahead OSX is compared to most, if not all Linux distros, and even Windows. If any one has anything they can add here, I'd be really interested in hearing it all. Right now I am currently working on a thesis regarding usage of the concepts of the Open Source Model and its licenses in direct relation to film-making So you can see where i'm going with this. But really, I just want to know what it takes (or doesn't take) to build an app like FCP Studio. EditOpen - Open Source Video Edit Projects Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/11681-final-cut-studio-power-house/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayland Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 Interesting topic, I only know 2 things that might be of interest. Number 1: FCP requires a relatively small amount of space to install... however, Even the most complex lines of code can sometimes be very small, it's the graphical and sound mediums that can take up a good amount of space. Second, FCP was based on a previous software that was bought out, what that software was, I don't remember, but I read that when it first came out, like a decade ago it seems. Just a few thoughts... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/11681-final-cut-studio-power-house/#findComment-73663 Share on other sites More sharing options...
editopen Posted March 12, 2006 Author Share Posted March 12, 2006 I think the general consensus is that it was started by the original Macromedia team at Adobe, who then left Adobe and subsequently left the project lying and Apple took it up. Perhaps, the more I think about it - maybe the reason that the FCPStudio suite contains all the interchanging apps (LiveType, Compressor etc.) is so that the code can be simplified in general, over the whole suite, meaning that extensive compression functions etc. needn't be coded into FinalCutPro. As I say, I don't really know much about it - that's what this thread is for...... Editopen - Open Source Video Edit Projects Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/11681-final-cut-studio-power-house/#findComment-73823 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rohde Posted March 12, 2006 Share Posted March 12, 2006 FCP is quite a complex piece of software, and would require a lot of man hours to program. So either you either have a big team with money backing or a huge team working in their spare time for a loooong time. The latter almost never ends in something useful - only like 10% (if that many) of such projects results in a great finished product. If you want to get into the game start with some small idea that you think you can do better than the current offerings and implement that. Then over time you can improve your product, and if it's good some large software house might buy it from you. Oh and another thing programs such as FCP requires a lot of domain knowledge, and this is something many programmers lack. So you need motivation, excellent programming skills, project managements skills, and quite a lot of domain knowledge. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/11681-final-cut-studio-power-house/#findComment-73829 Share on other sites More sharing options...
editopen Posted March 12, 2006 Author Share Posted March 12, 2006 Can you, or somebody say some more about domain knowledge. It sounds very interesting. Also, in theory, i'd imagine that once the ball is rolling on the creation of an app like this it gets easier as you go along - with FinalCutPro it is noticable that there is a definite similarity between version 3.0 onwards. Editopen - Open Source Video Edit Projects Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/11681-final-cut-studio-power-house/#findComment-73898 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts