Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad

Apple FCPX Techniques Tutorial at Creative COW

Sam McGuire

©2011 CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Article Focus:
Need to make a quick edit while on the road or export a project from a remote location? Using an iPad, Skype, SoundFlower, LogMeIn.com, and your primary Final Cut station you can edit from anywhere you have network connection. While not the only way to complete this task, the described method provides stability, flexibility, and quality. This tutorial describes the setup and basic functionality of the involved tools.

Comments

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@Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by kim krause

and don't forget splash top which i mentioned in my brief!

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by kim krause

finally someone sees my point.....i knew it would happen one day! thank you thank you thank you for opening up peoples minds and eyes to new ways of working!

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by Sam McGuire

Good conversation. One more thought: If your desktop is attached via Ethernet to your LAN, you can actually boot it remotely using LogMeIn. It doesn't work on a wireless network, but booting remotely is great.

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by Paul Peltekian

I've been using GoToMyPC exclusively for this purpose for over 2 years now. When running in windows you don't need Sound Flower or Skype. Audio passes directly through very nicely. I mostly use it on my laptop and I must say, with a good connection to my Avid workstation in my home studio and a good connection to my laptop (even over wifi) I'm able to do A LOT of editing without too much lag. It's quite amazing how far we've come. If I have no other options I use my ipad2 to login via the GotoMyPC app directly into my Windows 7 PC and as one person said, use it mainly for exports, rendering, compression, uploads etc etc... I can now literally go on vacation and still do work and deliver cuts to clients without having to plan ahead and transfer hundreds of gigs worth of video/audio on to portable drives to be able to edit remotely. I LOVE IT!!!!!!

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by Andrei Savu

Thanks for taking the time for almost completely useless in a production environment. Maybe serves as "wow" factor for clients that want to feel like thyre hip with current technologies but no one would actually attempt to edit in this way without hotkeys and quick mouse interaction.

-1

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@Andrei Savu
by Jeremy Garchow

Useless is the opposite description of what it does for me. While I don't edit with LogMeIn, I will tell you what I do with it. There are many times where I am waiting for paint to dry, rendering, compressing, whatever.

I can now go home while the computer does the hard work, and I can log in remotely and trigger exports, imports, more processor work. i can also check on those renders to me make sure they are still running, or if the computer is even on. I can also search archives, start downloads, check on internal file transfers, check on uploads and restart any of those processes without having to be at the office. You might call it useless, I call it useful.

So remote access to my computer is great as I don't have to be sitting right in front of it.

You can also get external keyboards for your iPad or use LogMeIn from another computer if you need more keyboard control.

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@Jeremy Garchow
by Andrei Savu

Ofcourse for checking on a remote machine's progress is wonderful with log me in, my point was more that theres a difference between accessing a remote application and actually using it remotely.

-1

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@Andrei Savu
by Jeremy Garchow

I have edited with it and has saved me a few hours of round trip office time. I wouldn't do it all the time, but the only thing really slowing me down would be network speed.

Especially when you access the computer from another computer, there's not that much difference. I'll put up with the lag if I don't have to go in to the office at 12AM just to make a few tweaks.

Useless is a pretty strong word is all I'm saying. Don't knock it till you try it, unless you've tried it then knock it.

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@Jeremy Garchow
by Andrei Savu

Completely agree with you I have done the same....but you dont need an iPad for that. A laptop or desktop will suffice.

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by James Mortner

Very very cool, although actually trying to navigate with the iPad to FCPX and launch looked agonising !

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Re: Controlling Final Cut X with an iPad
by Jeremy Garchow

Nice work.

LogMeIn has seriously changed my life. I don't have to be tethered at the office for simple tasks.

Soundflower, didn't know about that one. Thanks!

Jeremy

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