Final Cut Server and the future of Final Cut Studio
Today Apple announced that Final Cut Server is finally shipping. Final Cut Server was announced nearly a year ago, with a projected ship date sometime last fall. That didn’t happen, and it looks like the extra time may have been spent sprucing up the user interface.
It appears that Server carries with it some curiously distinct departures from the standard Leopard-style interface. The changes look fantastic and include updated scroll bars, drop-down menus, and button styling. Overall, the application is dark, similar to Color. It’s strange though that none of the other pro apps maintain this new look and feel.
If this is an indication that the rest of Final Cut Studio will be getting a visual upgrade this year around NAB (which is when that sort of thing might happen), bring it on. Final Cut Pro has one of the most dated interfaces of any Apple-produced app. It’s ancient. It’s annoying. And it’s ugly.
In addition, Final Cut Studio has a pretty disjointed interface when jumping between different applications. One of the selling points for Studio is that the applications work well with each other, and that round-tripping between most of the apps is a breeze. A unified interface or, at the very least, unified interface elements would really drive this home.
The features and solutions that Final Cut Server offers will surely be a boon for production houses looking for a new or better way to structure their post-production workflow. And while I doubt I’ll be using it anytime soon (since I typically work on small projects by my lonesome), I’m hoping it’s a herald of things to come.
