Lightworks release date

[Brian Drysdale]

You could regard it as an annual license to use the full range of codecs, since you always have the free version with a limited codec range, which the program reverts to. That's rather like the model you have with anti virus software, which you need to renew every year in order to keep the virus files up to date.

With Lightworks you also have the option of a two year or three year subscription rather than an annual one.

It's a matter of personal choice and some people just don't like the concept of subscriptions, although the Lightworks costs do make financial sense for many people when you look at the numbers.

This subject did come up on the Lightworks forum and impression was that Lightworks was sort of in the middle between Adobe cloud and purchasing the software. You don't need to regularly check in with Lightworks and with the new off line activation the workstation doesn't need an internet connection. I believe the latter was causing problems for some people and organisations.

[Brian Drysdale]

There are three more shark byte tutorials. These cover media management, plus Windows installing & activating Lightworks Version 11.1. I assume the latter is an updated version.

On their forum, they are asking what further Shark Byte tutorials the Lightworks users would like.

[Brian Drysdale]

Lightworks Version 11.1.1e public beta is available for testing.

New Lightworks Version 11.1.1.e Now Available as Public Beta

This includes experimental memory handling in order to resolve the outstanding memory issues reported by users, plus a number of fixes.

[Brian Drysdale]

Although nothing official, but I imagine that the mac version of Lightwork that Editshare is planning to release around IBC will be a public beta. They like to go through a good beta process before the release version and the Linux version is currently still at the beta stage.

[Brian Drysdale]

There is another public beta, 11.1.1f http://www.lwks.com/index.php?option...iew&Itemid=188

This has a few maintenance fixes.

[Brian Drysdale]

There is a Lightworks dialogue editing tutorial available, complete with script, material and 6 video tutorials

Lightworks Dialogue Edit Tutorial

[Brian Drysdale]

Public beta 11.1.1g is available for testing. This has a further range of fixes and adds a 24bit audio export option to the export panel

New Lightworks Version 11.1.1.g Now Available as Public Beta

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

There is a Lightworks dialogue editing tutorial available, complete with script, material and 6 video tutorials

Lightworks Dialogue Edit Tutorial

BTW This might be of interest to non Lightworks users who want too see how you approach cutting dialogue, timings etc.

[D.J. Ammons]

I am curious as to how Lightworks is rated for ease of use? For someone currently using Sony Vegas Pro how big of a learning curve would it be?

[Brian Drysdale]

Also owning Vegas, I suspect that Sony Vegas may cause you to think in a way that isn't necessarily the best method for using Lightworks. The secret seems to be forget whatever way your previous NLE does things because it's just going to hold you back.

A number of the features operate in a similar way to Vegas, however, Lightworks, drag and drop involves using the shift and Ctrl together with the mouse to cover all the possible options. Some people are using Lightworks in combination with Vegas because of the latter's strong audio features, they use it effectively as a digital audio workstation.

Having said that, you can get going relatively quickly. The video tutorials now cover a far number of the procedures and a new User Guide is due out soon. Once you know your way around the program you can use Lightworks the way you want, you're not locked into any one layout or method of working.

The terminology can be a bit different. Perhaps the use of bins and racks is the first thing to get over, that and every tile (viewer or thumbnail) having it's own timeline, this may throw you at first, but it's extremely flexible. Note you can only edit in one timeline at a time.

[Chris Barcellos]

I fear that I have been spoiled by Vegas' ease of use. I have Lightworks, and I have Premiere in CS5 (I actually learned editing in Premiere initially In early 2000's), but I can't get myself to use anything but Vegas. I fully intend to try to learn more about light works, but the way is was set up in past work flows I tried was based on storage methods for hard film. Since I was new to motion filming, it made no sense to me in modern NLE terms. I hope they are moving away from that.

[Brian Drysdale]

In which way is the Lightworks set up "based on storage methods for hard film"? You can now do a lot of drag and drop editing.

There is some terminology, but other NLEs use bins with perhaps racks being the one unique term to Lightworks.

[Brian Drysdale]

The racks mentioned are on screen directories/folders into which you can place 15 bins or racks (closed racks can be placed inside other racks). You can use these to create whatever filing system works for you or a particular project.

[Chris Barcellos]

As I recall, in my early days of trying to work with this NLE, the terminology in the trainging was something like rooms, racks, boxes, etc.,, and I understood it to be based on basic hard film editing techniques and management that I as a late comer to editing had no connection to. Perhaps it was just terminology, but that was the feeling I got.

Now admittedly, that was a few years back, and I recognize that things may have changed. My point was I have become accustomed to Vegas, and its drag drop functions that seem to leave things open enough for me to feel free about the editting process. I feel like Vegas allows you to accomplish goals or editing processes by multiple approaches, where as Premiere and Final Cut wanted to restrict you to a process developed by the designer,

I do want to learn and support FirstLight, because I actually believe in what they are doing. I just hope that it has changed that restrictive feeling that I got in my initial trial.

[Brian Drysdale]

Lightworks is extremely flexible in how it allows you to work as you like, you can change the layout etc. It's so flexible that it can throw newcomers used to more rigid arrangements. You can use the console (both hardware and the basic on screen version), drag and drop, keyboards or a combination

Some of the terms have been updated, but having a different terminology isn't unique to Lightworks, I gather "event", a term used in Vegas, has a different definition in FCP X.

The Lightworks rooms just allow you to work on different aspects of the same project in different spaces, which aspect is really up to the editor to decide. I suspect it's hard to come up with a computer term that can cover all possible aspects/functions, so perhaps room is just as good a term as any other. It's a space to be used as required. Many users seem to just use one room, but with more complex productions with many episodes for example, they have the option to use them if there's a need. I guess you could call them workspaces, but since Lightworks was originally a British product "room" has that understated approach.

http://lightworks.wikidot.com/lightworks-glossary Update: Stripview is now referred to as timeline. This was written for the Lightworksbeta V10, so some details will have changed.

BTW The bins in Lightworks were originally called galleries (which isn't a film editing term) as in picture gallery. Bin became the common term, so Lightworks changed their terminology, although perhaps gallery is closer to what it looks like on screen. Bin is the film editing term.