Final Cut creator Randy Ubillos leaves Apple after 20 years
Randy Ubillos, the creator of both Apple's Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier, announced on Thursday that he is leaving Apple after more than two decades with the Mac maker.
Ubillos revealed his departure in a post to Twitter. The developer suggested he will not be taking another full-time job, as he said he's looking forward "to retirement and the adventures ahead."
His official title at Apple was chief architect of photo and video applications.
Ubillos started out at Adobe, where he worked on the first three versions of its Premier software. He later jumped ship to Macromedia where he helped to create KeyGrip, a pro video editing program based on Apple's QuickTime.
KeyGrip was later renamed Final Cut, though Macromedia could not release it due to licensing issues. Apple eventually purchased the Final Cut team and software outright, and saw its development through.
In addition to Final Cut, Ubillos was also responsible for the creation of both iMovie and Aperture during his time at Apple.
Ubillos revealed his departure in a post to Twitter. The developer suggested he will not be taking another full-time job, as he said he's looking forward "to retirement and the adventures ahead."
His official title at Apple was chief architect of photo and video applications.
Ubillos started out at Adobe, where he worked on the first three versions of its Premier software. He later jumped ship to Macromedia where he helped to create KeyGrip, a pro video editing program based on Apple's QuickTime.
KeyGrip was later renamed Final Cut, though Macromedia could not release it due to licensing issues. Apple eventually purchased the Final Cut team and software outright, and saw its development through.
In addition to Final Cut, Ubillos was also responsible for the creation of both iMovie and Aperture during his time at Apple.
Comments
And with it, Apple's Pro market altogether, as Apple becomes a fashion company (Jesus, never thought I would be saying that.. It hurts).
Time to start learning other editing applications.
I hope the team has the creativity and imagination to continue the "out of the box" direction.
I had two Radius Telecast systems back then plus the Macs, RAID drives, DLT back up. hardware companders and so on. It was considered a low budget set up as it was well under $100,000! Hence I get a kick out of FCPro X.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Radius+Demonstrates+Component+Digital+Video+Editing+System+For+PCI...-a018995304
http://www.mikecollins.plus.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/Radius Telecast.pdf
Final Cut Pro X is pretty awesome. The sky isn't falling.
I wish they would retain Randy as a consultant or somesuch ... A whole lotta` talent and vision!
I doubt this will have much impact. FCP is pretty well flushed out now (compared to launch) and I think the team of people still working on it are going to be fine maintaining and updating it.
Apple didn't nosedive after Jobs left, so why should FCP (and related software) die because Ubillos leaves? I'm sure this was known well in advance and Apple took steps to ensure a smooth transition for the team (and whoever heads it up in the future).
If you want to jump ship you can take a look at HitFilm Pro 3 http://hitfilm.com
Long Live Final Cut Pro.
Nah this isn't the end of Final Cut Pro at all. I can only imagine people saying this like this are not paying attention to the video market.
Final Cut Pro X actually has a vibrant and outspoken development community. As well Apple is winning in the professional television market.
Apple's ProRes codec has at this point become the standard delivery codec for television around the world. Every major camera system supports Pro Res and every major post production work flow has to use Pro Res in some regard.
Mac's are the best systems for supporting and delivering Pro Res - Final Cut Pro X is the easiest editing system in which to use and deliver Pro Res.
Perhaps "Hair Force One" will take over? ????
The good thing about this is now Randy is out from under Apple and is able to speak publicly about FCP x and his ideas for how it improves video production.
He's retiring.
A major chunk of the features once available only to "pros" and available only in "pro" applications, are now mostly accessible to the average consumer in outrageously easy and user-friendly implementations.
It's all about the rise of the Prosumer.
Final Cut Pro and iMovie to be replaced with new Movies app!
LOL! I don't think so.
One issue I keep hearing about FCP X is that it is less suited to production teams than available alternatives and it's better designed for small productions with a single editor.
Any editors care to comment?
I would imagine that the biggest problem Apple will have is choosing the best individual out of a large group of very qualified candidates. That if they limit themselves to internal sources, world wide there are thousands of potential leaders for this group.