I really want to stick with Final Cut, but it’s still missing some basic creator features
I make social media videos for audiences in different countries, so I keep bouncing between Resolve, Final Cut, Premiere and CapCut.
Honestly, I want to stay in Final Cut most of the time. It runs great on my Mac, the Magnetic Timeline is fast once you get used to it, and the whole Creator Studio setup with Motion, Compressor and Pixelmator Pro can be ridiculously convenient.
But some really basic gaps keep pushing me into other apps. Generate Captions is still US English only. If I’m editing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish or basically anything else, I have to leave Final Cut before I can even start styling the subtitles. For software aimed at creators, that still feels pretty strange.
The same goes for people on camera. I’m not looking for crazy face filters, but sometimes a client or presenter just wants a little skin smoothing. Final Cut can detect skin now, but there still isn’t a simple built-in retouch tool. It’s either another plugin or another round trip.
Social versions also take more work than they should. Smart Conform helps, but making 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1 versions with different subtitle layouts, safe areas and graphics still feels much slower than CapCut. Libraries and render files also get huge unless I keep babysitting them, and handing a project to someone using Premiere or Resolve is never especially pleasant.
I know 12.3 just came out, and I like the direction Apple is taking. I just wish one update would focus on the boring everyday creator stuff instead of adding another impressive feature.
Am I missing a better workflow, or does everyone else still bounce between three or four editing apps too?