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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Secondary Storylines and Blending Modes – It’s a hack but it works…kinda

  • Secondary Storylines and Blending Modes – It’s a hack but it works…kinda

    Posted by Brendan Gibbons on September 26, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    I think I’ve stumbled upon what is a reasonably simple “hack” to get blending modes on secondary storylines working, using motion 5.

    This is just a bit of brain dump as I’m not sitting in front of the edit system, so sorry about the lack of pictures or a download. I will upload a working preset for those that don’t have motion 5 tomorrow hopefully.

    1. In motion create a new preset from a title template.

    2. Delete the temporary text from preset, just like you would when creating an “adjustment” layer from the title preset.

    3. Add a new “dropzone” to the group and drag it to the bottom of the group, beneath the one called “title background”

    4. Make sure the dropzone is published, don’t think it is set to be published by default in title preset?

    5. Now go to the inspector for the title background layer and publish the blending modes box.

    6. save you new preset so it appears back in FCPX.

    7. Inside of FCPX, you will find your “effect” in the titles browser.

    8. Apply this over the top of your secondary storyline and trim it to match it’s duration.

    9. In the published parameters section of the inspector you should have a dropzone “chooser”. Use this to select the clip directly beneath the secondary storyline.

    10. Change the blend modes in the title preset.

    If you have many clips beneath the secondary storyline, turn them into a compound clip first so you can select it in then dropzone.

    This uses dropzones, so be prepared for some odd quirks, but it did work on a simple level for me

    Cheers,

    BG

    Brendan Gibbons replied 14 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Andy Neil

    September 26, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    Why not just use a compound clip instead of a secondary storyline? Compound clips can contain internal transitions and they maintain their blend mode where storylines do not.

    Andy

    https://www.timesavertutorials.com

  • Brendan Gibbons

    September 26, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    In quite a few cases I think many people like to see the whole edit in context, and not having to jump in and out of compound clips.

    Well that’s my reasoning for using an effect to have it inside the main “timeline”

    I think compound clips need to work in a way like another nle where the layers expand in context maybe.

    Cheers,

    BG

  • Andy Neil

    September 26, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    Which NLE is that?

    Andy

    https://www.timesavertutorials.com

  • Simon Ubsdell

    September 26, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    Man, but you’re an ingenious bloke!!! Hats off!

    Simon Ubsdell
    Director/Editor/Writer
    http://www.tokyo-uk.com

  • Brendan Gibbons

    September 26, 2011 at 7:47 pm

    From my very vague…if somewhat outdated self-taught knowledge….I believe avid works in a way where clips that are unstacked…do so inside the timeline.

    Which to me would make more sense if compound clips appeared and could be hidden in the same timeline.

    But hey, that’s just me.

    Cheers,

    BG

  • Simon Ubsdell

    September 26, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    Yup, that’s how Media Composer works with Collapsed clips – they open up in the timeline. Not that I’m a big fan of layering in MC – always thought it was very nasty.

    And of course the lack of Blend Modes was always a major issue.

    Simon Ubsdell
    Director/Editor/Writer
    http://www.tokyo-uk.com

  • Andy Neil

    September 26, 2011 at 8:07 pm

    OIC. Collapsed clips. Not exactly the same thing, though I see your point. Might be difficult to do in X because of the fact that you can combine video and audio, and storylines and other compound clips into a compound clip. Perhaps something where it expands in chicklet mode allowing for simple clip rearrangement and trimming, but detailed operations like audio keyframing and such would need to be opened in Timeline Mode for that.

    Or maybe Opening a clip in Timeline Mode can show the rest of the project in a similar mode since adjusting a compound clip would take precedence.

    Andy

    https://www.timesavertutorials.com

  • Brendan Gibbons

    September 26, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    I guess I was thinking this might have been something they fixed.

    As you can throw a layer under the Primary storyline, make it a secondary and use a blend mode through to it from the primary….and it works.

    Perhaps it’s just me getting worked up over blend modes….but I use them all the time.

    Blend modes on secondary storlines, some way of using “roles” to automatically organise my clips to “tracks”, broadcast monitoring and the opening of fcp7 projects and I think I’d be a happier bunny!…not too much to ask…surely?

    cheers,

    BG

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