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FCX Keyframes Busted – Update
Like many I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to wrestle with the interpolation of the keyframes. When creating a simple movement FCPX wants to ease the thing in and out, often adding unexpected lateral movement.
Based on Don Smith’s previous thread I did some experimenting.
Watch the video and note the reaction of FCPX when I add and delete keyframes. Does it make any sense why the position of the object between two keyframes would change by adding and deleting a keyframe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEu93c1kIa0
I can only guess that adding a keyframe between two others might change the handles of those two keyframes. Even if the keyframes are supposed to be linear, and not have handles.
Whatever. I’m just glad that I can now make my movements completely linear!
Happy new year!
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
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30 Replies
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It’s interesting to note that there is the ability to break the curve handles apart in the viewer. I didn’t know this, nor can I find it documented anywhere.
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Great video – thanks for sharing. Sheesh, seems like a bug to me and a very clever workaround. Why adding and deleting keyframes gets rid of the easing (even when Linear is checked) is a mystery to me.
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FCP Guru
http://www.fcpguru.com -
Thanks for adding the video. I kinda knew what you meant, but the video made it very clear. Awfully strange app behavior, but it’s a good workaround until it gets fixed in an update.
Dave
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It feels like there are two separate things happening here. The “linear” setting for the keyframes appears to apply to the curvature of the path, not the easing between the keyframing. If you take the project you show in your video and instead of breaking the handles on the second keyframe, you right click and choose linear (the second keyframe is set to smooth), then the path curvature straightens out without the need to eyeball it using the handles.
However, having a linear path does not change the fact that the timing of the keyframes uses a bezier easing.
I think this is because the position keyframing is pulled from how Motion does position keyframing. In Motion, position keyframes are bezier by default. In FCPX, there doesn’t seem to be a way to change that interpolation. That, to me, is the bug that needs fixing. Just give us a way to set the keyframes to bezier, linear, constant, easing, just like you can in Motion.
Otherwise, the Linear/smooth feature of the keyframes operates as it should in my opinion.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Yep… you’re right about making the center keyframe linear. It made the corner nice and sharp.
It’s good to know about the ability to break the handles though.
And it still doesn’t explain why adding and deleting the keyframes causes the position to not ease in and out.
I’m just glad to finally have a workaround, and I hope they fix it in the next update.
I wonder if they could give us a keyframe editor like in motion? Perhaps those expanded video animation bars could actually be made useful.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
Mark… you are a myth. 🙂
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Thank you Mark! Due to your excellent sleuthing, my hair follicles are now safe(er).
It’s just too bad that you et al. had to spend ANY effort figuring out a way to keyframe a linear/constant motion path… but your efforts are appreciated!
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Mark,
I tried to reproduce your fix and the workaround is inconsistent. The ease value is an acceleration parameter. If you look at the intervals of the dashes on the path line, they represent acceleration, which is independent of the linear/smooth control. Adding/deleting key frames sort of works if you do it within the right portion of that part of the path. It can’t be any arbitrary position along the line. Definitely a bug as far as I’m concerned.
While we are at it, do you notice how crop works? When you crop the image, the remaining portion is scaled to full screen. Any idea how to avoid that?
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “Adding/deleting key frames sort of works if you do it within the right portion of that part of the path”
Firstly, I never noticed the dashed lines. Must be my aging eyes.
Try jumping to the keyframe then going two or three frames past it, and before it. I’ve had good luck adding/deleting the keyframes just a few frames on each side of a keyframe. When you add/delete the keyframe the object jumps, so I keep hitting add/delete until the object doesn’t move.
Seems pretty consistent to me.
I think adding the keyframe within a few frames forces the handles for the linear acceleration to change. These are handles that you can’t see or control directly, but must exist.
Yes the crop is like doing the Ken Burns effect, except that the Ken Burns effect doesn’t have keyframes. It works for the entire length of the clip. I’ve noticed that you can make the crop box larger than the frame, thereby shrinking the picture, but you’d be guessing at the exact position because you don’t get that realtime feedback of how the adjustments are moving the object around.
It’s klunky. It’ll get better, won’t it?
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
It’s klunky. It’ll get better, won’t it?
But probably not in the way you’d like. They’ll likely “fix” the workaround. 😉
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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