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“Pan Behind” equivalent?
Is there some kind of functionality in FCPX that’s similar to the “Pan Behind” tool in After Effects?
I need to “mask out” an area of the background. In AE I would duplicate the layer, draw my mask around the area, then use the Pan Behind tool to find the best area to use as the mask. But with FCPX, as far as I can tell, I have to Transform the X and Y coordinates, then move the mask back over the area…very tedious.
Am I missing something?
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3 Replies
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What you’re looking for is basically a subset of automated rotoscoping. It’s not inside X, but most X editors I know just do that kind of stuff in TrackX/SliceX.
It’s true that FCP X doesn’t have every feature of the other NLEs – just like those other NLEs don’t have all the features that X does.
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Track X or Slice X don’t have pan behind either. This isn’t something you’d generally find in an NLE. More of a compositing feature. But the easiest way to accomplish “panning behind” if you’ve already applied a draw mask for instance, would be to right click the clip and choose “open in timeline” and move the shot around with the transform tools. Unfortunately you’re kind of working blind so you’ll have to enter and exit the shot’s timeline to get it right. But it’s a simple enough work around in a pinch. If you haven’t added the mask yet, the preferred method would be to compound the clip and add the mask to the compound. A compound is essentially the same thing as an AE pre comp.
In Motion you’d accomplish the same thing by applying the mask to the group which contains the shot. A group is akin to a pre-comp in AE land. The beauty of a group is that instead of opening it up as it’s own sequence (like an X compound or an AE pre-comp) to see and alter it’s contents, you simply twirl open the group and can adjust the layers in context with the parent composition – allowing you leave the mask in place and simply move the background image around.
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For lack of a better solution, I created one myself, called “Pan Behind”.
Install the “Pan Behind” folder into the “/Motion Templates/Effects” folder.
To use Pan Behind, create a layer mask just like you normally would, using any of the built in FCPX masks. Then, add Pan Behind to the clip. VERY IMPORTANT…Pan Behind must be moved *ABOVE* the mask in the effects hierarchy, or else it won’t work. With the Pan Behind effect selected, you’ll see a white box appear in the viewer, which you can grab and move around. Voila, you’re moving the clip underneath the mask.
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