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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy photomontage motion/transition workflow

  • photomontage motion/transition workflow

    Posted by Mike Schmitt on December 28, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    Okay, now I’m facing a problem I deal with every time I do one of these montages.

    I have all the photos on the timeline and I want to add a little motion to each still and a dissolve between each still.

    If I add the motion before the dissolve, then I have to go back and adjust the start and stop time of the motion on each still… (this is how I’ve always done it.

    Or I could add all the dissolves and add the motion afterward. Testing this this morning, even though I have SNAP on, I am not always moving the start and stop keyframes to the exact spot where it needs to be.

    Is there an easy way to add a dissolve between two still that both have independent zooming/position keyframes and have the motion automatically extend to the beginning/end of the clip?

    Thanks!

    John Fishback replied 17 years, 4 months ago 7 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Captain Mench

    December 28, 2008 at 6:21 pm

    I set the keyframes where I can see the photos.

    Dbl click the photo to load into VIEWER

    Place playhead somewhere near the beginning of the clip in the viewer, but after the transition

    Set position and size as your starting point – set keyframes for those attributes

    Then move forward in the clip and set your ending position – keyframes should then be set or set new ones if not.

    THEN (here’s my trick that gets very quick with practice) SHIFT-I (‘eye’) sends you to the IN of the clip

    ADD keyframes by tapping the center of the keyframe hoogie… then use the RIGHT triangle next to it to jump to the first set of keyframes you placed.

    DELETE those keyframes

    SHIFT-O (‘oh’) to go to the OUT of the clip

    Add keyframes

    Hit the LEFT triangle hoogie to go to the SECOND set of keyframes you placed. Delete them.

    Preview

    Pepper to taste.

    Good luck,

    CaptM

  • Zane Barker

    December 28, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    As you know FCP does not have a supper easy workflow for photo montages, so I actualy don’t use it for them.

    Check out Fotomagico. You can do a photo montage in a fraction of the time with Fotomagico then with FCP.

    There are no “technical solutions” to your “artistic problems”.
    Don’t let technology get in the way of your creativity!

  • Mike Schmitt

    December 28, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    So you’re saying to do the transition before the motion. If that’s the easiest way, it’s fine by me.

  • Chris Poisson

    December 28, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    Mike,

    There are a couple other solutions for this. The plugins PanZoomPro and DH Box.

    With Michael’s method, I do this too, but after the transitions are in place, just drag the keyframes in the timeline to the beginning and/or end of the transitions. You can also double click the clip into the Viewer and drag them there.

    Also, if you use travel mattes, you can put the keyframes on the clips and the transitions on the mattes and nothing will move.

    Mostly though, if it’s a long show, I will do these in Fotomagico.

    Have a wonderful day.

  • Kevin Monahan

    December 29, 2008 at 6:54 pm

    When editing keyframes for transistions, go to Clip Keyframes Mode in the Timeline. You can see, visually, the keyframes in the blue bar and drag them in relation to the starting and ending points of the transition. This relationship cannot be seen in the tabs of the Viewer.

    In my observation of FCP editors, I have found very few explore track layouts to speed workflow for certain tasks, such as the above technique. The same holds true for window arrangement for specific tasks.

    Kevin Monahan
    http://www.fcpworld.com
    Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

  • James Disch

    December 29, 2008 at 7:19 pm

    I would do all the moves first. Then I would copy all the clips with moves on them to the above video track. Remove all the motion attributes of the new video track. Add the dissolves. Then for each clip I would copy the layer below. (clip with motion) then I would select the above clip with dissolve and paste the motion attributes back onto the clip. This should extend the motion through the dissolve. After your done you can delete the lower track.

    James

    http://www.rapidlightproductions.com

  • John Fishback

    December 29, 2008 at 8:38 pm

    For a totally different and easy workflow for photo montages check out CoreMelt’s ImageFlow. https://www.coremelt.com/products/videos/imageflow-whatsnew-15.html

    John

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