Animation Much the same as in FCP

[Nevin Styre]

it seems to do some sort of auto bezier on some things.

I tested a simple text title & animated position scrolling in from the left, at first I made the start keyframe too far off frame so I added a third keyframe a few frames ahead and moved it closer to the edge but still off screen. I deleted the first, resulting in my 2 keyframes: beginning and end. There’s no bezier option so you would think it would result in a strait linear path, but no. The text scrolled in, went past the end position a few frames before the 2nd keyframe then eased back to the end position at the 2nd keyframe.

It seems like pretty much any hand animation will be best through motion until you can actually control what is happening with the keyframes… that is if you plan to use it at all.

[Brad Jordan]

Only certain “Motion” attributes have the ability to adjust keyframe curves. Scale, Position, Anchor, etc aren’t ones that do. Bummer. I always used Motion for my animation before so I can’t remember if FCP 7 had Bezier curves for animation keyframes or not. Hmmm.

[Lance Moody]

HI,

Yes, I think this behavior has always been part of FCP. You can definitely do bezier on x/y motion.

I was referring to scaling, for instance.

For light motion graphics use, having a photo zoom from one area to another AND STOP, or having a logo grow bigger AND STOP is sort of an everyday need.

FCP has NEVER been able to do this smoothly, always using linear starts and stops. This makes almost all of the animation features in FCP useless for anyone with any taste.

Lance

[Nevin Styre]

Actually scaling in FCP7 does have the option for bezier keyframes. You just have to right click each keyframe in the viewer and select “Smooth”. I’ve used this lots to avoid the linear jumpy look like you say.

[Lance Moody]

Hi Nevin,

You are correct that the option to set a scaling KF to smooth is available in FCP7. It just doesn’t work. See After Effects for how an ease in should look.

Lance

[Francois Xavier]

you can perfectly adjust smoothness at start and end in Fcp 7. Both to displacement (Position) and zoom (Scale) but separatly !

what you can’t do properly is both at the same time. (they work differently). Problem is … that is just what you usually want…

you need to go to Motion for a proper “Ken Burns”

– with a camera it will be perfect at once

– if you play with Position and Scale you will end (at first) with the same problem that in Fcp (because “Position” will have a Bezier by default) but by adjusting both parameters KF to “ease in” (for instance) it will suit your needs.

Documentary Director & Editor
Paris /France

[Nevin Styre]

AE definitely deals with keyframes much better with way more control, but the scaling smoothing does work in FCP7 and looks better than not having it.

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu-PQTj7nko

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