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Can’t import Motion project from FCP
I have just completed a motion project and would like to import it from FCP but when I open the file in FCP, the name of my motion file is greyed out. When I select “all files” and choose the file, I get the error message “file error:wrong type”. I saved the project as a .motn file. Am I saving the motion project incorrectly? It appears that the only way I can bring the project into FCP at all is to save it as a quicktime file, but that defeats the idea of making changes as needed. Is that the only way? I must be overlooking something simple. Please help!
Final Cut Studio
Mac OS X
Dual 2.7 Ghz PowerPC G5
4 GB DDR SDRAM -
6 Replies
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You can’t open a motion project in FCP– you have to IMPORT it like it’s a QT movie file.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
Thank you for responding, Jim. It is good to know that I SHOULD be exporting Motion projects as Quicktime movies. I just assumed that they would show up in FCP as a .motn file. If QT is the way to go, how can I go about improving the resolution? The text looks great in Motion but looks pretty shoddy in FCP. Any suggestions?
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I might be way off base here, but I think you misunderstood what Jim was saying. You CAN import Motion projects into FCP without rendering them (exporting as a movie). What he was saying is that they (the .motn project file) are treated by FCP as if they were a QT movie. FCP calls QT for a frame and QT calls the Motion engine for the frame. You don’t have to render a movie from Motion, unless you choose to.
Again, sorry if I’m misinterpreting.
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Or if you want to bring them in as QuickTime- I’d recommend using the lossless preset. And don’t forget to look at them in FCP on an NTSC monitor- the desktop preview is a lower resolution proxy.
Noah
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Specialcase got it. Motion 2 project files are treated as though they are QT movies by FCP (and DVDSP and After Effects). If you import the .motn file it will play like a .mov but you still have the ability to save changes in the original .motn file and have them update automatically in the calling program.
As Noah said, always try to judge things on a broadcast monitor, not the computer monitor. And per his suggestion, rendering the project as a QT .mov file will enable faster performance in the calling app. Changes to the original project would have to be rendered to a file with the same name as the previous render.
Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com -
All true but the .motn will not actually PLAY like it’s a movie. You will only be able to see as much of Motion’s action as your machine can spit out for you. If the project is more than a few layers or involves scaling and motion blur and drop shadows (and what project doesn’t?) the utility of being able to use .motn in the timeline becomes silly. Hope you machine is up to the task. Mine isn’t. Not for the complexity I’m doing now. So I usually output a proxy movie file at low rez. Doesn’t take too long to render and the rough timing is easy to correct later.
But that’s just the workflow I’m using with a few particular projects at the moment. Might change.bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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