Create a double key: the parts that are white have one background, black have another

[Mark Suszko]

In FCPX you might handle this by making compound clips that just contain the relevant parts. Stacks of compound clips allow independent manipulation.

in Motion, I’d want to look at how you use grouping to do the same thing. Grouping or nesting can be very powerful in letting you make adjustments in one place that don’t interfere with others..

[Brianlaz]

Thanks for your response.
Yes, compound clips is where I started in FCPX, but the problem is that no matter what, when you add a luma key it’s going to affect everything.
I downloaded a cool plugin where you can tell FCP you want a mask, it asks you what shape you want to use, and you can direct it to an alpha channel version of the faces/space in between the faces. This seemed promising, but the plugin stopped working.
You can do the same in Motion, so I tried it, with groups instead of compound clips but I just couldn’t get it to work. Once I started stacking them I would lose one of the alpha channels or the other.
I will keep trying. The vibe seems to export two animated masks: one with the faces transparent, the other with the space transparent. Then I can use one mask and have a bunch of stuff in the faces, then make a new group and apply the other mask, so that stuff will come up in the space between them. Conceptually I more or less have it but it hasn’t worked.

[Mark Suszko]

Maybe a dumb question, but why not turn your B&W masks into green and white ones, then you can chromakey one part and luma key the other.

Also, have you tried different blending modes with these combos?

[Brianlaz]

Thanks for the thought, no dumb questions here.
The thing is the color of the keys is not really the problem. I can output clips that have alpha channels (the faces/space are transparent, period) so I don’t even have to key anything. The issue is being able to stack them. I just got that plugin to work, and it ALMOST does it, but for some reason it had a big effect on the part it wasn’t masking. Super weird.
I’d rather have groups (in Motion) that I can see all at once than mess with the compound clips, which to me can get confusing (even though they are awesome).
I will try again in motion using these masks and see if I can be more specific about exactly what’s going wrong and maybe that will make it easier for someone to help me.

[Doug Metz]

Steve at Ripple just did a video tutorial you’ll want to look at, and covers exactly what you’re trying to do:

https://www.rippletraining.com/articles/free-final-cut-pro-video-tutorials/2019/03/29/shutterstock-video-editor-toolkit/

Short answer -at 2:00 in the video above- :
In FCPX, place one of your clips on the primary storyline.
Place your image mask (B&W) on top of that, set it’s Compositing Blend Mode to Silhouette Luma
Place your second clip above the mask, set it’s Blend Mode to Behind

Edit – No need for keying or compound clips, either!

Doug Metz

Dalton+Anode

[Brianlaz]

Oh. My. God.
That is IT!!
So brilliant. I had an alpha channel so I did silhouette alpha for the blend of the lower clip. Worked perfectly.
I’m assuming (fingers crossed) I can do the same with compound clips so I can have multiple layers going on in each space. But so far, that TOTALLY nailed it, thank you so much.
Curious, which did you see first, my post or the video? It’s amazing because his video isn’t even about this technique, it’s tangential to using all the shutterstock stuff.
Thanks again!
I’m also assuming (fingers crossed again) that it’s the same kind of deal in Motion. When I have time later I’ll mess around.

[Doug Metz]

[brianlaz] “Oh. My. God.
That is IT!!
So brilliant. I had an alpha channel so I did silhouette alpha for the blend of the lower clip. Worked perfectly.
I’m assuming (fingers crossed) I can do the same with compound clips so I can have multiple layers going on in each space. But so far, that TOTALLY nailed it, thank you so much.
Curious, which did you see first, my post or the video? It’s amazing because his video isn’t even about this technique, it’s tangential to using all the shutterstock stuff.
Thanks again!
I’m also assuming (fingers crossed again) that it’s the same kind of deal in Motion. When I have time later I’ll mess around.”

Glad to help! I happened to see that video yesterday – I didn’t find your post until this afternoon and immediately posted the link. It felt serendipitous, really.

Doug Metz

Dalton+Anode