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Creating my own Drop Shadow for FCPX
I am having a heck of a time trying to get the simplest thing done.
I want a drop shadow with 50% opacity, and 30% blur, that is 20% offset to the right. (X: 239px)
I don’t want to have to manually change the settings in FCPX every time i add drop shadow. So I figured I’d learn how to go into motion and create a preset drop shadow effect. I’ve setup the hud settings accordingly, then saved it.
Now when I go into FCPX and apply the new effect, it doesn’t do anything. Could someone please give me a walk through on how to do this? It would really help out my project, as I have to add this to hundreds of clips over the next few months….
Chris
Chris Jordan
Shot Calla- Creative Director
Sugareffect.com -
7 Replies
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Works fine for me. What exactly do you mean by “doesn’t do anything”? One thing I noticed when I used your figures, 30% blur is a ton and it made the drop shadow big, undefined and barely noticeable when I applied it to a title. This was a 1080p motion project. What I did:
Open Motion. At the Project browser I select “Final Cut Effect”, preset “Broadcast HD 1080”. With Effect Source layer selected go to Inspector, Properties, activate and show Drop Shadow. Set parameters, and on the dropdown arrow on the far right of each parameter select Publish. Then File, Save As. Add template name, etc, then Publish. Is that what you did?
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Brent thank you so much for your description! Yes it is exactly how I did it. It even shows it applied, but nothing.
Here are a few screenshots.Chris Jordan
Shot Calla- Creative Director
Sugareffect.com -
Whoops a few of those weren’t relevant: here are the screenshots
Chris Jordan
Shot Calla- Creative Director
Sugareffect.com -
I just applied a drop shadow with your settings to a talking head shot just like yours. It’s barely perceptible. I have to turn the drop shadow on and off while looking closely at the subject to notice it. You should do the same and see if you can tell if it’s applied. I suspect your parameters aren’t giving you the result you’re expecting. Also, you only published the effect itself, not its parameters. It would help you figure things out if you could play with the sliders in FCPX.
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Brent, thanks so much for your time. So I assume that the FPCX version of dropshadow, won’t act the same as the Motion effect created. With the same settings in FCPX, it shows well, ( as shown in screenshot)
” suspect your parameters aren’t giving you the result you’re expecting. Also, you only published the effect itself, not its parameters. It would help you figure things out if you could play with the sliders in FCPX.”
How do I do this?
THANK YOU
Chris Jordan
Shot Calla- Creative Director
Sugareffect.com -
[Chris Jordan] “So I assume that the FPCX version of dropshadow, won’t act the same as the Motion effect created.”
That’s what it seems like.
Click on the arrow to the right of each parameter (arrow appears when you hover over it) and in the menu select Publish.
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Lol I just saw that. I would seem common sense to only click the publish on the effect, and not need to to each parameter. BUT I see how this can be helpful! Thank you so much!
Chris Jordan
Shot Calla- Creative Director
Sugareffect.com
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