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FCPX Keyframes BUSTED!
I hope at least. I’ve read a number of posts on CC about how the keyframes for movement in FCPX were very much lacking. I read these in hopes of finding a solution to smooth movement over a graphic. I’ve spent hours this morning experimenting and now I found a solution that works for me. It’ll be just my luck some guru here will say “Hey, didn’t you know this EASY way?”. But, I’ll take that chance.
I needed to be on a graphic full frame for three or four seconds. Then zoom in on one area and stay a few seconds, then move over to another area and stay a few seconds.
Initially, just zooming in the first time meant that the move would ‘wave’ (I think you know what I mean). I found that I could change both keyframes to smooth and make sure the Bezier handles were aligned with the path to get a move that didn’t wave. Setting them both to linear didn’t work. Well, then I went down the timeline a few seconds and set another keyframe, then moved a few more seconds, set another keyframe and moved the graphic to the new location.
The results were maddening. The ‘wave’ would come back after the second keyframe (after the first two that I had manipulated into being smooth). No combination of making the keyframes smooth, or linear, or manipulating the Bezier handles would give me a direct path. I spent hours searching.
I kept starting over to see where I was going wrong. I could get the first two keyframes alright, but the wave would return after the second keyframe no matter what I tried.
I then hit upon the idea of getting those first two keyframes right, then I went ONE FRAME after the second keyframe and set another keyframe. No manipulation of graphics here. Then I went as I did before and set another keyframe a few seconds later (no manipulation), and then the final keyframe (the move to the final location) and YEA! Smooth moves all!
(This is where Mark Spencer comes in and says it works fine on his machine. Just wait!)
Don Smith
NewsVideo.com -
7 Replies
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I sort of know what you mean Don. Just a few days ago I tried to set four rectangles to converge (move) from off-screen space to a quad split screen (I just used generated color clips to set it up), and then hold. I found that one of the rectangles was not “in sync” with the others and also had a wave-like motion, even though the numerical values were the same for all four layers (and the “smooth” vs. “linear” was also the same.
I spent hours re-doing to see if I did something wrong… finally, somehow, it worked. I suspect that there are some bugs in the keyframes implementation.
I will have to try your “extra keyframe” bizarre solution to see if it helps.
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I spent HOURS trying to get it to work reliably and was on the verge of giving up when I discovered my extra-keyframe-one-keyframe-after-the-second-keyframe with the first two keyframes SMOOTH and their Bezier handles aligned with the path trick, but once I found that trick, the system worked every time.
Don Smith
NewsVideo.comNewsVideo.com
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Here’s a better way to sum up the problem with multiple keyframes; The first two go against logic and require to be smooth with Bezier handles aligned with the path. Once I set a keyframe one frame past the second keyframe, then ALL OTHER keyframes work as expected! No converting! (at least in my experience). If I’m correct about this, something is seriously wrong in this area.
Maybe this condition only involves keyframes that include a change in scale. It’s possible. I know from past experience with FCP7 it would also ‘wave’ because while the move was linear the scale was Bezier (smooth). I investigated that possibility but can find no way to set the interpolation independently. I thought the video animation pop-up (Control-V) gave me control of just scale with the disclosure triangle set to scale but that’s not the case apparently. It only gives me the opportunity to move the keyframes independently both X and Y or either one but it doesn’t allow me to change the interpolation.
NewsVideo.com
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It does indeed feel wrong to me. I’m not a fan of the current set up for keyframing transformations in FCPX. The initial workflow is fine: click on the transform button in the viewer and hit a start keyframe and go. But the result is non-intuitive, and making changes to keyframe position and interpolation is clumsy.
I also don’t like the video animation menu in the timeline for adjusting keyframe temporal position. It’s actually a good idea wrapped in poor execution. I would like to see shortcuts where you only reveal the parameter you want to adjust (say opacity) instead of seeing an entire stack of things with little tiny disclosure triangles. The thing I want to use it for most is creating adjusting opacity keyframes. In FCP 7 it was extremely easy. Creating a dedicated shortcut for opacity only would solve that problem.
But with the transform section of the video animation menu, you don’t have an easy, foolproof way of selecting and moving XY scale or position keyframes at once. Sure you can tell it to display like that, but I found that trying to adjust XY scale inside the animation menu is extremely problematic.
Therefore, my solution. It’s a kluge, but I find it easier to deal with at least until keyframing transform is fixed/modified. If I were faced with the move you wanted to make, I would blade the clip into the sections of the move and apply the Ken Burns affect to them.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Andy! You enabled me to find the solution I was looking for! And, I’m sorry to say it wasn’t the Ken Burns effect. But, by making me look ‘over here’, I saw the solution. Thank you, thank you.
By making me think about the Ken Burns effect and seeing that it didn’t work for the situation I described above, it made me curious to look at the Crop Tool in that same Crop Effect Mode where you find the Ken Burns effect.
Who wudda thunk it?
Turns out, this great truth was hidden in plain sight.
Eureka! It did in a heartbeat everything I needed to effect the moves I described above!
I select the Crop Effect mode, then the Crop mode (ignoring Trim and Ken Burns), move a few seconds down the timeline and set a keyframe at full-frame. Move a couple of seconds further, set another keyframe and form the crop rectangle around the part of the video I wanted to zoom to. Move a few seconds further down the timeline so as to hold that position for a while, set another keyframe to end the hold, move another second or two, and set another keyframe to re-frame to where I wanted the focus of the video to move to. In less than a minute I had the multiple moves I needed without using keyframe trickery in the Transform mode.
Smooth, expected moves! No ‘waving’!
(This also lead to my discovery that these forms of cropping are also available in the Inspector via a drop-down list in the Crop section, but you have to set individual keyframes for top, bottom, left and right. That said, its a more visual method of re-framing.)
Many, many thanks. I’ve now met my daily goal of learning something new.
Don Smith
NewsVideo.comNewsVideo.com
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Thanks Don, nice tip.
Ricky Dominguez
Luna Films
Puerto rico
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