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Generating a countdown timer using Text Generator: a Motion bug?
I’ve just recently gotten my hands on the most recent version of Motion and was eager to use the new text generator feature to build a countdown timer to put up on the screen during breaks at the event and video conferencing facility I work with. These generator were, in fact one of the reasons I upgraded. Recommendations about ways I could have done this better are welcome, but my main goal is to confirm whether I’m seeing a bug, and to figure out the best way to go about reporting it if it is indeed a bug. If it isn’t a bug, I’d like to figure out what I’m doing wrong with the technique I’m attempting to use.
I created a countdown from 2:00 AM to 12:00 AM with time units set to Seconds, Time Format: medium, Date Format: None. The immediate problem then was that I didn’t want it to go from 1:00:00 to 12:59:59 but instead from 1:00:00 to 0:59:59. Also there seemed to be no way to remove the AM and PM. Fortunately I knew that Japanese people denote 12:00 AM as 0:00 so choosing Japan as the region seemed to solve my problem, and I continued on building a nice background for the timer and adding all the touches I felt it needed. Then the time came to bring my motion document into another tool in the suite. Whenever I bring my motion clip into another tool it is back to showing 12:00:00 and the AM. Additionally when I open the document back up in motion it all appears as it should, but the Region has changed from 日本語（日本）to English (Japan). It seems like my only option for getting the video out into the other apps is to go ahead and render from motion and import the video file.
So my questions are:
1) Is it a bug that motion shows up differently in the other apps in the suite than it does in Motion or am I doing something wrong? If it IS a bug, what is the right way to report that to Apple?
2) Have I chosen the wrong tool for the job? Is there a better technique for creating a countdown timer?
3) Should I talk management into getting me AE? I’m new to motion graphics, but it sure sounds like AE is a more robust tool, and if I can’t round trip reliably with Motion anyway maybe I should just learn AE instead?Sorry for the long message, I hope that doesn’t prevent it getting any responses.
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1 Reply
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One correction to my previous message: The region changes to English (Japan) but it DOESN’T appear as it should. That was a mistake. It doesn’t even continue to work properly in motion if you close the project and reopen it.
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