graphic effect

[Benjamin Reichman]

There’s a free mosaic app for OS X: https://homepage.mac.com/knarf/MacOSaiX/

I just downloaded it, and haven’t really put it to the test, so I can’t personally recommend it. But if you’re happy with the mosaic it generates, you could save it as a TIFF at the highest resolution the app allows (which seems to be very high).

Then you could create a sequence in Final Cut with the same resolution as the TIFF, place the TIFF into it, then nest it in a regular sequence (at whatever your video resolution/framerate/etc. are). Then you could use the Basic Motion tab to animate the nested sequence–starting zoomed in on a single tile, then zooming out to show the mosaic, etc.

I haven’t tried this out yet, and I’d love to hear from someone with actual experience, but I think this approach might work.

[Benjamin Reichman]

Just tried it, and came across two issues:

1) MacOSaiX doesn’t start the mosaic (as far as I can tell) with the initial photo in the center like the OS X screensaver does; and

2) The maximum sequence size in Final Cut 6.0.6 appears to be 4000 x 4000 pixels, and it would work better with a higher resolution.

Otherwise, it did work. Gerret, let me know what you find out. This is an interesting question, and I’d love to be able to do this in a high-quality way.

[Gerret Warner]

Benjamin,
I’ve got someone working on a Motion template. The two main challenges appear to be…

1. how to keep it interesting in a shorter length. I’m looking for a 30 sec effect; Mosaic defaults to 1:30 and doesn’t look as magical in its fastest setting of :23.

2. how to make the morph back to a single photo work well.

Will let you know what we discover.

Thanks,

Gerret

GW