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I’m going nuts! Odd change of transparency…
I’m making a Template in Motion 4. There’s a dropzone overlayed with some layers in Motion. These layers are half translucend. When I insert a Quicktime clip within Motion to the dropzone everything renders fine in FCP. When I publish this template to FCP with an empty dropzone and drop in a quicktime within FCP, after 6 seconds 6 frames suddenly the transparency changes!
I can’t find any layer, any keyframe at that specific time in Motion which could be the culprit for that odd behaviour.
Does that sound familiar to anyone? Sudden changes of transparency?
Any advice is deeply appreciated!
Sven -
12 Replies
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Yep. I am working in Motion 5 on a project with multiple semi-transparent layers and random ones will just disappear for a couple of frames and then come back. Sometimes if i change a parameter in that layer it will fix it and sometimes not. I am working on a deadline and thought Motion 5 would be faster. It is way slower and has so many bugs, I can’t get any work done.
I am debating going back to FCP7 and Motion 4 or just finally stop clinging to Apple and go back to Adobe AE. Very sad about being forced into this decision.
Matkin Design
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Are those layers vector graphics (PDFs or .ai files?) If so, is Fixed Resolution turned off? What are the pixel dimensions? What machine are you using, what graphics card, how much RAM?
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
All Graphics that are disappearing are ai files (CS5), fixed resolution is off, sized up to 115%.
brand new 2011 MBP with 2.3 GHz i7 Quad, 8 GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6750M
So I tried switching the media to fixed resolution ON and it seems to work. Can you explain this to me? Is this a bug? I would assume using vector art that you need to blow up, you would want fixed resolution off so you don’t get pixelization.
Matkin Design
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It’s a graphics card issue. If your graphics look soft with fix Rez off then blow them up in Illustrator to the max size you need.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Thanks for the info. That is disappointing considering how much I paid for what was supposed to be a pretty top of the line mbp. Is it a graphics card issue in the way Motion works with it or just the card itself regardless of the program?
In other words, will this also happen in AE or does AE play nicer with its own ai files set without fixed resolution?
Matkin Design
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AE doesn’t use the GPU like Motion. I don’t think you’ll see this issue in AE. Even with its quirks, I find Motion so much faster to work with than AE that I feel it’s just better for me overall. In AE, you can’t even play a simple DV clip without rendering – even with no effects applied. Feels like going backwards when I go there.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Agreed, I have worked exclusively in Motion for years because it is so much faster for me. I haven’t touched AE for at least 5 years or so. I am just finding some strange behaviors in Motion 5 with this initial project I am using it on like this disappearing ai thing, long hangs, and a few other weird things that have happened in the past few days.
I will hang with it for another day and see if I can get this early stuff done efficiently. I have 2 very complicated and long animations with tons of layers and effects to do after this and I don’t want to get hung out to dry if Motion 5 is going to fight me on it. I do this project every year for this same client and it has worked out great with Motion 3 and then 4 over the past 5 years. I was hoping to really fly with the new MBP and Motion 5 but my confidence is shaken (and I lost all of my Boris and Red Giant plugins with FXPlug2 non-compatibility). That was an unexpected surprise, and not a good one. I still don’t know what I will do about that since none of the updates will be available in time for this project.
Thanks very much for your help and the info. Back to the salt mines now…
Matkin Design
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For me everything went back on track when I (after a few hours of fiddling around) suddenly remembered that there’s a conflict between prores4444 files containing alpha and certain aja quicktime components. After trashing the aja components and a restart the problems were gone!
I apologize for not posting this solution immediately after it came up.
Thanks guys!!
Sven -
Not that it helps, but I had that same flickering issue with vector graphics with fixed resolution turned off in Motion 4 – it’s not a Motion 5 things AFAIK. Motion 5 is a fully rewritten 64-bit app, it’s fully color managed, and it works in 16-bit color space all the time so there is an apparent performance hit. I’ve been using it for some fairly complex projects and while it does have some bugs, I have found it quite stable and have been able to produce client work on it. Good luck.
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net -
Ah yes the AJA issue, I’ve seen that one before, glad you figured that out!!
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Mark Spencer
Freelance Producer/Editor/Motion Graphics Artist
Apple-certified Master Trainer
Author, Motion 4 from Peachpit Press
https://www.applemotion.net
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