Matting moving text over an image

[Captain Mench]

It makes sense.

But you really want to do this in MOTION. FCP’s garbage mattes aren’t really that useful. They have minimal points, where you can build your own masks in Motion.

Mess around in there and then come back if you still have issues.

Mike

[John Fishback]

Another way to do this (if the area where the text emerges is relatively vertical or horizontal) is by keyframing a crop. Assuming the text moves left as it emerges, line up the text in its final position and adjust the right crop to the right edge of the text. Drop a keyframe for the right crop and position of the text (in the Motion tab). Then move the text into its “hidden” position. Now, adjust the right crop to cover the text. FCP will automatically keyframe the new position and crop. After you watch the reveal, you might have to add a keyframe here and there to account for the talent moving. If the edge from which the text emerges is irregular you’ll have to use a matte.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Dennis Leppell]

forget FCP garbage mattes for this (and most applications)…they’re too limited.

https://homepage.mac.com/tomhenderson/beziermatte/

Tom’s 50 point Bezier matte. Make and/animate the matte exactly as you need it, curves and all. And, it’s free!

[Drayson Nowlan]

Thank you all for the input. Where I seem to missing something whether I use the 50 point garbage matte or crop or Motion is that if I apply the matte to the text, the matte stays in the same position as the text. So I tried to create a matte on the top level to block out the layers below, but I get no results. I just see a matte with no affect. This is selecting add, subtract, invert, etc. Basically I need the picture to be unaffected, but the text to be invisible as it passes under the matte.

I would consider myself somewhat competent, but this one has got me.

Thanks,

Drayson

[John Fishback]

Here are 3 Cow Tutorials by Walter Biscardi. You should find your answers here:

#1 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat1.php

#2 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat2.php

#3 https://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/FCPTravelMat3.php

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5

Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Dennis Leppell]

my guess is you’re probably animating the the text with the motion tab. try keyframing the position in the control tab. That way, the layer, and thus the matte, stay in one place, but the text moves how you want.

[Drayson Nowlan]

Thank you all for the input but I am still at odds and think I may know what is going on.

Backing up. I have a picture of a boy leaning on a roof with cedar shingles. i am trying to get his name to appear as it is coming out from under the shingle. To do this i have a text track in v3 with the text distorted to match the angle of the roof. I then have a mask in v2 that masks the roof line where the text comes out from under. I then have the photo in v1. What I think is occurring is the alpha of the text is overlapping the alpha in the mask when I apply the alpha properties to the text. Is there a way to tell FCP not to mix them? Or I must be missing something.

Thank you again