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Sending to Motion 5 from FCP7 now that Yosemite has broken Motion 4
I’ve been using Motion 5.1 under Mavericks for a while now, and I just updated to Yosemite so that I can get Motion 5.2. I note from my dock that Motion 4 no longer works. I didn’t know that Yosemite broke Motion 4 before I did this.
I was keeping it on the system purely to facilitate getting projects out of FCP7 and into Motion 5 (i.e. Send To Motion Project from FCP7, then open the Motion project within Motion 4, then save it, then open that project in Motion 5 – if I tried opening the project directly within 5 without going through 4 first, all the media would appear in the timeline but it would be black in the Canvas).
So is there any way to get projects from the FCP7 timeline into Motion 5.2 now that Motion 4 is out of the picture? Other than exporting all the separate video clips individually?
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8 Replies
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Yes there is and we do this on a daily basis. Send your sequence to motion in FCP 7. If your system opens up Motion 4 then close it and open your project in Motion 5. In Motion 5, hit cmd 4. Select the “Media” tab. Highlight one of your clips and note the pixel aspect ratio in the Media Inspector – its probably set to “Custom”. Change it to the correct aspect ratio – in our case with HD material it’s “Square”. You have to do this for every clip or graphic in the Media tab.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks Charles – works like a charm! Certainly better than having to export every clip individually.
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I’m trying to figure out why you would even want to use Motion 5 if you’re using FCP 7? That’s pretty much as odd (and really rather counterproductive) as if you were using 4 with X.
– RK
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[Robin S. Kurz] “That’s pretty much as odd (and really rather counterproductive) as if you were using 4 with X.”
FCP7 does everything I want it do, and I also want to use the extra functionality of Motion 5. What’s remotely odd or counterproductive about that?
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[Gareth Randall] “What’s remotely odd or counterproductive about that?”
Well, if having to render out any and every project (and of the five types there are you can only use one), not being able to edit anything within FCP (which you could if using 7 and 4 or, even more so, using X and 5, but not a mix) and having a plethora of features that you can’t use (rigging and publishing being the first to come to mind), since they are also of no use to you, isn’t at least highly impractical for you… then I guess… nothing. 🙂
I personally find exponentially extending the amount of time you need for such an (otherwise) simple task, without any practical gain that I can think of, odd, yes. But just MHO.
Like I said, I was just curious as to which feature of 5 is in fact so enticing that makes those inconveniences worthwhile. That’s all. Other than maybe 3D Text, but you wouldn’t need “Send to” for that. But even in general “fixing” the “Send to” is of no real value to you in the end either, since the project that you create in 5 (and is subsequently in your timeline) is of no use to 7, so you then have to manually import, replace etc. etc. everything on top of it all, no?
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Everybody’s different. My workflow works for me, and I’m happy with it. It only takes a few moments extra to get the project into Motion 5 from FCP7, which I’d hardly call an “exponential” increase.
And no, I don’t use publishing or rigging.
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[Gareth Randall] “It only takes a few moments extra to get the project into Motion 5 from FCP7, which I’d hardly call an “exponential” increase.”
But then I wasn’t referring to getting it out. I was referring to what inevitably (and imho unnecessarily) lengthy workflow you have AFTER that, since the project file itself is of no use to you unlike in any other aforementioned combination. In comparison I would certainly say exponentially, yes. Especially, god forbid, if you ever need to change anything at any point after it’s in your timeline.
[Gareth Randall] “And no, I don’t use publishing or rigging, but I do like the fact that Motion 5 is a true 64-bit app and hence can use all my RAM.”
A rather ironic concern, seeing that FCP 7 on the other hand can only use a whopping 2.5 GB of whatever RAM you have installed, yes. 🙂
[Gareth Randall] “I do much more processor-intensive work in Motion, which is why I’m not so bothered about FCP7 only being 32-bit.”
Only that Motion uses about 90% GPU for nearly everything it does, not CPU. CPU power is pretty much at the very bottom of the list in terms of performance relevance with Motion (especially) and FCP (X).
But hey… whatever works for you! I was just curious if my suspicions were correct. 😉
– RK
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Couldn’t have said it better. If whatever tool you use to edit works for you then who am I to criticize.
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