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What do you want from Motion?
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Four things I would like to see:
1. More plug-ins Adobe wins hands down
2. Expressions, parameters seem to require a couple of steps too many and are not as flexible
3. Null object
4. The ability to parent layers togetherBonus round:
Sent To Motion in X Why is this feature no longer there? -
[David Mathis] “1. More plug-ins Adobe wins hands down “
I try not to consider AE and Motion to be in competition, but this is also a catch 22. Plugin manufacturers don’t make as many plugins for Motion because it has a much smaller user base. The user base grows slowly because there aren’t enough plugins.
[David Mathis] “2. Expressions, parameters seem to require a couple of steps too many and are not as flexible”
True. But though behaviors are less flexible, they are far and away easier to pick up and learn. People good at expressions don’t believe this, but that’s because they can’t remember when they didn’t understand how to make expressions work.
[David Mathis] “3. Null object”
Any layer in Motion can be a null object. Just create a layer and turn it off. I do this all the time.
[David Mathis] “4. The ability to parent layers together”
Linking provides some of this, but it’s too limited.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Fix the edges in the keyer.
The edge of the frame should not be part of the light wrap (edge crop), and the edges of the resulting matte after the key need to be more natural and less processed, especially on more difficult keys with subjects that have hair. Some of us have to key more than bald men.
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Audio coming along for the ride in generators as you mention. Bars and tone or countdown slate templates, or lower third with audio effects can’t be made.
Along those lines, generators, inside of fcpx need to be trimmable/expandable, and not just retimed. Imagine you create an animated lower 3rd that is 20 seconds long but only want 10 seconds of it and want to throw a fade on the end. Making it shorter only retimes it to make it faster. Or if you make a 7 second countdown slate and want to shorten it to 5. Impossible.
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Keith,
If you have an FCPX generator that cannot be trimmed without changing the timing of the effect there are two things you can do:
1. Put the generator into a compound clip and trim the CC (one-time solution)
2. Open the generator in Motion 5.
When it opens in Motion make sure nothing is selected in your project timeline, move the playhead to the end of the timeline and add a marker on the timeline.
Then R-click on the marker to edit it and change the type to “loop-end”. Save the generator and now you will always be able to trim it inside FCPX without changing the timing.
– Ronny
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[Keith Koby] “Imagine you create an animated lower 3rd that is 20 seconds long but only want 10 seconds of it and want to throw a fade on the end. Making it shorter only retimes it to make it faster. Or if you make a 7 second countdown slate and want to shorten it to 5. Impossible.”
No it’s not. It’s completely doable. You just need to make sure and set a project loop point marker at the end so FCPX knows you’re looping the generator.
Check out this tutorial of mine which covers how to make a looping background.
FCPX INs and OUTs: Looping Backgrounds
And regarding your lower third example, you can use markers to force a specified range of frames to be played normally and not retimed so that expansion only occurs in the still portion of an animated L3. Check out my other tutorial on Lower Thirds that shows how this is done.
Motion Quick Tip: Custom Titles for FCPX
The pertinent section starts around 18:00.
Andy
https://plus.google.com/u/0/107277729326633563425/videos
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I know you’re prefacing this as stuff that should be built into Motion, but in this case I think the analogy to AE is very apt. Some very specialized functionality is always going to be better as a plugin, and AEs real strength in functionality is in large part attributed to it’s 3rd party plugin support.
AE has built-in particles, but anyone who’s serious uses Particular.
AE has built-in 3D text, but its not a shadow on Element 3D.
Same thing with 3D Camera Tracking.
Same thing with Lensflare.
So I don’t think we should OVERLY handicap Motion in this regard- saying it should have everything you list built in.
You can still create editable templates you can publish to FCPX using plugins mObject or mFlare. MotionVFX themselves are releasing customizable packs for Broadcast News and Sports intros and graphics.
Anyway. All I’m saying is that a product like Motion, priced at $50, is only going to have so much built in functionality; and like AE will see it’s feature set augmented by plug-ins. Undeniably, Motion is the most powerful motion graphics tool in it’s price-range.
That’s not to say I don’t think it can’t improve:
Of course, Roundtrip to Motion. Much like FCP7 had really, except it works.
Broadcast Monitoring support needs to come back.
I would like to see better 3D tracking support. The only real solution at this stage is SynthEyes, and external application. Though it is a REALLY great tracker, so I’m not sure a less capable, built-in one would be that beneficial.
I’d like to see a better Particle system. But again I think that’s probably going to be left to 3rd parties.
Let’s not forget that Motion 5.1 added FXPlug3 support. We have yet to see what that will bring in terms of 3rd party plugins.
Right now it’s #49 on the Mac App Store Top Grossing list. And I think Motions usefulness as a motion graphics generator for FCPX will probably mean an overall boost in it’s user-base.
If that’s the case, then it becomes a more attractive opportunity for guys like RedGiant or VideoCopilot.
Overall, it’s hard to peg where Motion development is going to go. Apple certainly has no interest in making it a serious compositing/special effects competitor.
However, I think Adobe’s move to subscription pricing has left and enormous opportunity for low-end disruptors. Most people only use a faction of the power in PS or AE, and after using Motion pretty much exclusively for the better part of 4 years- I think a good chunk of people who are using AE could do what their doing in Motion. So perhaps that’s an opportunity.
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[Marcus Moore] ”
AE has built-in particles, but anyone who’s serious uses Particular.”Zing! Particular rocks! It is powerful, flexible and fun!
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It is. Though sadly I hardly ever get to use it now that I lean so heavily on Motion.
I wonder if FXPlug3 support means that a plugin like Particular would be easier for VideoCopilot to migrate to Motion now.
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[Marcus Moore] “I wonder if FXPlug3 support means that a plugin like Particular would be easier for VideoCopilot to migrate to Motion now.”
Trapcode (which developed Particular) is a computer technology research and development company based in Stockholm, Sweden. The focus is on creating groundbreaking and robust software for graphics and audio.
Trapcode was started in 2001 by Peder Norrby. It still today is basically a one-man operation and this is made possible by partnering with publisher Red Giant Software that handles sales, tech support and some engineering so that Norrby can focus on creating new technologies.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
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