[Burt Hazard]

Well pretty much it would be the same idea but you would do it entirely in Motion. Basically you could make a lot of duplicate layers of your picture, then mask each one individually, which is slightly trickier to get your “fractures” aligned properly (the nifty thing about the Photoshop method is that it creates discrete layers that literally fit together like a jigsaw puzzle).

[Burt Hazard]

Actually I did experience this weird behavior when I had (initially) installed Motion 1 on my iBook and Motion 2 on my Powerbook. It only did it for a week and then it settled down and was rock solid. But if it has been running on your Mac for quite a while, then definitely trash Motion’s preferences file. (And if you are using Motion 3, make sure it is upgraded/patched up to 3.02 and trash prefs)

[Burt Hazard]

You could use the masks in Motion, but I think a better way would be to use Photoshop and Motion, if you have it. In Photoshop you can take your picture and chop it up using tools like the lasso and magic wand to clean up stray edges and make separate layers for each “piece”: (Photoshop) Layer>New>Layer via cut. Then delete the background layer.

Then, of course, import it into Motion as separate layers. Then make sure you move the layers into separate Groups and either use Behaviors and/or keyframes to get your desired shatter effect.

[Burt Hazard]

Well, like a lot of things in Motion there are several ways to do stuff like this.

If you’re using a Retiming Behavior like Set Speed, it actually has Ease In and Ease Out parameters. And if you are using the Timing controls in the Inspector itself, you could go two ways:

1) You can adjust the Variable Speed keyframes in the Keyframe Editor by editing them and/or adding additional keyframes and accessing more functionality via: either Opt.-Click or RT mouse click to bring up contextual menu, then Interpolation>Bezier,Ease In, Ease out, Exponential, Logarithmic, etc. So with the interpolation set to Bezier, you can adjust the handles to get desired ramping effects.

likewise…

2) You can of course add Parameter Behaviors like Ramp to the Retime Value parameter in the Timing controls of the Inspector as well.

(You can actually add both keyframes and behaviors and I think Motion averages out the effects of both. Either that or it self-destructs your Mac like 1960s sci-fi tv computers with lots of sparks and explosions; either way it will be entertaining to watch.)

[Burt Hazard]

How do your graphics/text look an a broadcast monitor?

[Burt Hazard]

Window>File Browser
or
CMD + 1

[Burt Hazard]

Basically Optical Flow is a better way of doing speed remapping. The Frame Averaging method, as the name suggests, averages adjacent frames together over the length of a shot to create the in-between frames and uses a sort of mix/dissolve as well.

Optical Flow, on the other hand, actually uses motion vector analysis to compare two adjacent frames, then compiles a list of motion vectors that will create the in-between frames. It’s more realistic and definitely better for fast action shots.

“Captain Mench,” i.e. Michael Mench actually has an Optical Flow overview in the Shake tutorial section here at the Cow.

Burt Hazard
Munedawg Communications

[Burt Hazard]

Export out of Motion: Animation, Color Depth: Millions of Colors+

In FCP: Make sure Modify>Alpha Type>Straight

[Burt Hazard]

That’s good that you’ve found a workaround.

[Marc Hernandez] “I tried making an emitter of emitters, but was denied.”

Actually you can do this, at least with most of them. The trick of course is to make an emitter out of the emitter’s Group, not the emitter itself. Likewise you can Replicate a Replicator or a Particle Emitter using this method. (Just don’t use the Replicator on a Replicant; we don’t want 500 Roy Battys running around!)

Actually I think the type of functionality you’re looking for may be possible in future versions of the software.

A (partial) Motion 4 wishlist:

1)Better 3D
2)Particle motion path/”pipes”/”waterfalls”/”channels”/”funnels” (or whaever cogent paradigm you prefer)
3)Something similar to AE’s “pick-whip” expression linker, but a much more elegant implementation

[Burt Hazard]

Maybe toggle the Group’s Blending mode from “Pass Through” to “Normal” and see what that does. Also do a quick check to make sure that the Layers that are giving the problem have the “On” toggle check marked. But yeah, you may have to post a screen shot so that we can take a look.