[Conan Stott]

Hi Michael.

Thank you for the reply. It was certainly though only the new media created with the AAF that went to multiple drives, even a clean USB that I had only just inserted. Very Strange, Oh well. I got out the AAF and its worked well for the Audio Tech, but what a bizzare thing to happen.

[Conan Stott]

Ahh yes, thank you. I came very close to that myself at some point but probably just missed something out. Awesome, thanks I appreciate the help and learning expressions is made much easier when working through a problem such as this and getting help with it.

Thank you

have a good day

Conan

[Conan Stott]

Hi, thank you very much for this, but I still am having trouble with it.

I am learning so have probably miss interpreted the expression but heres how I make it out. Please tell me where I am going wrong.

You have defined a as the value of the layers rotation property with the line

a=thisComp.layer(“YOUR LAYER”).transform.rotation; in my case the layer name is Arrow so I have he line as

a=thisComp.layer(“Arrow”).transform.rotation;

then with the line: if (a>=360) a=a%360;
You have made a statement saying that if “a” is greater than or equal to 360 the value of “a” will be a % 360.

This makes sense to me as it is making the rotation value remain within the 0 to 360 degree value without the 1x e.t.c

My problem arrises in getting my line in the expression so the arrow will behave how I want it to.

if (rotation<180 || rotation>240) 100 else 50

Currently, if I put this last I get the same problem that the effect only works on one complete cycle.
If I put it first I get an interesting effect (the same thing will occur if I leave out this line altogether) where the arrow starts its cycle at 0% opacity and will slowly fade to 100% opacity at exactly 100 degree rotation.

I can kind of see why this would be, but am unable to find a solution with my current level of skill in expressions. I have tried various things but none seem to work. Would really appreciate the help in this 🙂

PS.. I am applying this to the opacity operator. If I am supposed to apply it to the Rotation operator I also get the problem that my time*60 is ignored or it supercedes the previous expression if applied last.

[Conan Stott]

Hey, thank you all for your comments. It has helped. Unfortunately there is not an opportunity for a practicle here but the fog is a great idea to disperse the light I will use. Looking at the hallway I do beleive we may be able to exploit the moonlight from the door ( has a few glass panes ) but it is a long hallway. Any options for light near the far end of the hallway im still pondering. I have one simple idea, let me know what you think…

A soft light coming from nowhere inparticular, using diffusion and the fog to acheive this for the far end of the hallway.

For info, the actors do stop briefly and talk at this part of the hallway, and I am shooting HD not film.

Also, the dolly tracks down the hallway in both directions at different points in the film.

This is an ambitious but low budget film… I am very confident in it but some of the more expensive solutions may not be feasible.

Thank you all for your help 🙂 Have a great weekend.

Regards

Conan

[Conan Stott]

My advice… Use after effects instead. I have tried everything possible to get Motion to behave (Even having the final cut suite as the only apps installed on my Mac) and the answer is quite simple… It doesn’t work. I have had many people say this as well, people who work in post and laugh about the time they thought they would try to use Motion for a project and what a mistake it was. I have had this story told by no less than 3 unconnected individuals. One for a feature he was using FCP to edit, One for a TV doco drama series that the post house he works for was making, another for his short film, and with myself having the problems it simply seems that this program does not work. So save yourself some time, don’t re-install everything ( I did that twice on advice from apple tech’s) Just use another program.

Its a pity as motion seems a good interface and I was looking forward to getting to now it at one point.

Anyhow, thats my gripe and story. Hope you work out a solution.

Regards

Conan

[Conan Stott]

Hi, thank you for your responce… yes, will take media manager much more seriously in the future… My Audio files are not associated with the video. They are sounds such as music, sound effects and soundtrack pro files (cleaned up sound).

Thanks

Regards
Conan

[Conan Stott]

Yeah I know… It looks better because it makes it look wrong and crazy when its half rendered, and for this particular project it turns out that that is pretty cool. 🙂

I will try your suggestion, thank you.

[Conan Stott]

Thank you for the reply 🙂 I have indeed checked out that tutorial and as much as it helps its not exactly the effect im going for. What I really need is the type of ripples as caused by wave world…. is there a way to use wave world as my displacement?

Thanks

Conan.

[Conan Stott]

Hi Dan.

I have since discovered from some people in the local industry here and plenty more on the net that the problems with motion are in fact widespread and appear to be the norm rather than the exception. My advice to you is to plan not to use it if your project requires a lot of work outside of final cut. Use another product such as after effects for these kind of projects. On a smaller level of project Ive managed to get some use from motion ( creating DVD menus e.t.c) and I love the interface, I hope it becomes a reliable option in the future, but for projects that require a fair bit of time and complexity in a 2D motion graphics program then i’m afraid Motion would seem to be an unreliable option for now. So plan to use after effects is my advice.

Thanks

Conan.

[Conan Stott]

Thank you, solved my issue, I was tearing my hair out, point taken, I shall search from now on.

Regards

Conan