[David Cooper]

I am returning to my experiments on this topic after sometime. Although I have, as yet, been unable to replicate the original effect.

I have realised a clearer way to describe the problem and am hoping someone can assist. I feel like I missing something obvious.

I am aware I can move the anchor point and this will effect the below but, assuming a central anchor point…

If I have a square or any object I can rotate this on…
the x axis – this rotates so the top moves towards the bottom
the y axis – this rotates so the left moves towards the right
the z axis – rotation around the anchor point moving the top left to top right, top right to top left etc.

The issue I am trying to solve is how to rotate to move a corner to a corner i.e. top left to bottom right.
(In my head this axis would be x=y)

Using the controls in the hud I can get close but the animation looks clunky as it is animating both the x and y axis simultaneously as opposed to a single clean axis.

Can this be achieved? It seems like a fairly basic feature… or perhaps I am being naive?

[David Cooper]

There are few options.

1) Depending on the size of your project and the type of footage you could keep everything on an external.
2) I use dropbox or resilio sync to keep my libraries in sync between computers but keep media external on portable hard drives or copies on each machine.
3) If my footage is too large for the above solutions I convert to proxies using the library settings to ensure all proxies are stored on an external drive. I can then carry this around, edit on whichever system I am using (with dropbox/resilio sync keeping my libraries in sync). I then just need to make sure that when I export, I am using the machine that has access to all of the footage.

Hope this helps.

[David Cooper]

Hi Gillian,

I use the generator called ‘custom’ for backgrounds. In the inspector I can then click on the colour (not the arrow next to the colour box). This brings up the apple colour palette. From the tabs at the top the second one (it has three strips of colour selectors as an icon) is the RGB values selector. From here you can enter precise RGB values, Hex values or, from the drop down, select whether you want to input pantone, cmyk etc.

Hope this helps.

[David Cooper]

Glad I could of help. Would love to see the end product when you’re done.

[David Cooper]

Hi Matt,

I would create the slideshow of pictures as a single motion project.
The 3d text with camera motions I would create as a separate project.

When you change text to 3d you have the option to select its material. Change the ‘Substance’ to ‘Generic’ and then select ‘image’ as the surface. You can then use any image or movie you have imported in to your project.

You could also create the slideshow in the same project and use the group it is in as the source for ‘image’ you select as your ‘substance’ but if you have a lot of high res pictures this might slow things down.

You may also need to play with the position, scale etc. settings for the ‘substance’.

Hopefully this gets you started.

[David Cooper]

Hi Jarrod,

I’m not 100% I understand your question but…

You can control the four corner adjusts by selecting the distort tool from the toolbar (click and hold on the transform arrow). This lets you drag the group or object’s edges and distort them to fit the shape you want. It does the same as the four corner controls but is easier to get your basic shape sorted.

Hope this helps.

[David Cooper]

Hi Robin. Thanks for putting my mind at ease. The shortcut I gave was to switch back to color mode.
I debated over whether to describe the channels location in the UI or where it is placed in the menu bar.

[David Cooper]

Go to the ‘view’ menu and check the ‘channels’ option. It sounds like you have switched to the alpha channel by mistake (I’ve done this before). Switch over to ‘colors’ and it should return. (Keyboard shortcut ‘Shift + C’).

If it’s not this it could be a render issue I’ve seen with Motion projects before. I usually save, quit motion and switch back. Beyond this I am stumped and will have to leave it to the others on this forum, who have achieved greater levels of expertise than I.

[David Cooper]

If I am switching between machines or sharing the workload with another editor I store my media externally from the library with either a copy on the machines being used or a live copy of media on a hard drive and a backup stored elsewhere.

I then keep the library on dropbox or use something like resilio sync to keep it up to date across machines.

The only negative is that when you open up the library on the other machine you have to relink the footage but this is much less time consuming than transferring everything over.

Having the library and projects open on more than one machine totally ruins the sync as it is not made for a collaborative workflow in this way but other than that it works great.

I have swapped the relevant projects files and flexolibrary but often things get missed and it tends not to work too reliably in my experience.

[David Cooper]

Writing my last elaboration gave me an idea and I have worked out what I was missing.

I was using the controls in the inspector to alter the x and y rotation and this only changes the object in relation to the canvas regardless of which axis you set. By switching to the 3d transform tool and using the rotation handles on x and y it achieves the desired effect (altering both x and y rotations in the inspector in relation to the canvas).

Thanks for the help.