[Graham Tillerson]

Glenn, I saw your online demo involving Resolve and MC. Thank you

for doing that as well!

I see that there is an Elgato mobile app available priced as a low monthly subscription. Do you have an opinion on using that? I wonder if the software is as capable as the Mini or other units.

[Graham Tillerson]

That’s what we call a bull’s eye, Glenn.

That Return key via mouse Scroll button is working fine.

I had gotten an AHK script to work yesterday, but the X-Mouse Control app looks like it can provide ALL I could ever ask for. Much thanks!

It’s a lot to absorb. On your Zoom Timeline setup, is the mouse accessing the MC Scale Bar or some keys, like the Fast Menu’s More Detail, Less Detail?

Noticed the Docs say it can be set up with optional context-sensitive actions and Layers. I wonder if the Scroll Wheel can recognize when MC is in Trim mode?

My Cow Review: This is tip is exactly why you are the best!

[Graham Tillerson]

OK I see what you mean by Rotate… your top example above shows what I think is a mid-rotate squeeze of an elephant and if that’s the look, fine. Probably best to stick with the AE you are familiar with.

In MC I think it may be possible to use an animated black and white gradient to control opacity of a matte key between a normal photo on one track and a Defocused copy on a lower track, but getting the amount (via position or scaling of the gradient) to track along with an image Rotation may be asking too much from MC, who knows.

If or how position or scaling tracking in one effect can be applied to parameters in a different MC effect is a mystery to me, but I’m going to play around with that on Animatte effect. I initially thought you were looking to do the kind of photo manipulation seen in “The Kid Stays in the Picture” where a photo can have individual cut-outs of foreground or background focus/scaling/position movement to add a certain look. That’s my interest, but applying it very, very minimally so it is not obvious.

[Graham Tillerson]

I tried and liked the Free Fusion but it doesn’t accept and/or output larger-than-HD footage, as I recall. I know what you mean about AE. Just curious at this point- what is the look you achieve on photos with AE and lights? I l’d like to try achieving it within MC, just for kicks.

[Graham Tillerson]

I just tried it with decent results. Start with a Pan and Zoom on V1 and do a simple zoom in.
Copy V1 to V2. Solo V2, Alt+drag a Blend> 3D Warp effect onto V2. Add a Start and End Key-frame. On the End key only, max out the DEFOCUS parameter so that the Defocus goes from full off to full on. Next Alt+Drag the Animate effect onto V2 adding Start and End Key frames. Let’s say your Pan and Zoom was on a face. Click on the End key frame in Animatte and use Poly Tool to isolate the face. Then go back to the Start Key Frame and use the Reshape Tool to re-adjust the Animatte to fit the wider face. Animatte Mode should wind up in Key In, displaying the face as solid black . Hit play and the background will get defocused as you reach the End Key Frame. Save that Animatte effect to a bin, and then Alt+Drag it onto V1. Solo V1 and in Animatte Effect press Swap Src to display just the face with no Defocus just a zoom against a Black background. So now if you un-solo and view V2 together with V1, you should see the whole shot zoom in with the Animatte face staying sharp as the background Defocuses. Is that the look you wanted?

As for Rotation, that’s trickier but if you like, you can Collapse V2 and V1, then add a 3d Warp with Start and End Key frames. Add a slight Rotation or Skew, but it will likely require a partial Target Scale increase so that you don’t wind up with black leaking in along slanted edges.

There may be a far better way to handle the rotation and the whole effect solely in stock MC. If so, I’d like to know it.