Jason Watson
Forum Replies Created
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You could go that direction, but if you already have the text animated you could bring in your footage and match move (via the match move behavior) it to the text animation and then use the text as an image mask.
If you are using the replicator to simulate 3D text, I’d use the source text as the mask and then let the replicated text form the ‘sides’ of the 3D text. Of course, that assumes that the animation is on the source text rather than the replicator. If it’s the latter, I’d duplicate the replicator, bring the number of points down to 1 and use that replicator as the image mask for the footage.
Hope that makes sense.
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It will depend on what the text is doing. If it’s stationary, the easiest way would be to place the footage above it (scaling and positioning as desired) and then using the text as an image mask on the footage.
If the text is moving, you could still go the image mask route, but first you’d need to match the footage to the text animation.
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Hmmm… I have no idea. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.
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hmmm… It’s possible that the one of the plug-ins you installed is causing the problem, since some plug-ins for FCP also get accessed by the other studio applications. The offending files thus might be in a different application support folder, which means that re-installing Motion wouldn’t necessarily have any effect.
You might try removing the plug-in and see if that works, or check with the plug-in developer to see if they have any troubleshooting.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful. Good luck!
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There could be a lot of reasons something like this could happen, so your best bet is to try and narrow down what the potential problem is. (or at least what it isn’t.) I would check the following:
Within Motion itself:
Does the same problem happen for a new Motion project, or just projects that have already been created?
Does the problem occur with every single project, or just certain ones?
Is there an issue with the memory cache or autosave vault? Does adjusting the values make any difference?
System wide:
Does the issue occur when Motion has the system to itself, when other applications are open, etc.?
Do any other FCS3 applications experience a similar issue?
Do any other non-related applications have issues?
Have there been any hardware or software updates that might have affected it?
Is Motion 4 up to date with any ProApps software updates?One odd step to try that is a total shot in the dark and probably has no chance of working- open the projects that are having issues with in TextEdit and change the xml value to 3 rather than 4. When you try to open it Motion will probably say that you are opening a previous version. Choose to open as untitled and see if it gives you the save and export options back.
It probably should go without saying that you should probably make a backup copy just to make sure nothing terrible and irreparable happens, but I guess I’ll say it anyway!
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No problem. 🙂
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Do you have the same problem with other types of assets (e.g., pictures, .psds, etc.) or is it just with the footage you are trying to import?
Also, has the problem only recently cropped up in your normal workflow? I’m guessing you’ve tried trashing the Motion preferences, but if not you might try that.
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I know this works in Motion 5, but I’m pretty sure it will work for previous versions:
1. Create a new group. (Alternatively, you can also use a group that already exists.)
2. Select every text object you want to move. (You have to specifically select the text object, rather than the group it is in.
3. Drag all the text objects into the new group.
Also, depending on what behaviors you are using (i.e., whether text behaviors or not) you could just select all the text groups and move them into a new group in a similar manner.
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I’m not entirely sure if this applies to your situation, and it may also be of limited utility, but if you group the object (Cmd+Shift+G) you can then select that group and re-position it. After you have re-positioned it you can take the object back out of the group and it seems to translate the keyframes, as far as I can tell. (if you leave it in the group the coordinates can be a little wonky…)
It’s kind of a quick and dirty solution, but it has the advantage of not creating any superfluous keyframes like Convert to Keyframes would in most situations, which is certainly helpful if you still want to make some more adjustments in the motion path. Now that the auto-keyframing is there I’ve kind of had to use this a lot…
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You might try the following:
1. Start with your camera directly overhead. (No rotation on any of the rotation axes.)
2. Draw a line from the start point to the end point.
3. Make a vertical guide and rotate the line you just drew so that it is straight up and down. (using the guide to help.)
4. Add a point in the middle somewhere and pull it out. (You can fine tune the curve later.)
5. Adjust the Y rotation til it’s 90 degrees or whatever angle you want. (Make sure you are adjust around the World Axis.)
6. Move and rotate the line back into place. You can now adjust the curve point as much as you need without messing up the start and end points.
7. The write on behavior will take care of the rest.
I tried this out and it took only a couple of minutes to do one line with, so it’s pretty easy.