[Zach Shore]

Another thing that works (if you want it to animate).

-Apply a sequence text behavior.
– Add the Face color for the text.
-Apply a Randomize parameter behavior to the Face color in the Sequence Text behavior.
-Set the following:
Sequencing: Custom
Spread = Number of characters in the text.
Direction: Random

For the face color I found a dark gray as a good starting point, I’d then set the Randomize Apply Mode to Add and Subtract.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

If you are using replicators, Make sure you click the checkbox for “Random start frame” in the Cell controls. This will select a different start frame from you source for each cell. When you shoot your live action elements, shoot at least 2-3 times more footage than you will need. You can also click the Random Seed to mix it up if needed.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Hey Mark, are you sure? Every time I add a new Drop Zone to a project and check the Project layer the drop zone is already automatically added. I even checked on two systems to make sure I wasn’t crazy. 😉

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Yes. Just add a drop zone (Object menu or Shift-Cmd-D), it will automatically publish an image well to be used in FCPX. Create your effect and save it. When you are in FCP X, drop the effect on your clip in the timeline, then apply the second clip to the drop zone image well in the Video Inspector.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Jay beat me too it. The one thing I would say is that a green screen is not required. If you look carefully at the video, it looks like they just rotoscoped the freeze frames. Since it’s only a few poses this wouldn’t be too difficult. To do the bending of the arms in the freeze frame, I’d try distortion maps.

It’s a great effect.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Sorry, not sure I understand what you mean. Are you asking if you can create a motion effect for FCPX with two video sources? Can you explain what you are trying to achieve?

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Here’s what I tried.

-Applied the keyer.
-Lowered the Strength parameter to about 20%.
-I added a color sample selection to the left of the plug. Just enough to define the green near the drive. There will still be some areas in the corners that are transparent, but you could garbage mask those out.
-In the Advanced section of the keyer, there’s an Luma graphic/control. I adjusted the left slider and moved it to the right. This took care of most of the plug. I went just far enough so that a little it of the reflection was still gray.
-I increased the Luma Rolloff to about 34%
-then I set the Edge Distance to 0 and used the Fill holes to get rid of the last bit of the reflection in the plug area.

From here you could use the matte tools to shrink and soften or erode the edge. I don’t know if you were the shooter for this, but one thing that could help with the reflective surfaces in the future is to put flags to the sides of the object to block the reflections.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

I’ve got compressor installed an have been doing it through the “Export using Compressor Settings…” option.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

Cool effect. Nicely done!

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”

[Zach Shore]

AFAIK, there’s no option to convert image data into values that can drive the animation. Your best option is probably just to publish the Rotation control for the dial to FCPX. You could then adjust it while looking at the Histogram.

“You can come push the buttons, or you can let me do my job.”