Motion to FCPX with OSC

Hi,
Is there a tutorial somewhere that can show me how to get on screen controls to work?
What I'd like to create, for example.. is an arrow, made in motion.
Then publish it to FCP and be able to control on screen, the size, position, shape, where the arrow points, etc.. using on screen controls.. My guess is the poke filter..? But I have no Idea how to use it..

thanks
kurt

Hi Kurt,

Here is a list of effects that use on screen controls. In fact the list is a little longer but I left out the majority of effects that only have an OSC for controlling the centre.




To use the OSC's from these effects for other purposes you can create a group in Motion and call it "OSC".
- Put a dummy layer in this group (for instance a rectangle) and uncheck this layers visibility checkbox. - For every effect you apply to this group you have to set the mix slider to 0%
- Check the "Publish OSC" checkbox for every effect
- Use link behaviors to tie the parameters you want to control (for instance your arrow length, direction and position) to the parameters of the effects in the OSC group that are driven by these OSC's.

The effects in the list have different kind of OSC's and all the OSC's you publish from within Motion will appear onscreen in FCPX when you have your newly created effect selected in the Inspector

For more on rigging I can recommend Ripple Training's tutorial Motion 5 - Rigging & Publishing for Final Cut Pro X.

Good luck with rigging.
Robbert-Jan

Thanks a million!
I am going to try some now...

Kurt

Not getting anywhere with this..

What I am doing is I have a simple line drawn in motion.
I want an on screen control to move the line in FCP

Can you let me know some steps..?

This I got..
To use the OSC's from these effects for other purposes you can create a group in Motion and call it "OSC".
- Put a dummy layer in this group (for instance a rectangle) and uncheck this layers visibility checkbox. - For every effect you apply to this group you have to set the mix slider to 0%
- Check the "Publish OSC" checkbox for every effect

This I dont.. some questions..
- Use link behaviors to tie the parameters you want to control (for instance your arrow length, direction and position) to the parameters of the effects in the OSC group that are driven by these OSC's.

1. Do I add the link behavior to the Line I drew, The group where the line is in, to the OSC Group or to the rectangle that sits in the OSC group? Once I add the link behavior to where it needs to go, what do I link it to?
I have used the link behavior before, but in this case I am not getting anything to work...

I am having trouble getting the perameters of the effect to show in the link behaviors 'Sourse parameter' or the 'apply to' .. So I am pretty sure this is where i am messing up.

2. It doesn't matter what effect I choose, correct? All I am doing is using its OSC..?

3. Do I need rigging to make this work? Right now I dont care how it looks in motion or FCP, I just want it to work..

thanks again
Kurt

Hi Kurt,

I'll get back to you later this evening and help you out.

Robbert-Jan

Thanks Robert.. Ill be around..

I make alot of filters and titles in motion to go into FCP.. so It'd be nice to get this OSC down..

kurt

Hi Kurt,

To get you started I attached a simple arrow generator with on screen controls.
When you open it in motion you can deconstruct the generator and the way things are linked.
Let me know if you still have any questions.

Just unzip and put in your User/Movies/Motion Templates/Generators folder

Thanks.
It works perfect.
Now Ill try to make one..
Its the linking thats driving me up a wall..

Yeah, sometimes it requires a lot of trial and error.
In this case for instance the scaling of width and height needed a scale factor of 10 in their corresponding link behaviors.
And you can only link a source parameter to a compatible target parameter.
By the way, I forgot to drag the mix slider of the Kaleidotile effect to zero. It doesn't matter too much since the dummy rectangle has its fill disabled to make it invisible.
To be on the safe side it's best to set the mix to 0% though.

I just made one with one of the links and it worked!

Is there a reason you chose the Kaleidotile Filter?
I see Poke used often.. My guess is thats because poke has one on screen control..?


thanks again!
Kurt

With Kaleidotile you have a lot of onscreen controls in one.
You can drag the middle dots to scale horizontally or vertically.
Dragging a corner dot scales both width and height proportionally and rotates.
Dragging the grey area inside the boundary of the dots changes the position.

Hi Kurt,

Here is a thread that I completely forgot about. There is a lot of info on the subject.

www.fcp.co/forum/6-motion-5/688-tutorial...al-cut-pro-x-effects


Robbert-Jan

Thanks Robert-Jan

I seen that earlier, didnt help me much.
What you sent yesterday did the trick!

Kurt

I have enjoyed reading this interesting thread and I have learned a few things. So thank you, gentlemen!

-Ronny

Hey Ronny,
I am learning to get these OSC's because I find myself making more and more plugind for fcpx.

The arrow idea is because there seems to be a keyframing bug with various fxfactory plugins.
They have a free one called 'bars' (i think its called). Anyway you can open this one in motion.
If you look at it in motion, all keyframing works. But in FCPX.1 the keyframing wont work on some parameters.
What happens is the OSC will keyframe, but not whatever the OSC is connected too..
This happens in most ripple callouts as well (thats where I got the idea for the arrow).
If you have it, try to keyframe the arrow (for example) to get bigger over time... the OSC point moves but not the arrow.

kurt

Hi Kurt,

I made another arrow with two control points with the method described in the other thread.
It seems that the Track Points behavior is the culprit.
As soon as I keyframe the position of the OSC control points it breaks the connection with the start and end of the arrow.
I haven't tried to properly publish all the parameters from the arrow that is controlled by the Kaleidotile OSX, but my guess is that this will work since it has no Track Points behavior.

How are your experiments evolving?

@Ronny:

Robbert-Jan

Thats good to know.. Maybe fcfactory plugins (some of them) are using a similar OSC point?
I didnt notice this happening until I updated to FCPX.1 and Mavericks.
Ripple callouts are locked, so you cant open them in motion.. I wish I knew how to get around the lock and I'd fix 'em myself.
But... I did try to just keyframe using the controls in the inspector, and it is still broke.. not sure if that tells you anything or not...

kurt

That's not a bug - Motion's control points of shapes are not keyfraemable in FCP X.

Sorry, I think maybe you mis-understand...

in FCPX (.09) and Mt.lion, this works.
In MAvericks and FCPX.1 it dont work.

use the red arrow for example..
add to timeline
Towards the beginning of the title add a Keyframe in the arrows position parameter.
Scrub towards the end of the title and drag the position of the pointer so the arrow moves, add another keyframe.
playback to see the OSC point move to the new keyframe, but the arrow will not move.

Download the example Robert-Jan made earlier in this post, you can keyframe all parameters in FCPX.1

Kurt

Motion shape control points cannot be key framed in FCPX. Never could be.