How to to create animated slides in FCP?

Hi, I have an animated slide that I am creating in Google Slides. I don't know in advance when I need transitions to happen, so I am trying to figure out good way to achieve equivalent result in FCP, as if the animation is happening like an FCP transition effect.

So... I was thinking, if I start with a slide and save that as PNG, then add the additional content that I want to appear and save that as a new PNG, in FCP would I be able to start with 1st PNG, add 2nd PNG to timeline, add transition effect, and maybe specify the transition as subtract such that only the new content in 2nd PNG is overlayed on top of first PNG?

Or I am I making this too complicated?

thanks, Brian

You're making it way too complicated. Can you show us an example of what you're trying to do exactly? There's probably a free or at lease cheap plugin that does what you want somewhere.

Can't really show anything at the moment, but just imagine some image. In my case a musical staff. Then imagine same image, now with text on it. Then, that image, but now with some circles over various notes. So details are incrementally added to this image and I want to show this incremental buildup in a way that has look/feel of animation. Right now I have separate images for each stage of the buildup and was going to add each one and use cross fades and it sort of works but seems complicated like you said!

bhuether wrote: … same image, now with text on it. Then, that image, but now with some circles over various notes. So details are incrementally added to this image and I want to show this incremental buildup in a way that has look/feel of animation. …

easiest method to accomplish such an effect is, for me, usage of layered pic files, aka 'Photoshop format'/psd = no need for Photoshop, most 'painting'apps support export as PSD, here in use: Pixelmator.

have a look:
I created a pic, 1 layer a photo, 3 layers arrows and text.
each element on its own layer.
exported as .psd, dragged into Projects timeline:



Note in the 'clips' upper left corner the icon for 'layered'

next…
double-clicking that single 'clip', to open it in its own timeline:



now, each layer has its own track.
you can apply dissolves, change its timing (here: sequential appearing), transform each track (aka animate).



when done, click '<' under the Preview to go back to your project...

… that's what you're looking for?