Motion Templates in FCPX

I thought this could be a useful thread as there are many people that can make use of published templates from Motion in FCP but don’y use Motion.

The thinking is that while there is stuff I’m sure you’d love to see there’s also stuff that may be technically related that cant be known about or requested. So the idea is that Motion users can put across feature requests that they would like in Motion but specifically related to use of templates in FCP. So editors can, if they like the sound of them, put in a request under the “Enhancement request” - “Integration with other applications” section in the FCP “Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback” menu.

Otherwise the number of requests would be very low in comparison to those who could really make use of them.

Perhaps it would also be a good place for FCPX editors who don’y use Motion to put across what they would like, it may even already be there.

Here’s a few to start off, they relate to build markers, in which a brief description is this. When you create a template in Motion you can set build in and build out markers on the time line. This means everything before or after the markers remains constant in time. When the templates duration is adjusted, everything in-between is stretched or compressed, so if it’s all static between it can be set to what ever duration you want.

1: When you set these markers the main drop zone (which relates to the FCP timeline) isn’t affected, it will always play properly. But if you add an additional drop zone it is affected. It would be great if they were ignored by the markers in the same way as the main timeline is.

2: When a template with build in/out markers is placed on the FCP timeline it can be adjusted in duration to shorter than the combined duration of the end sections before and after the build markers, then it cuts off the animation and the only way to know where the markers are is to open the template in Motion and take note. Which isn’t possible if you don’t have Motion. So a restriction to clamp the minimum duration of the template to the build markers would be great. A visual indication of where the markers are would also be nice.

3: Something I would like to see is the retime editor enabled for templates with build markers. That way ⌘R could be used, the idea being that three sections of retime are there as default, each at 100%. Then the set durations of the build in and out animations could be adjusted to slow down/speed up the in/out animations to suit your taste. The ability to loop the middle section from the retime editor could also offer some nice template features.

4: The last doesn’t relate to the markers, it relates to preview quality. FCPX is great in the way it works with optimised/proxy media and has the higher quality/better performance playback option, but this isn’t good enough for Motion work. if Apple want to push the way of Motion content in FCP then complex Motion templates that require a greater control over playback quality are going to play back rough, especially on lower spec macs, when used in FCPX.

If the Motion render settings could be published a preview quality widget could easily be created for use in FCP.