How to animate a simple (3 positions) bird across the screen

Hello!

So i am pretty new to FCP and Motion 5 and am in need of guidance!

Could someone let me know how to essentially make a bird flap across the screen?

I have 4 drawings of a bird; wings down, wings mid, wings up and wings up with a little speech bubble going 'arrrk'. (Im creating a trailer for my dads children's graphic novel)

Basically i've tried having small instances of each bird on a motion path and have tried to line each layer up with the last instance to give the effect of a flap. As you can imagine, it doesn't work too well.

I don't require a super fluid flap. I need it to go for 5 seconds, and the bird will drag a banner across the screen. (Am i in over my head?) Is there are an easier way (or any way, i can learn ) to achieve this?

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your time.

:pinch:

Number your images as follows: bird001, bird 002, bird 003, etc.

Then import them as an image sequence making sure that the image sequence import option is checked:





You'll have your basic flap, then all you need to do is adjust the Timing till you get the speed you want.

Then you can move the resulting flap sequence along your motion path.

Cheers mate! Fast reply

Will give it a go

I forgot to stress that it's important to have the leading zeros (as shown above) in the filenames otherwise the sequence can't be read by Motion.

Good luck with it

You can do it in FCP X too.

Just edit each position (up, mid, down) into the timeline. Play it back and adjust the duration of each clip until you get something that looks good. Then select all and copy/past for the overall duration you need. Throw the "awk" frame in wherever you need it. Select all and make a compound clip and keyframe the compound clip to move the flying bird around.

If this doesn't meet your needs then take it into Motion but I think you'll be surprised at what you can do directly in FCP X.

Much to learn, i have.

Thanks! i'll give both a go for sure.

Cheers!

TBH, i'm feeling a bit simple atm. Imported the sequence quick smart, thinking, boom piece of cake. BUT i thought just a simple replicator behaviour would do the trick to keep the bird flapping. It doesn't. Youtube tutes don't really cover the aspects of sequence animation in motion, other than to make trees grow in a line.

Could you be so kind to show me (what is probably pretty obvious, but i cannot see it!) the light/procedure as to how to retime and or just flap across the screen?

cheers

Here's a quick video that hopefully explains what you need to do:



Let me know if there's anything else you need clarifying.

Sorry about the dodgy bird drawing - hopefully yours is way more convincing

BTW Nick's suggestion of how to do this in FCP X is a really good one.

Mate this was perfect! Just what i needed. Thanks!