Stopwatch Effect that does not rely on the timecode HELP!!!

HI,

I'm new to Motion 5 and Final Cut Pro X and I need some urgent help.

The problem I am having is that I'm editing a video at the moment and it has 3 people competing against each other in 3 different parts of the video and I need to show the time it takes each person to finish there activity.

The Generators built into FCPX rely on the timecode, so I can't start timing each activity from zero.

Unable to do anything in FCPX I turned to Motion 5 and have been able to customize the Text Generators by putting them in the correct position on the screen but I cant find a way to start each sequence form zero and then go up. I can turn off the reliance on the timecode but it then does not count up at all.

Please can someone help? all i want to do is time 3 events at different times in my move starting from zero.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

I am pretty sure you are suppose to keyframe the timecode or number generator.

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me,

could you please explain what you mean I am only a week into using motion 5 and FCPX.

Thanks

Here's the trick to do it right inside FCPX:

Make sure your clip in the FCPX timeline has the exact length of the action you want to time. If the clip is longer than the action you want to time, razorblade the clip at the start and the end of the action.

Now select the FCPX Timecode Generator (Generators > Elements > Timecode) and put it over the "action clip" in the timeline.

Make a Compound Clip of the action clip + the Timecode Generator (select them both and press ALT+G).

Play the Compound Clip in the timeline: the Timecode counter will start at zero at the start of your action, no matter where your CC is in your timeline.

If you want to further adjust the Timecode Generator inside the CC: R-click the CC and select Open in Timeline. The CC will open in its own timeline, here you will be able to select the Generator and modify it in the Inspector. When you are done close the CC timeline.

NOTE:

If you have to do this quite often you can also create your own counter that will always start at zero no matter where you place it on the timeline. You can do this right in FCPX.

Create a new Project, make it 1920x1080.
Drop the Timecode Generator onto the Timeline. Adjust size and colors to your liking.
Make the Generator long enough for the kind of timings you need to do (e.g. 5 minutes).
Select the Generator and press ALT+G to turn it into a Compound Clip. Give it a proper name (e.g. Generator) and press OK. The Generator CC will appear inside your Event.

Now every time you need to time an action just drop the Generator CC from the Event Browser onto the clip you want to time and it will always start at zero, no matter where your place the Generator CC. You only need to trim the end so it matches the end of your action.

If you want to modify the Generator CC: open it in its own Timeline, modify the CC and close the timeline.

Hi,

thank you so much for getting back to me.

I still cant get this to work, it just show the time-code and does not start at zero.

is there another way?

can i give you anymore information that would help?

Thanks

Last week we needed to add a stopwatch to a video of a guy running. It didn't have to be super time accurate like for the olympics...just a clock with seconds and hundredths. So we did a movie with one video frame for every hundredth of a second: 00:00,01 | 00:00,02 | 00:00,03 etc until we got to 2 seconds (which was the final time for the stopwatch). So, this movie had 200 frames for those 2 realtime seconds.

I imported the movie and then I stretched (retime) the movie to fill in the 2 seconds space I had in my timeline. So when speeded up it looks like a real stopwatch running at real stopwatch speed.

Hope it helps!

The problem with building a clock in Motion for FCPX is how to implement it. It is not practical to have a generator that is minutes long. Rendering times in FCPX would begin to go off the charts. So, is 1 second practical? 10? 1 minute?

At a certain point, you have to build a break, and part of the "text" (numbers) need to be manually entered and multiple instances applied to the storyline.

From my standpoint as a designer, I see a 10 second running clock to be about the ideal length to make the generator. From 0:00.00 to 9:59.99 seconds (the best it works out on a 60fps storyline is 9:59.98 ... but it's moving so fast, people can't really see it. [FYI - using timecode would work out the same.])

There would be provision to manually enter the starting 10+ second time, including hours too.

Building a "10 second" clock is easy in Motion:

Create a new project: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 fps [MUST BE 60fps! NOT 59.94 -- if building this template at 30fps, must be 30 and NOT 29.97 -- this is very important!!!!]

Set the Duration to 9.59 (9 seconds 59 frames -- or 9 seconds 29 frames for a 30fps project)

[Don't worry about the timing "not matching" your "usual" framerate in FCPX, FCPX *always* conforms and you will retain the "precision"]


Add a Generator > Text Generators > Numbers.

In the Text Generator > Generator tab, set the End value to 10.0
Set Decimals to 2

That's it for the "running time" part.

For the fixed time part, you can create a similarly formatted "regular" text that can be edited in FCPX to set the "leading time" -- example:

00:01:2 + the running time would display time in the range of 1 minute 20 to 30 second range... if you get my drift [appears as 00:01:21.01... in the canvas]

Just set the alignment to right aligned and match up the spacing to the (left aligned) running numbers. With the alignment of the manually entered text, the hours or leading zeros can be ignored if desired.]

I recommend that you add a Project Loop marker to the last frame so that if you stretch or shrink the generator in FCPX, the exact correct timing is retained. Otherwise, FCPX will scale the timing, slowing down the time if stretched and speeding it up if you shrink it. With the Project Loop marker, you will "cut" the running time proportional to the length of the generator in FCPX... (I hope this is understandable.) If you haven't used project markers before, you must make sure that no layers are selected in the layers list when you add the marker (at the playhead). Type M to add the marker, then Command Option M to set the Type to Project Loop End.


HTH

Here's a way to do it with a free generator