'Weird' Terminology: rigs, snapshots and checkboxes/My odyssey, to create a simple drop-down menu ;)

The Preface

I'm a hobbyist! "Daddy does movies", enthusiastic about the -zillions of features, tools like FCPX and Motion5 offer! I'm no designer, no engineer, no 'pro'. My goals are sky-high, results more down-to-earth :lol:

This is no request for help, just to share my … quest for a 'simple' effect. Or feature… Or box.-
In hope, it helps YOU to solve your problems…

The Issue

Simple: I wanted to create my very own 'title' template for FCPX. Concept: a lil' animation, the two teams logos reveal a lower third, showing the actual score. Plus, an insert showing the scorer (=my kids love to see themselve in such 'sports graphics' )

Usually, I 'manufacture' such graphics as single Motion-Projects. This time, my goal was a template, my kids slaughtered in the first season's game the other team by 11:1 (which is in soccer… a goal-fest) To 'built' each Title manually as individual Projects would spend way too much time. I needed a template! … so, step #1: using a Dropzone for opponents logo - easy. Animating - been there, done that, easy.-

But that 'show players face&name' … 18 team-members… wouldn't it be nice to have some 'drop down menu'?
How to accomplish that?

The Manual, with all respect, is written for experts. Describing ALL options in one sentence. I need a cookbook, step-by-step-instruction … My preferred source of imagination, MacBreakStudio/rippletraining/Mark Spencer, hasn't done a tutorial for 'drop downs' yet.- or, I haven't found it yet.-

My guts told me, it has something to do with 'rigs' …

The Rig

I dragged my folder with player-pics into my Motion5 project; there, I could check/uncheck each player. But I wanted these 'boxes' avail in FCPX, I wanted to 'publish' this check-list. Trying 'tis&'tat, I noticed, I can apply to the opacity of each player-pic a Rig. And a Checkbox-rig - hey, that close!!

http://imgur.com/dxydlH6

… soooo?
No 'checkbox' in FCPX after publishing my title. No list after publishing to FCPX! What have I done wrong?

The Snapshots

I was confused by the meaning of 'snapshot'! … and since it made "ping!" in my head, it's so simple:

As I would done it in a 'manufactured', single Motion project, I have to select each team-member, create a New Snapshot, set opacity to show only this player; create another New Snapshot, showing a diff. player. … and so on, and so on.

http://imgur.com/FludxUt

… for sure, for convenience I renamed each Snapshot to each Player's name…

In my amateurish mind, I had the imagination, Motion5 would offer me a 'behavior' (or 'filter' or whatever) to create checkboxes; or drop-downs; … uhm, well it does, but for me the work-flow is back-to-front: first creating a status-quo, then tell 'this is option#1/#2/#3' … I had the idea, you can select first an 'empty box', then drag its content into it. I've learned: professional don't tic this way.

Eighteen Snapshots later …

The Result

After publishing my hand-crafted Title, it appears like that in FCPX:

http://imgur.com/M5o27q4

The Dropzone is to apply the actual contestants team-logo; the 'Title' is the score, just type the number; and - finally! - I had my drop-down-menu, listing all players, for simple selection.- Me happy … ! :silly:

In movin' images:


___________

As mentioned before: the design isn't meant to win a price; and most probably, there are 'shorter ways to Rome' … so, if any of you 'pros' like to comment or recomment a 'better', in terms of 'easier' way, don't hesitate to teach me!


K.

PS: hmmm… my links to my 3 screen-shots don't appear as pictures. nor as links … - in edit-mode. the img-tag appears… whatever, you know how to handle it