Making a "callout" line that follows the action?

I've actually exhausted all of my tutorial vids, and even YouTube…I can't seem to figure out how to do this correctly!

I have a video of my nephew's 100m race. It's a wide shot, he runs from right to left, and I'd like to do something (seemingly) simple:

Put his name at the top in simple text, and then have a line pointing from that title down to him at the starting gate, then, as he runs across the screen, have the line follow him, but stay "anchored" to the same point at the text up top. And have a smooth "pro" motion to it.

So far I've made a really skinny rectangle (that looks like a line) added keyframes, and rotated it several times to "follow" him, but it's really wonky. I figure I could add some masks to help it look like it's on a 'plane" top and bottom (because it's currently bobbing up and down quite a bit), but the movement would still be weird.

This seems like a simple thing to do. Am i over-thinking it? …or is this a "motion" thing?

tia

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There are a number of ways to do this. If you purchase Coremelt's TrackX, you can easily use the plugin to track the line movement precisely to the runner. If you are familiar with Motion, you can use the motion tracker behavior to also accomplish this. Finally, you can key frame the motion (as you did) but it would be smoother to key frame the start point and then advance your play head to the end point and apply the second key frame. FCPX will interpolate the interim movement and the result will be smoother than if you generate multiple key frames at periodic locations.

Here's the tutorial you need, Creating Targeted Lines That Track Movement In Motion:
www.macprovideo.com/hub/motion/creating-...ck-objects-in-motion

May I suggest my own <cough> generator, DotLineDot?
you get it here, for free, in the PlugIn Section of tis board:
www.fcp.co/forum/generators/23254-callout-dotlinedot





It offers two OnScreenControls, both keyframe-able, so let the Dot with the name stay at any position and keyframe the end of the line to your nephews position.

A Running contest is easy to keyframe - track is a straight line, and most of the time a sprinter has the same speed.

No Motion nor $$ plug in needed. :ohmy:

... although, I would use TrackX too ....

This is great! I'll give it a try this weekend.

PS, thanks for all the other replies, I wasn't sure if I needed Motion, or to buy another plugin.

This is one of those things that a newbie kind of ASSUMED FCPX does natively. But I guess it doesn't. But the good news is there are options out there!

Karsten Schlüter wrote: May I suggest my own <cough> generator, DotLineDot?
you get it here, for free, in the PlugIn Section of tis board:
www.fcp.co/forum/generators/23254-callout-dotlinedot

It offers two OnScreenControls, both keyframe-able, so let the Dot with the name stay at any position and keyframe the end of the line to your nephews position.

A Running contest is easy to keyframe - track is a straight line, and most of the time a sprinter has the same speed.

No Motion nor $$ plug in needed. :ohmy:

... although, I would use TrackX too ....

I would really like to thank you for this. Really helped. I didn't need the underline, or the "dots" so I just masked them out. It's simple, and perfect.

Thanks!

so I just masked them out. It's simple, and perfect.

Feel free to customize to your needs!

btw: although I use it [strike]daily[/strike] [strike]weekly[/strike] from time to time, that feature to open effects/titles/transitions in Motion5 and to give'm your personal touch is awesome! Reminds me of the days of iDVD, which allowed by simple drag'n drop customizing designs ....

Have fun movie-making!