UPDATE! Free FCP X Photo Album Effect

I'm also noticing that if you select 'Color' for the Source Style, it won't let you change the Cover Page Type to 'Clean Leather'... Any reason for that?

Hi,
I'm glad you like the effect.
I will look into your questions later this week since I will be filming on location the next few days. Meanwhile you can try to take another look at the instructions for the effect that I've posted at the top of this topic. It has been some time since I've made the effect so in order to help you I really need to be behind my other computer at the office where I have FCPX and Motion installed.

Regards,
Robbert-Jan

Hi all,

I completely forgot that MobileMe is off air since last saturday. I had the effect and the accompanying overview stored on MobileMe, so all of a sudden it was unaccessible.
I have moved the files to my dropbox now and fixed the links in the first post of this topic.
It is working again.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Regards,
Robbert-Jan

Thanks for this. I have a lot of relatives abroad who love this on a DVD of my daughter, things we get up to etc:) Respect to you for posting gratis

Thank you for this great effect! I was using it on a project with success, but a strange problem has now come up. I am using the option for an album cover with text, but suddenly, when I change or remove the text and render the clip, it renders with the text as it was before the change or deletion, even though the clip appears as it should in the viewer! And I am having the same problem if I remove the effect and then re-apply it with its original settings -- that is, even after I change the cover text to something other than "Photo Album," the change is reflected in the viewer but not in the rendered clip. I'm at a loss as to what the problem could be!

Hi Venga,

It sounds as if FCPX is still referring to the old render files. I normally have background render switched off in the preferences, to avoid this problem. I would suggest that you do the same and then go to the project browser, Right-click on your project and press CMD-D to make a duplicate of your project. Select the first option "Project File Only". Leave the checkbox "Include Render Files" unchecked and click OK. Now you have a clean duplicate of your project without render files.
Now to test if the problem still persists you can select the part of your timeline that has the Photo Album Effect applied to it and go to Modify>Render Selection.
I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Robbert-Jan

Thanks so much for your quick reply. That's exactly what I had thought, and I already tried that, but no luck. I've even tried deleting all project and event render files (and emptying the trash), and still no luck. Specifically, I removed the text from the album cover within the effect, then closed FCPX, then deleted all project and event render files (and emptied the trash). But then, when I reopen the project, the old album cover text is back in the effect (in the inspector, where the effect options are located)!

Hi Venga,

Sorry to hear that you had no luck. Tomorrow I will try if I can replicate this behaviour

Robbert-Jan

Hi Venga,
I have just tried to follow your steps and without any oddities I was able to export three short clips, each with a different name on the cover page. I even tried it with background render turned on. The orange bar above the timeline immediately appeared as I started to type a new text in the Cover Text box in the inspector. Have you already tried to trash the FCPX preferences? Other than that I wouldn't know what is causing this strange behaviour.

Cheers,
Robbert-Jan

Thanks Robbert-Jan. Just tried trashing the preferences, and it didn't work. When I type new text, the orange bar doesn't appear. It only appears after I make some other change to the effect's settings in the inspector, such as uncheck the "Build In" check box. But when I check the box again, the orange bar disappears. Very odd. I guess next I will have to try to delete and then reinstall the effect....

Well I just realized that the cover text can be moved independently of the rest of the clip using the on-screen control. So I simply moved the text off of the screen, and that worked. Anyway, thanks again for trying to help, and for the great and free effect!

Hello, I just found your template, wow thanks for all the effort!

I have 1 question, I would like the video in the photo frame to zoom out to fullscreen and then at the end of the clip it will zoom back into the photo frame and then the page will turn over to the next one etc etc.

This is similar to the functionality of the "album cover" theme in FCPX.

Is this possible with your theme or am I missing a step in the process?

Thanks

Richard

Hello, first post! I know iMovie very well and recently got FCPX. I'd really like to use this template... but I'm struggling to get it to work properly. The pictures get half chopped off and allsorts...

Anyway, can I place videos into the album too or just photos?

Thanks

To prevent you pictures from getting chopped off, you can make them a Compound Clip first. They will be conformed to the project settings and display properly.
Video can be placed into the album as well.
Here you can find a graphical overview with detailed instructions for using and setting up the effect.

Robbert-Jan

Thank you for the quick reply. As I'm new to FCPX, am I best just loading a loads of pics and videos into the a project, then adding your effect over the top?

IS it best to use Motion to do the changes?

I would load the stills in the timeline first, then make each individual still a compound clip.
Then you can add the effect and adjust the settings in the inspector pane.
If you follow the instructions and play around you 'll get the hang of it.
You don't have to adjust the settings in Motion. That can all be done inside FCPX

Robert,

I also love your effect. I am having a different problem than I have seen in this forum. I am making each photo a compound clip, then adding your effect. Then placing subsequent pictures with the effect in stair step fashion as your diagram shows. My problem is the black background that is behind the photo and frame, only goes to the middle of the page. So you can see the following photo page below it. It does not matter how far right I move the following clip in the timeline, it will Flash in place so it destroys the page turn illusion.

I opened it in Motion and that background covers the whole page - like it should and everything works there like it should.

The only thing that I can figure is that the photo album seems to size itself based on the size of the picture in the compound clip. However, I made a compound clip, then enlarged the photo, then applied the effect and the same scenario happened. Thanks!

Hi Doug,

I haven't seen this before. Can you give me some info on your project settings as well as the pixel dimensions of your stills?

Robbert-Jan

Hi Doug,

I think I know what is happening.
Whenever the project settings are non 16:9 I see this behavior.
When I designed the effect I made it for a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Could this be happening in your setup?