Q: Working between Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5
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Sep 2, 2016 9:43 PMby fox_m,The previous form of interaction between FCP and Motion has been called "round-tripping". About the same as Premiere and After Effects. FCPX and Motion 5 have made that workflow obsolete. Good riddance!
One workflow would be:
Open FCPX.
Open Motion and choose a project type: Effect, Generator, Title or Transition.
Edit your Motion document.
Save [the first time will Save As a Final Cut Pro template — use a custom Category...]
Switch to FCPX. [Use Command-Tab to shortcut.]
Load template [from the Effects Browser] into storyline to check out how it works. Templates are updated "in real time".
[Note: your template design *should be* something that can be reused over and over again with enough published parameters to make variation a simple task **inside FCPX**. You should not need to return to Motion to make changes... ever.]
If you need to make alterations:
Switch back to Motion.
Make more edits/changes.
Save.
Switch back to FCPX.
The thing about FCPX that needs mentioning at this point is: while FCPX is still open, modifications to a Motion template are NOT updated where they have already been applied. That, in my opinion, is a good thing! You can see the progress of your project over several different clips (or locations in your project) as you are developing your "concept". [Do not quit Motion while developing -- if you need to go back to a former version, you should have unlimited Undo's to take you back to a former stage. You can also "version" (save as differently named templates -- and delete "failures" later).]
Repeat the process until satisfied.
If you leave the older versions of your Motion projects in the storyline, they will be updated to the finalized version upon restarting FCPX.
Part of becoming accustomed to the new non-round-tripping workflow is understanding the parts of Motion templates. Effects, Titles and Transitions have objects that look like drop zones. They are not. They are placeholders for the media that is/will be in the FCPX Storyline. Sometimes it is difficult to visualize how your template will be affected by that arrangement. Switching back and forth between Motion and FCPX will be helpful. As you get into more advanced development in Motion, you may need to bring in clips as test objects and you will discover there is no Drop Zone Source Media well available for the placeholders. Find your clip in the File Browser part of the inspector and drag and drop your media "test clip" directly on the Effect Source, Title Background, or Transition A/B layers. The respective "Placeholders" will accept the added clips as a source. Before you save for FCPX, you should click on the Clear button in the Image > Final Cut Placeholder inspector. What happens when you save with "loaded media" is that that media gets copied to the Template / Media folder and that will add considerable size (use up more disk space) to the template. Once you clear the placeholders and if you have saved media clips with the template, you can locate the template's Media folder and delete the copied clip media... it's basically trash that's using up valuable internal HD disk space.
Another workflow is more old fashioned.
Open Motion and start a new Motion Project (this is a plain project that can be saved anywhere on your system). Import your media and work whatever experiments you are trying to achieve. Once you have an "effect" down, start a new project for FCPX and copy the original project development. You have to be careful of this workflow if you use Rigging. You cannot copy/paste rigged items from one project to another—they will all break (rather badly, to the point that they cannot be repaired in the pasted version). You should save any kind of rigging for a "final stage project". That way, you *can* copy/paste all your work from one project to another and then rig parameters for the FCPX template version.
