Creseba

Q: How to create an animated title that scrolls like an iPod Classic title that is too large to fit on the screen. How do I do this?

I'd like to create an animated title that scrolls like an iPod Classic title that is too large to fit on the screen. How do I do this?

Mac mini (Late 2012)

Posted on Feb 20, 2016 6:32 PM

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Q: How to create an animated title that scrolls like an iPod Classic title that is too large to fit on the screen. How do I do this?

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  • by Karsten Schlüter,

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Feb 21, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Creseba
    Level 7 (32,738 points)
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    Feb 21, 2016 7:31 AM in response to Creseba

    <scratching head> long forgotton, how did that look like ... ??

     

    like in this video, around 00:40?

    https://vimeo.com/11838765

     

    apply to your text a Move behavior or two keyframes and a mask, I'd say  ...

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Feb 21, 2016 8:12 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 21, 2016 8:12 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

    EExactly like that. Where it scrolls and stops... And then scrolls again.

     

    I'm still new to this program so if you could explain in more detail that would be greatly appreciated.

  • by Karsten Schlüter,Solvedanswer

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Feb 25, 2016 6:23 AM in response to Creseba
    Level 7 (32,738 points)
    Video
    Feb 25, 2016 6:23 AM in response to Creseba

    Creseba wrote:

    … I'm still new to this program so if you could explain in more detail that would be greatly appreciated.

    Ooops - sorry for replying late!

     

    A board can not replace a from-the-ground-tutorial - and this touches some fundamental basics... ok, anyhow:

     

    Bildschirmfoto 2016-02-25 um 14.49.27.jpg

     

    apply Text to your project

    hit the red record button

    put text to the right side

    drag playhead further on in time....

    put text to position where it pause

    drag playhead further on in time....

    press the yellow dot in the inspector to create another keyframe at same position= this pauses the movement

    drag playhead further on in time....

    put text to the left side

     

    apply a Mask....

    Bildschirmfoto 2016-02-25 um 14.50.48.jpg

    select the Mask tool

    drag a rectangle over your text

    (apply some feather …)

    ... done

     

    On playback, the title crawls right to left, pauses, leaves the place...

     

    generally spoken.................

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Feb 25, 2016 6:24 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 25, 2016 6:24 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

    Thanks!

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Mar 13, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 13, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

    Hey - So I got all of this to work, thanks for your help.

     

    Issues I'm having and I hope you can help me with:

     

    1. Speed of scroll:

         - I'm creating a template that I will be using in all of my videos. I will be reviewing albums and therefore need the scroll of the song title to have the same      consistent speed for every length of song title.

         - When I put different lengths of song title into this template in FCPX it either speeds up or slows down.

         - Is there any way to make one uniform template that has the same speed regardless of the amount of text?

  • by Karsten Schlüter,

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Mar 13, 2016 11:25 PM in response to Creseba
    Level 7 (32,738 points)
    Video
    Mar 13, 2016 11:25 PM in response to Creseba

    Creseba wrote:

    ....    - Is there any way to make one uniform template that has the same speed regardless of the amount of text?

    hmm?

    same speed would require diff.length of the template...

    so, in FCPX, just drag'n stretch the 'title' .. (?)

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Mar 14, 2016 7:33 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 7:33 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

    I figured that was the only way, but was hoping there was a way to set speed regardless of the length of title. The perfectionist in me will not be happy knowing the scroll speeds will not be exactly consistent haha. Thanks for the help anyways!

  • by Karsten Schlüter,

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Mar 15, 2016 2:47 AM in response to Creseba
    Level 7 (32,738 points)
    Video
    Mar 15, 2016 2:47 AM in response to Creseba

    Creseba wrote:

    was hoping there was a way to set speed regardless of the length of title. The perfectionist in me will not be happy knowing the scroll speeds will not be exactly consistent haha. Thanks for the help anyways!

    WEll Physics, lesson #3 ....

    SPeed = distance x time

     

    if you want a constant speed by various length of title, title has to vary time....

    or, with constant time, you have to vary speed....

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Mar 15, 2016 11:45 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 11:45 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

    My physics knowledge left 10 years ago... so thanks for the refresher.

     

    Thanks for the informative/sarcastic response as usual - I just thought there might be an easier way.

  • by fox_m,

    fox_m fox_m Mar 15, 2016 4:36 PM in response to Creseba
    Level 5 (5,552 points)
    Video
    Mar 15, 2016 4:36 PM in response to Creseba

    You can set the timing of your project for one or two animations. Then add a Project Loop End marker on the last frame (or on the frame where the animation should loop.) Once you set the loop marker, anything in the template AFTER the marker is ignored (in FCPX).

     

    To create a project marker (there are 3 types of "project markers" with two variants [mandatory and build]), place the playhead where it is to be applied. Make sure NO LAYERS are selected (clicking in the Layers column below all content works easily.) Type the M key, then type command-option-M. You will get a popup dialog. From the Type menu, select Project Loop End.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 6.27.51 PM.png

    Save your project.

     

    In FCPX, it won't matter how long you make your template, the timing will always be strictly the same... no "time stretching."

     

    If you want to be able to speed up or slow down the animation, then don't use a loop marker... it won't work right.

  • by Creseba,

    Creseba Creseba Mar 15, 2016 6:06 PM in response to fox_m
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 6:06 PM in response to fox_m

    Just tried this out - this is more so what I'm looking for.

     

    To explain why this is also limiting for me I'll explain the format of my videos.

     

    I will be reviewing albums, rating songs on Apples 5 star scale; therefore, I will have song titles ranging from 1 word to a possible 10 words or so.

     

    The issue I have is that I want one single template that keeps a constant speed regardless of title length, and I want it to loop.

     

    Your solution is the most appealing as I can just make custom titles for each song I'm rating - however, I'm going to have hundreds of title projects by the time I start putting a lot of content out.

     

    If this is the best solution, thank you! If there's another workaround, I'm all ears/eyes.

     

    Thanks

  • by fox_m,

    fox_m fox_m Mar 16, 2016 2:17 AM in response to Creseba
    Level 5 (5,552 points)
    Video
    Mar 16, 2016 2:17 AM in response to Creseba

    There might be a way... You can't build a "regular" template. Your best option is to build a generator, one time use for each video, but you can use the first one you build and "replenish" the list for each subsequent project.

     

    This project is mostly about creating subtitles that are animated in a repetitive scrolling animation. (It's not that hard, just bear with me.) If you don't have a lot of titles to do, it might just be faster to create the individual titles in FCPX with the template you've already built. The following project might be easier in the long run though... it's worth knowing.

     

     

    Part 1:

     

    You will need to know how long your video will be, and it will help if you have the soundtrack exported from your cut video to aid in timing.

     

    If your video is 20 minutes long, create a project in Motion that is 20 minutes long. If you're reusing the "template" for other projects down the line, you can adjust the length of a saved project by selecting the Project "layer" and in Properties, set the new time length in the Duration parameter.

     

    Type out a list of song titles in a TXT file (TextEdit will do fine, but use plain text only -- the file type must be TXT.) Every song title must exist on its own line. Start with a blank line (you need it to keep a blank until the first title is ready to "play".)

     

    In Motion, you can use a Generator > Text Generator > File Generator. In the inspector, Browse for your txt file. Set the Speed to Custom (the default will have the custom speed already keyframed from 0 to 100%.)

     

    At some point, add your sound track (you will delete it before you save the project - you won't need it and it's just dead weight in the Media folder.)

     

    Listen to the soundtrack and when the song changes, increase the Custom Speed by enough to change the title. (A shortcut would be to watch the audio waveform for "silence" — just move the playhead to those points, etc.)

     

    When you've created all the keyframes, you need to open the keyframe editor and select the Custom Speed parameter in the left column. When you mouse over the line, you'll see a small disclosure triangle appear on the right edge - click on it and select Interpolation > Constant. All the keyframes will become "step-wise".

     

    Part 2:

     

    Format your text like you want it to appear in your video. Find the longest title - that will determine your spacing in the titles.

     

    Clone the Group containing the File generator (it's just tidier that way... no other real reason.) In this **rare** occasion, duplicate the clone layer. Move the duplicate to the right and leave just enough space between the two versions. Make a note of the distance you offset the duplicate -- you'll need it later. Create a Rectangle, Fill (any color), no outline— that will be your "window" (mask) for the text (it doesn't matter if it's a little less wide than the song title) and create a small negative feather. Turn it off for now.

     

    Select the Group containing the two clones and type the L key to create a Replicator. If the group containing the File generator didn't turn itself off, you can uncheck it in the layers list.

     

    Set the Shape to Line and the Points to 1. (It might help to set the Start and End Point Xs to 0.)

    To the Replicator add Behaviors > Replicator > Sequence Replicator.

     

    In the Behaviors tab for Sequence Replicator, Add > Parameter > Position. Move the Playhead to the start and set a keyframe on the X parameter. Move the Playhead however far you want the titles to pause (15 frames or a half second seems a good starting point) and set another keyframe. Move the Playhead to the 3 second mark and type in negative offset distance between the two clones (you can make adjustments to the ending keyframe in the keyframe editor).  Set Sequencing to "From Keyframes" and set Loops to about 20 for every minute of play (I think... You may have to adjust this later.) If your video is 2 minutes, set 40, etc...

     

    To the Group containing the Replicator, right click on the group layer and select Add Image Mask and drag the rectangle you drew into it. (Just for "neatness's" sake, drag the rectangle into the same group as the replicator.)

     

    Ok - at this point, I think that's everything.

     

    Delete the soundtrack and Save the generator to FCPX in a category specialized for this type of effect ("Subtitles" maybe?)

     

    Go back to your video project and drag the generator onto the project. Playback to check/adjust the synchronization (it should be exactly synchronized from whatever point you exported your audio soundtrack.

     

    When you're completely done with this project, you can delete the generator from your Motion Templates / Generators / <chosen category> folder or reuse it for another project (rename it too!) You'll need to do the same adjustments for title length and to the Sequence Replicator if you have to change the distance between the two text clone layers, but once you get this down, it should be easy to put together again.

     

     

    HTH