Drop Zones in motion

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Level 1

4 points

Drop Zones in motion

I use motion to make titles for use in FCPX, recently I was changing a template I have used containing drop zones. When I would place the image in the drop zone in there are properties I publish with the title that specify how the image is used. Typical properties include anchor, scale, rotation, sheer, and others. One property that is handy is called pan, and it lets you center the image into the drop zone.

For the life of me, I cannot find the pan parameter to publish to the title template so I can use it with FCPX. While there is crop this doesnt help much when images are different sizes.

Can anyone tell me where the pan parameter can be found? I think it was moved with the last update of motion.

Thanks in advance...

Powerbook

Posted on Jan 11, 2019 12:58 PM

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Answer 1

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fox_m

Level 6

12,226 points

Jan 11, 2019 1:14 PM in response to Tadoug

Yeah - this might be a bug. To get the pan/scale parameters back, temporarily add an image source to your project. Navigate to the Drop Zone > Image inspector. User the To dropdown to select your image. Publish the Pan and Scale parameters. Us the To dropdown to reset the source to the Drop Zone. You can delete the extra added image after that. The Pan and Scale paramters should remain with that drop zone after that.

An alternative method would be to create a *custom* drop zone image (to fit your project size) and save it to Favorites. Then when you need a drop zone, just apply the custom image and convert it to a Drop Zone from the Image Inspector > Type menu option — it's set to "Off" - just select Drop Zone.

There are some issues that arise from the default Drop Zone.tif image (which is square) for some kinds of applications (usually with unusual source image cropping issues in FCPX). Since 4:3 format applications are becoming more and more rare, it can be beneficial to use a 16:9 format drop zone image as a source to begin with. ;)

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Answer 2

Tadoug Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 11, 2019 1:50 PM in response to Tadoug

It works as long as the place holder image is in there, but if you remove it, the pan parameter is gone. I tried saving it, then clearing it, and it removes it all. So the only somewhat work around for now is to include a placeholder image in each drop zone. When you go to FCPX of course there is no image there so you must add the correct image, and play around with it to make it work.

How do you submit a bug? I wouldn't want this to be a permanent solution, because it is rather a pain.

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Answer 3

fox_m

Level 6

12,226 points

Jan 11, 2019 2:55 PM in response to Tadoug

Sorry for the delay - dealing with another problem...

Agreed - a major pain!

I tried out adding the image, then switching the drop zone from the image back to Drop Zone and deleted the image used to fill the drop zone. The Pan/Scale parameters stayed. I even closed and reopened the project and the pan/scale params were still there. So I really don't know why they disappeared on your system...

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Answer 4

Tadoug Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 11, 2019 2:02 PM in response to Tadoug

I submitted a bug report through the help function in motion, thanks everyone for your quick replies.

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Drop Zones in motion

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