FCPX - No Bounding Box With Shapes Generator

DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE TRANSFORMS PARAMETERS for the Shape Generator... Reset them all to the original settings.

DO NOT CHANGE THE CENTER PARAMETER of the Shape Generator! (Except to move it out of the way of the Effects OSC so you can gain control of it.)

ONLY USE THE TRANSFORM PARAMETERS from the GenTransforms Effect: Position, Rotation, Scale and Shear. AND, once you move the Shape with the GenTransforms Position parameter or OSC out of the way, you can go back into the Shape Generator's parameters and RESET the Center parameter.

The Effect will move, rotate and scale the entire Shape generator. If you move the Shape with the Shape Generator's Center parameter, it will still go out of bounds. If you use any of the regular Transforms, you can seriously mess up what you want to do.

You will have the ability to move that Shape Generator to anywhere on (or even OFF) the screen.

You can see the arrow at the right side of the Viewer at the very edge — I have it pointing to the Highlighter - GenTransforms effect. ONLY use THOSE parameters for any of the things you want to do with the Shape generator. You can use everything OTHER THAN the Center parameter in the Shape Generator inspector (Fill, Outline, Shadow, etc.) And stay away from the Transform section completely.

Give this a try:

https://fcpxtemplates.com/product/highlighter-gentransforms/

(It is listed as a "product", but it is FREE! — it's actually faster for me to put it up this way and I will know when you download it. You do not have to provide personal information — you can make up a name...)

There's a user hint on the page for Shapes.

Install it in Effects, Category of your choice (Instructions Here, if you need them). Add the effect to the Shapes generator. Use the Effects inspector to control it.

There is an OSC for you to drag the shape around (you will need to gain access to it by moving the original larger puck slightly out of the way — I recommend directly downward). You can scale the shape and it will not be cropped — you have full access to the entire screen. You can rotate three dimensionally and there are Shear controls (X and/or Y). Everything can be animated via keyframes.

Once you move the shape off its original OSC with the Effect's OSC, you can reset the Shape's Center X/Y parameters to 0,0.

If you have any trouble, get back with me.

HTH

The download is an Effect not a Generator. Move it over into the Effects templates. If it's by itself in a category, just move the entire category from Generators to Effects.

Once you have access to it, load up a Shape generator, then go into your Effects browser and find the GenTransforms and apply it to the generator.

Ok - you have the four main folders for Effects, Generators, Titles and Transitions.

You need to set up the Highlighter - GenTransforms *folder* in:

[ Effects ]

|

[ Category ] (folder -- this is the label that appears in FCPX's effects browser

|

[ Highlighter - GenTransforms ]

You must keep all the files inside the GenTransforms folder together (Highlighter - GenTranforms.moef, large.png, small.png and the Media Folder — these items make up the actual template).

You will not have to restart FCPX. When it is installed correctly, it will appear.

You're probably using the larger ("silver") OSC that goes with the Shape generator. I recommend you drag that one down off the smaller black one just far enough to get it out of the way, then use ONLY the smaller black OSC. Its Position parameters will be in the Effect inspector.

Here's the deal: you add the shape generator. No matter what you do when you scale it down, you are scaling the entire 4K image area. You don't see it because it's transparent, but the cropping edges of the media follow along with it. This happens even with the Effect (GenTransforms).

Here's the difference:

When you move the Shape by its original OSC, you are moving it inside it's boundaries. The Cropping is scaled down to conform to the edges of the Generator's size.

When you move the Shape by the Effect OSC, you are moving the ENTIRE generator. Therefore, the Cropping is moving along with the arrow. Its "relative" relationship to the Shape never changes. You have full access to your 4K screen area because the Shape generator's background and cropping follow along with the position of the smaller black OSC. You even rotate the entire Generator (not the shape itself) when you use Rotation and you distort the entire Generator when you use Shear. You should always see 100% of any of the shapes when you apply and use the Effect.

Does that make sense? If not — I'll try a different way to explain it.

Yes! Great! It's not the most intuitive way to deal with that generator, but it will get around having to deal with the Transform section and switching back and forth between the Generator controls and Transform — putting all the controls in one easy to access place.

I will definitely have to supply the instructions to go with the effect!

Which generator are you talking about? Many are like clips and have bounding boxes when the transform function is activated.

Activate transform. You should be able to scale or deform the shape.