Creating Motion 5 Templates for FCPX (with a different framerate)

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Creating Motion 5 Templates for FCPX (with a different framerate)

This might be an odd question/issue, but I'm trying to create animated titles/generators to use in FCPX.

The specific issue I'm running into is that I want my Motion 5 title and generator templates to be a different framerate than my FCPX project instead of conforming to my FCPX project parameters.

Here's what I'm doing:

I'm creating Motion 5 title/generator templates and setting the framerate in Motion at 15fps (I'm going for an animated-cartoon style so I'm using a lower/choppier framerate).
I create the template and play it back in Motion 5 and it plays back at the proper framerate, 15fps.
I then open FCPX (which I'm editing at 24fps) and go to my titles/generators tab and locate the custom titles and generators I've just created.

HERE COMES THE ISSUE:

I drag the title and or generator into my FCPX project and instead of playing back at 15fps like I designed it in Motion, it plays back at the framerate I'm editing at in FCPX, 24fps - making my titles and generators playback smoother instead of having that choppy cartoon-effect of 15fps.

My question is:

How do I keep my Motion 5 templates from conforming to FCPX project parameters?

Has anyone else tried to do this?

I haven't found any info related to this anywhere, all I've found is people saying how to change your framerate in FCPX, which isn't what I want to do. I want to continue editing in 24fps while having cartoon-styled presets (such as lower third titles, animated logos, generators, etc.) play back in FCPX at 15fps.

Not sure if this is possible, but I thought I would ask to see if anyone else has had this specific issue 😂

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 25, 2021 10:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

fox_m

Level 6

12,679 points

Feb 25, 2021 1:45 PM in response to Shreddedwheat95

To your projects, add Filters > Time > Strobe and publish the Strobe Rate. No matter what the frame rate of your FCP project, the Strobe filter will partition the animation by the selected rate. If you want the background video to "participate" in the illusion, publish the title with the Title Background and place the Strobe filter on the Group containing both your animations and the Title Background.

There is another way:

Group your animation so it's all inside one group. Clone the group. Replicate the group and set the Shape to Point. Publish (make sure that Play Frames is selected - it should be by default.)

You should see the same effect in FCPX as you see in Motion (with the replicator), more or less (it may be a little more "emphatic").

Here's a project created at 10fps in Motion. The bottom square is animated by a Ramp behavior. The top one is the same animation, cloned, replicated with Play Frames:

(remember this is a GIF! The bottom square animates smoothly in FCP)

These are both running simultaneously in the same Title template.

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Answer 2

Feb 25, 2021 12:13 PM in response to Shreddedwheat95

Since there is no such thing as a fraction of a frame, you can't really have something playing back at 15fps within a 24fps timeline.

You could have something that appears to be playing at 12fps, if every frame is repeated...

I don't know of any obvious way to achieve that. Motion templates do not really have an inherent frame rate when used in FCP, so what you experience is the expected behavior.

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Answer 3

Feb 25, 2021 1:07 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for the info, that makes sense. I didn't think about the uneven divide between 24fps and 15fps.

Maybe FCPX would let me have a Motion title at a different framerate if it's an even dividend of my project framerate, like 12fps. I'll give it a try. If it doesn't work then I guess there's no way to force custom titles and generators to be a different framerate than an FCPX project. What I would have to do in that instance is just render out my title as a video with a transparent background and then use that in my project so that I'm guaranteed the framerate is baked in. Kind of annoying because it won't be customizable upon export, I'd just have to customize it how I need it before I export it from Motion.

Anyway, thanks for the reply!

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Answer 4

Feb 25, 2021 2:33 PM in response to fox_m

Wow, that's an incredible tip! Never thought to do that, I will definitely give that one a try. Thank you very much!

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Creating Motion 5 Templates for FCPX (with a different framerate)

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