Customizing Date & Time Lower Third

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Customizing Date & Time Lower Third

Hi, I am trying to customize the Date & Time Lower Third of Final Cut Pro X (10.5.4)

Since this LT does not allow me to customize the date & time format, I tried to edit it in Motion.

I tried to follow some advice regarding publishing the date and time formats in Motion, however, once this LT has 'passed through' Motion, it immediately loses its ability to display the correct date and time.

Even if I just open its copy in Motion and then save it (without doing anything at all), it loses its functionality completely and starts showing completely erroneous date & time.

Does anybody know how how I can change it so it can show the date & time properly and in a format I want (in another language, or just in a short format, like 3/01/21 etc.?

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Aug 10, 2021 8:54 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

fox_m

Level 6

12,238 points

Aug 11, 2021 3:17 PM in response to partiallygeorge

partiallygeorge wrote:

once this LT has 'passed through' Motion, it immediately loses its ability to display the correct date and time.

What do you mean? What is the correct date and time? "Now"? When it was moved to your hard drive?

Does it have to be correct on drop, or would you be willing to enter a date if it were as easy as typing "3.1.21"? Is M/DD/YY an acceptable format?

The problem with trying to customize Date/Time is that it is explicitly "special" to FCPX. Any modifications (including simply Open a copy in Motion) strips out the specific code that obtains the date and time of the file modified date from the Finder.

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Answer 2

Aug 12, 2021 1:18 AM in response to fox_m

fox_m wrote:

What do you mean? What is the correct date and time? "Now"? When it was moved to your hard drive?

Does it have to be correct on drop, or would you be willing to enter a date if it were as easy as typing "3.1.21"? Is M/DD/YY an acceptable format?

The problem with trying to customize Date/Time is that it is explicitly "special" to FCPX. Any modifications (including simply Open a copy in Motion) strips out the specific code that obtains the date and time of the file modified date from the Finder.

I obviously meant the date & time extracted from the video file, as this is the only function I expect from a 'date and time' lower third.

I guess your last phrase means we'll have to write to FCPX developers asking them to modify this lower third in such a way as to allow us to set the required date & time format by ourselves. Ah well... They could've said it so in the first place in order to spare us the trouble trying to customize it.

Thanks for the answer!

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Answer 3

fox_m

Level 6

12,238 points

Aug 12, 2021 2:44 PM in response to partiallygeorge

I doubt Apple will move on customizing this particular title. Over the years, many default titles have been modified somewhat, but Date/Time has been constant since it was "fixed" for 10.0.5 (or so—don't remember the exact version). [BTW, "Date/Time" isn't even a "legal" name for any files in Mac OS because the / denotes a *directory* level — if you try to open a copy in Motion, it is automatically renamed 'Time copy' and placed within a folder named Date (as if that were the "Theme" of the template).]

I *know* how to pull the creation date from Finder (even though I am not supposed to know!) Unfortunately, the result is a text "string" that always looks like:

2020-02-24 17:45:44 +0000

The time is *always* UT (therefore the +0000 and however many hours you are away from UT added to the time you see in the finder), the date is always 4 digit year-mo-day, and there's no way to translate the time or date into numerical values.

I **can** chop up the string and create different arrangements with masking. The rules will be: the font used MUST have equal width numerical characters to make masking reliable (Bebas Neue, DDT are two from the FCPX "collection" — I think Helvetica Neue Condensed Black will also do but needs further investigation and there may be a few others [e.g., Gill Sans, Wanted LET, Scheme]).

I can't do month names ("January", etc.) just what I get from the response string.

I am probably going to build this template anyway. If you'd be interested, what would be your preferences?

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Answer 4

Aug 14, 2021 1:29 AM in response to fox_m

Thanks a lot for your offer, but tbh I don't think it's worth your effort, since I can surely create a date & time stamp using any regular LT and just copying date & time info from the existing date & time LT (not that I need a date & time stamp every second of my videos).

I'd press the developers instead (whatever the results) - especially because a change I'd want to see in this title is trivial: just publish the date & time format parameters (it'd only require a minute or two - I don't think publishing these parameters would impair the overall functionality of this title.)

I'd love FCP has something like 'Feature request' functionality, like many of professional packages have.

Thanks again for your offer!

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Answer 5

Aug 14, 2021 7:13 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

OMG I have never paid attention to this menu...

Thanks, just did it. Dunno whether it'll help or not.

However, I'd suggest a somewhat different feedback system - something similar to what is used by the company behind SDL Trados Studio. They gather all user suggestions in one place, so everyone can see them and vote for them according to their priorities.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,064 points

Aug 14, 2021 4:02 AM in response to partiallygeorge

Have you used feedback in the Final City Pro menu?

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Customizing Date & Time Lower Third

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