building your own Vox/Johnny Harris style pop up effect on stills in Motion

Hi Ninose

Hi Ninose

Let's put this into context before we look at the solutions. 

Motion has 2 branches of parameter animation. 

1: Keyframes: key framing the parameter directly gives us full control over the style of the curve with the keyframe editor - and yes, you can achieve any speed curve you need, like in the AE example. 

However, on the surface, key framing directly does not allow us to publish to FCP to create user controls - like adjusting the start position of the effect, or providing duration controls. If we keyframe a parameter and then publish it ..FCP will just ignore the keyframe instructions. 

2: Behaviors: Routing a parameter through a behavior allows us to publish the behavior controls - so we can have adjustable features in FCP and create duration control

What you have encountered here is the trade-off between key framing directly and routing through behaviors. 

When we animate with behaviors - we are confined to the speed curve range of the behavior and we can not get any more control over it. 

In this case, ramp is the behavior we are using and as we can see, we are restricted to the speed curve provided by the curvature slider. At 0% we have linear - and at 100% we have an ease in/ease out. That is all we can do with the ramp behavior. 

Using the ramp allows us to publish parameters and also create duration controls but limits us to the boring ease in/ease out speed. 

So - where to go from here?

For now, we have to forget about duration controls. Let's just look at how to have full control over a speed curve and still be able to publish it in a way the FCP will not ignore. 

To do this, we will change behaviors from 'ramp' to 'link'. 

Open a new motion project. 

Add any shape layer and duplicate it. Name them layer A and layer B. 

Set them apart...something like this. 

Now add a third layer 

Select the middle layer, go to properties - in the X position parameter use the menu to add a link parameter behavior

In the link source - add 'A' - just drag shape layer A into the the box in the link parameter and name the link so you can tell it apart ..

Now add another link to the same X parameter (parameters are not limited to 1 behavior at a time) and use B as the source

Ok - lets review

When you added the second link and assigned it to B - you should see the middle layer jump over to that location. 

1: Note the order of the link behaviors - B is first in the order - so the B link will override everything below it wherever it shares the same frames. 

2: We can assign competing link behaviors to the same parameter - this is one of the most powerful aspects of Motion - always remember this option. 

Now - in the B link behavior - find the 'custom mix' slider. (Link behaviors have a mix over time control to regulate how many frames it takes for the link to become active - and by default it is set to custom)

Ok - so now move that slider between 1 and 0. See how the B link is giving away control to the A link - and this drives the animation between location A and location B. 

Now - keyframe the mix slider between 1 and 0

Ok - so from here ...you will see the mix slider keyframe in the editor so...

1: You have full control over the animation curve

2: You can publish the X of both A and B to FCP. 

So we keyframed an animator directly, and we can publish the null parameters directly to FCP.

I think you can see the potential from here, and I will let you continue down this path and expre all the possibilities from here. I could write another 100 pages on this topic - but I know that you will discover everything I have discovered as long as you keep exploring. 

We have put duration controls on the back burner for now. In time, if you keep exploring with the link behavior, you will arrive at solutions to create duration controls back into the equation. 

Every time I add youtube links here to tutorials it is picked up as 'advertising' so the post gets removed.

Ok - so I will follow up soon and try those links for you again.

Part 2:

First and foremost — don't ever create a fractional frame rate project unless you are specifically directed to for a specific job. Fractional Frame Rates are OBSOLETE and no longer allowed for *broadcast* by the FCC (in America.) NTSC is dead. Fractional Frames Rates add a *layer* of complex calculations to maintain the timing and timecode... it will give you a headache. Playback speeds have to be slowed by 1% and the rules for running timecode become ridiculous.

You still can create an Effect project any size you want, but for now, the common HD 1920x1080 will suffice. Set the Frame Rate to 30... Set the Length to 10 seconds (should be the default.)

Find the Effect Source > Properties > Position > Y parameter and right click on it. Select Add Parameter Behavior > Ramp. Do not set any out points on this behavior - it should be 100% of the project length.

The Ramp behavior inspector should automatically appear. Set the Start Value to -Height (-1080). Set the End Offset to 270. Play. In this project, that is a 1 second animation. (300 - 270 = 30 frames).

Add Another Ramp behavior to the same parameter (Effect Source > Position.Y). Set the End Value to 1080. Set the START OFFSET to 270. This will ensure that the animation out ends on the last frame of the clip (unlike Dylan's version.)

If you don't like the Ramp behavior, you have two other options: Logarithmic and Exponential. Their parameters are the same as Ramp (except neither has a Curvature option.) Choose which you'd like to match the type of animation you want.

Here is a comparison of how each work (Ramp is set to Curvature=0 or Linear):

Keyframing is antithetical to using effects in Final Cut and restrict variation in timing options in order to KEEP FROM going back to Motion every time you need to make adjustments.

Likewise, timing should not be governed by Build markers. What happens if a user needs to use a clip that's less than 4 seconds? The GIF below demonstrates the effect over 1.5 seconds for each of the five clips (one clip segmented/bladed into 1.5 second pieces.) You can't use Dylan's method for that. Below is a method to have the parameter behavior set for the entire length of the project and setting up the parameters to represent % of length of clip. It **doesn't matter** if the start / end offsets overlap taking into account both animations (in and out) as the values are additive and can actually create an interesting (and occasionally useful) variation (think: Title animations).

Now, setting the timing controls.

If you want the option to set a starting time for the animation to occur, add the Start Offset of the first ramp to a Slider Widget (Rig). Name the widget Start In %. In the widget, the slider and the Start Offset should already both be 0, so move the slider to 100 then set the Start Offset value to 299 (the number of the last frame of a 10 second 30fps project). Move the Slider back to 0.

Add the End Offset to another Slider widget. Name the widget End In %. With the slider at 0, set the End Offset to 299. Move the slider to 100 and set the End Offset value to 0. You now have an End slider that is referenced from the **beginning** of the project, not the end and you can set the length of animation as the value between the Start In % (of length of clip) to the End In %. For 1 second of a 10 second project, set End In % to 10 (%).

Do the same for the 2nd Ramp Behavior. Name the sliders: Start Out % and End Out %. Set the starting setting for Start Out to be 90%.

Publish the 4 sliders as per Dylan's instructions.

This project can be further expanded to support horizontal animations as well as mix'n'match animations... but finish this recipe first!

Hi Ninose

I actually asked the moderators to remove my previous replies, as I got quite carried away ranting about off topic issues.

Just to recap - in the end, it was your offsets that were cancelling each other out.

Let's clear up some of the mistakes made in that specific tutorial you were following and add the information that was missing - that should have been there for you.

We first need to note the frame rate of the project. It is set at 59.94 fps - so roughly 60 frames a second.

In the tutorial , the ramp in and the ramp out are set to 2 seconds.

So- each behavior has 120 frames.

@ 4:13 When he says 'that '120 seems to be the route' - what Dylan Bates is not explaining well here, is that the 120 value off the end offset is exactly the 120 frames duration of the behavior.

Remember we count forward for the start offset and we count backwards for the end offset.

In this case - 120 is the max frames of the behavior so from the 120th frame - we minus 120 frames...and we and up at zero - which is why there is no animation at all = the behavior has been given 120-120 = zero frames to run.

Now - when the ramp behavior is duplicated to create the out ramp - there is mistake at this point.

Here - with an out behavior - is the 'start offset' that we should put on the slider.

So - grab that end offset from the out ramp and select 'remove from rig...' - and grab the start offset and use that menu to add to the rig/slider

Ok - so now in your duration slider you will have the end offset for the in ramp and the out offset for the out ramp.

Setting the start offset for the out ramp gives you the accurate timing for the animation out...as the last frame of the out animation is accurately the last frame of the project.

Hope this is helpful.

(keep following Dylan Bates, he has some good ideas and interesting takes on Motion that are worth the time, and if not the most competent with Motion, he does know FCP extremely well).

hey.. forgot to say - that when replace the end offset with the start off on the slider for the ramp out - you can set the same values. The start offset values should be the same as the end offset values at both states of the slider to the left and the right.

I am afraid that you linked to the wrong tutorial... there is no talk about a Rig anywhere near 03:44 on this one - or, it seems, on the whole tutorial (though I just went through rather quickly).

You can control the shape of the curve using Bezier handles in Motion, probably the same way you do it in AE (I don't have AE, so I may wrong somewhere). Just select one keyframe in the Keyframe Editor, and adjust to your heart's content. It does not even have to look like an S. Notice the Bezier handle (that segment with a circle at the end). You adjust the direction, and the length determines how much the curve "pulls" in the direction of that tangent.

Hi Ninose

If you want an effect to act on just 1 image - you need to use compound clips. We can help you create you own custom effect - but just keep that in mind. Compound clips is an FCP feature that you should get to know and understand.

Hi Ninose,

The moderators have removed my preview replies again for breaking the rules. It seems posting links to youtube tutorials that will help you with your project and to learn Motion is a violation. I don't understand how that makes sense, I have checked the site use agreement and I don't think any of those links constitute a violation, but, it is what it is...so the information i sent for your last question has been removed.

In your last screen shot you had just set up a link ..but had not linked it to anything. That was your issue.

Hi Ninose

I only really understand FCP within the context of developing plugins. I'm currently taking a few courses to get up the FCP learning curve myself so I can create content for my business and to be able to better understand the needs of the editors who hire me to make custom templates.

In this specific case, it is fine to fall back to my channel so that I can provide you with project files related to your current Motion project goals. However, outside of that, keep to this forum when you have issues. There are many minds here and people with many different areas of expertise in Motion and many who know far more and I do about Motion, so this is right place to be for the best information.