Apple Motion: custom title with a blurred background

Hi

I had a look at your project file.

The reason it doesn't work in FCP is because you turn off the title background group. It needs to be on because it is the asset that instructs the media in FCP - so with it disabled - the instructions are disabled.

If you want to blur the media in FCP, the filter would generally go on the title background asset.

This is just a baseline method though, but lets start from here to set the basics, and then, if for example, you have followed a tutorial that uses a different method - we can move to that and see where you may need to adapt ( I am just assuming that you may have learned from the tutorial but found the same method doesn't work in what you want to do for this)

The publish a control to turn the blur on or off - you can put the mix of the filter onto a check box widget - with the mix at zero in the disabled state - and at 100 in the on state.

Is the blur supposed to animate in?

A quick observation - you have the published the speed menu, but you have left the custom option available. This is redundant in FCP and can cause confusion for the end user as it does not nothing.

Unpublished the menu from the behavior. Add a rig and pop up menu. Format the pop up to with the same settings as the behavior menu - do not include a setting for custom. Now match the settings of the behavior menu to the pop-up menu and publish that.

I have a tutorial on this, but I am prohibited from posting a link to it, so ..just to let you know, once we resolve this issue with the blur filter in FCP, I can take you through it in more detail here.

Your duration controls look ok - just note that the build in marker is too many frames -set that marker to where the maximum duration of the in animation is plus 1 frame.

I added the filter revision and did the pop up widget for the text behavior speed menu

(If you don't see it that is because admin have deleted it - although by the forum rules this link is related to the question asked so hopefully they will not)

Try the filter on the title background with and leave the background asset active. You'll see the blur working now in FCP.

From there, we can hear back from you about the settings you need to provide for the blur in FCP and we can show you how to do that from the filter applied the title background. If you did learn from the tutorial, please send a link to that so we can see get the full context.

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi

Yes, we understand what you mean by blurred background source. This is called the title background placeholder.

The reason the blur doesn't work when disabled, is because the group is off.

Anytime you want to use the title background asset, the group must be on.

But here, you are using the title background group as the source for a clone, which means you need to have it off.

So - the method of masking is the problem.

The pixel shift you see when the title background group is on - that means there is a 1 pixel x position parameter offset somewhere in your layers or often is is a .5 - look through your layers for the clone and look in position properties if it is no 0/0 for x and y, there is the problem.

Sometimes links for position can create offsets - this is a bug that has crept into motion in one of the previous released.

If you don't find a position parameter - then it may be from a position link

To save yourself going in and out of FCP to check for results - just add an image to the title background in the Motion template so you have a visual background not just the grey asset - then turn your links off and on until you find the one that creates the pixel shift.

Turn off align to when do this - align to is very system heavy - if Motion gets slow as you click between links - this is the align to behavior - ..just a side note here - anytime you work in motion and clicking between layers and links becomes slow - turn off the layers and the keyframe editor - f7 and f8 - that should restore smooth UI operations.

(don't know why - but it does)

I asked if it was supposed to animate, because in FCP - it wasn't animating.

So, from your last report, it sounds like Karstens method solved the problem with the blur not working - is this correct? I haven't reviewed the tutorial - but I will make a Motion template to demonstrate how I would do it if the problem remains. Let me know.

To explain the pixel shift - make a new title template - no need to add anything - just go to the title background placeholder and change the x position from 0 to 1, or to .5

Now publish that - and go into FCP and add the title on some media - you will see the media jump

I couldn't tell where the pixel shift was happening from your screen shots - but do that little exercise and it should be clear why that happens - and it is something that can happen a lot.

With this bug, sometimes when you just duplicate a template, ..the duplicate title background asset will suddenly have .5 and .5 in the y position - so, always check the title background asset to make sure the x and y are 0/0.

I'll check back to see if you have responded later.

Some other general observations

If have a fade in and out behavior on a parameter - and then you have published the parameter - this can cause issues.

Publishing the checkbox that makes turns layers or behaviors on and off is not ideal. As you see, you end up with locked parameters published and means you can't remove it directly from the inspector - if it works for you now, it works - that is good, but if you want to learn better ways to make something active and not active - let us know and we can show you.

If you make a post to ask about how to create section dividers for organising your published parameters - I will be able to point you to a tutorial for that.

In the original project file I sent you - I already set up the widgets for you - for removing the 'custom' from the the menu. If you want to see a screen recording of the process, I can do that and post it here.

Hi

When you use the original shape as the mask source, any changes to the opacity, blend mode (among others) will mess with the mask. If the shape layer requires publishing or animating or both for opacity, it will mess with the mask. To see what I mean, add the shape layer directly as the mask source, then see what happens when the opacity is adjusted - the blurred clone will move from visible to hidden as the opacity moves toward zero.

A clone is another common way to mimic a layer to serve as a mask source - it can have advantages, such as being a quick way to create a mask source from multiple layers - like in the screenshot - the layer on the right is the clone - I just added a color filter to it to tell it apart -

Depending on the needs of the project and what I want to provide as functions in FCP, linked layers are still often better than the clone.

The main reason linked layers are superior to clones is that links have parameters that can also be rigged and animated - especially the mix parameter ..and this is the key to how we can use keyframes to animate and still be able to publish the parameter - as there is an widely held misconception that you can't animate with keyframes if you want to publish parameters ...it is true ...unless you employ links a specific ways. So, the linked layer gives the most versatility in the build. Even if the functions required will suit a clone - I will do linked layers because when I want to come back to it to take it further into something more complex, I am already set up for that...and this happens often when clients change what they want mid production.

A single point replicator or shape replicator is also another way to mimic a shape layer to create an image mask source. ...

Glad to see that we could help. We'll be here when you next need it.

Hi

In the layers panel and in the timeline - there are 3 icons that turn on and off the visibility of masks, behaviors and filters. In your project you have filters turned off. See the image.

By speed menu I mean the pop up selection in the text behavior that sets the easing style.

I made a screen recording to show the steps.

Note in the recording, show you two ways to put this onto the pop up widget - first by using the right click menu and then just by dragging it to the menu.

In your project you had published the speed menu directly which leaves the custom option in. In this recording you see that we remove that option by excluding it from the widget. Keep this in mind for other situations that are similar. This way you can specific publishing in any way you want - i generally leave constant out and leave accelerate out at times.

Here is a screen recording just taking you through the layers and structure of the template I made.

Clone the title background

Let the clone sit above it

Put the blur on the clone

Mask the clone to an image source - and that image source in this case is duplicate of the layer used for the text background shape ,then link the position to the original (so you do not have to add another align to behavior) and link any size parameters that you published. Note that with this method - you can now publish the x and y scale of your shape layer to provide the padding to the shape - if you do, make sure you link the clip layer scale to the visible layer.

Here is a screen shot of the layers

So with this method, we don't use any clone of the title background placeholder as the source.

See if you can reproduce this structure. You can add an image to the title background placeholder in the motion template so that you do not have to jump in and out of fcp to check results.

From here, we will work out how to create the function to turn the background blur on and off

But generally - you can do this by putting the mix slider of the filter onto a checkbox widget - at 0 for inactive, at 100 for active.

The terms of use for the forum are here

Apple Support Community  - Terms of Use

Do you see anything that says that publishing a link to a dropbox folder with a motion project file that helps to answer a question breaks the rules?

Let's look at the method to create section dividers another time. I'm sure if you search 'section dividers' in this forum you may find a thread where we have explained it already. Just remember, that you can save your rigs and widgets to your library so that you can add them easily to new projects - just note that when you add to library, any settings will be cleared in the saved version.

Hi

Thanks for the screen shots.

Let's go through the steps you can take locate the source of a masking issue.

First, start with the mask settings. Everything seems to be good there.

Then check the image mask source - see if there is anything wrong with it, like the opacity being at zero for example, or that it has only an outline.

If the mask and the mask source are all set up correctly, then we can look at the layers in the project.

So something is happening that means the mask is not active. If it isn't the mask or the mask source, then the next candidate is that there is something wrong with those assets at the specific frame that you took the screen shot.

Is this happening from the first frame.

Check in the timeline - the layers - and see if the mask of the mask source are running the full duration of the project.

See this example - (I have align to turned off)

When the mask layer runs out in the timeline, the mask effect stops. This will happen if it is the mask layer also.

Sometimes when we use the keyboard, we can trim a layer start point to the end of the project or the layer outpoint to the beginning - or something that moves the layer out of the frame range. If you see a layer that is not running the full duration or is not there at all - this will be the problem.

Please let us know if any of these steps solves the problem.

Just a note on good template structure - it's good to keep the title background in an independent folder.

Hi

That is good, so it confirms that there was definitely wrong with one of the elements in the previous structure.

It was probably that one of the layers, the mask or the source was too short.

Keep this in mind, a layer that is not at the right frame when it needs to be will cause issues. This includes behaviors too.

From here, you can link the mask position to the text box and you can link the other parameters also, just treat the mask 'shape' as a shape layer - it has almost all of the same parameters to work with.

If you discover now in FCP that when you move the title around, the mask does not follow correctly - and you have to move to another frame to update the mask location - then let us know - as this is one of the problems using the align to behavior.

If the mask source layer has the same parameter values as the shape layer, then the fill opacity at 80% means the mask is not 100% active..so it will let some of the gaussian blur pass through outside of the mask area.

regarding the pixel shift - it can also be 1 or .5 in the anchor parameters.

Hi

This is how I would begin a title template like this.

I actually would not use align to, because it messes with the on screen controls that I would want on here - such that masks get messed up. I used it here so you would be familiar with it.

This is just how I would create the sectional blur.

There are many ways to do something like this - it all depends on the functions you want to provide in FCP.

With your current project, as a title template for your own personal projects in FCP ..if it works, it works.

If it was being made for other people to use, or to market and sell, there are many things that you can do to make it a better user experience. We can talk about that any time.

The first thing to look at would be how we can replace the need to publish checkboxes from the layers panel. If you can tell us what function this provided in your original build, then we can show you the way to get that function without having to publish a layers panel check box.

For this example, I haven't reproduced any of your functions -

At anytime, if you can list the functions and explain them operationally, I can then show you how we would add that from there - in a way that has clean and efficient publishing.

If you have any questions about the way I did the template, I'll get back to you as soon as possible, I am in the southern hemisphere, so there may be a wait before I see the reply if there is a time zone difference.

Other forum members hopefully will have more advice for you.

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi

Recommending youtube channels with lessons that are relevant to your issue are not permitted here.

I can't provide that information unfortunately. This was just a side note observation about your project, and not related directly to the question you asked anyway.

If you make a specific post about it, I can screen record and post the steps here.

Hi

The link I provided to the Motion project file was removed by the moderators, so sorry about that.

The project file demonstrated how to create this kind of title, with a masking solution that did create the issues you had.

(Moderators, there is noting in the forum rules that I see that says that posting a link to a dropbox file with a Motion project that helps to answer the question is asked is not permitted. I am really at a loss to see how this breaks the forum rules)