Roundtrip Motion 5 from Final Cut X?

Can't be done.

I hope they do make a roundtrip soon. I wonder if anyone has figured a good workflow to use for the time being.

I'm trying to do exactly the reverse and import Motion animations into the Final Cut Pro X timeline. It used to be a case of simply dropping the Motion file onto the timeline and FCP would render out the results. It seems like this is no longer possible. In fact I can't even import a Motion file at all. How do you get animations into FCP these days?

Good Question.

TOnyTOny

What you need to do is *publish* your Motion project as a Final Cut Generator - it will then appear in the Generators Browser in FCP X.

So what am I supposed to do if I want to do some compositing in Motion? Am I just boned completely?

?? Why would you be "boned"?

This is the "new and improved" workflow to use a motion file in FCPX:

1. Open Motion
2. Open your file
3. Go to "File -> Publish Template"
4. Enter a Name and chose a category
5. Select "Publish as Final Cut Generator"
6. Hit "Publish"
7. Lose every reference to the original source media, as everything will be copied into your movies directory
8. Restart Final Cut Pro X (it does not pick up new generators without restarting)
9. Go to your Generators Browser and drag your file to your project

I too don't understand why Apple removed the "1. Locate file in Finder, 2. Drag to your project" and "1. Click send to motion, 2. Done" workflow.

Man I'm still raging about this s**t.

I'm boned because I need to composite about 2 seconds of a clip, but it's 4 minutes in. I can't just do "Send to Motion" to get the exact clip I need.

Then I have to jump through all the hoops above to get it back into my timeline.

Right?

Is there a better way?

Please!?

FCPX just doesn't currently work that way. You can't send a video clip to Motion to use as a reference.

I wouldn't be so disappointed in Apple if there was a better way. The only better way is to keep working with FCP7 as I am doing too.

Yeah, that's a big problem/step backwards in functionality. I really only have two issues with FCPX, this one, and lack of xml/.omf/.aaf export. Couldn't care less about tape support, I'm sure external monitoring is coming soon, as are updated plugins (FxPlug 2? Is that a real thing?)

But those two issues make it virtually impossible for me to do anything in FCPX.

Was FCP 1.0 this (pardon the phrase) useless when it first came out? Before my time, I started on FCP 4.5.

For me the only two problems are the missing Motion interoperability plus the inability to create projects at a custom resolution.

Interesting, haven't run up against that one yet. I guess everybody that used the old one is missing something.

Pains of going back to square one, I guess. Still, it's not like I hate the software, I just want a couple features put back in it.

It seems bonkers to me that there is no roundtrip functionality. These are two products built to create movies, yet they don't work seemlessly with other!

Madness!