Can't add Link behavior to a Ramp behavior parameter any more

Add your Ramp behavior to your object as usual. Set the Ramp for the entire life of the object.

Replicate the object, set Line, 1 Point. [Or shortcut - use Geometry but leave the drop well empty]

Add Sequence Replicator.

For Sequencing, set Custom

Source: Use Source Animation

For Traversal: Custom

Now you can add a parameter behavior to the Location parameter. You will probably have to adjust the position of the replicator (Locattion goes from -100 to 100 -- so about + or - 50% distance OR you can adjust the Ramp Start and End in real time to make fine tune adjustments) and you might have to set the Apply mode of some of the parameter bahaviors (like Randomize) to other than Add.

I checked in Motion 4, and I wasn't able to add a parameter behavior to the Ramp values there either.

HTH

Have you thought about using a Spin behavior and using something else to control the (initial) Rotation value?

A Numbers generator (or a chain of them) can be used to create simple "functions" via Link parameters (scale/custom mix for multiply/divide and offset for addition/subtraction.) The Number generator cannot be animated for this purpose (with start/end settings), the Value parameter must be present in order to work. It can get complicated fast and it's definitely not easy to just write about it -- but you can create .like. "central" values that can feed many different parameters across many objects. A simple example would be using an onscreen control like: A Target or Scrape distortion filter with an angle control. You could link the Angle to a Number value. You could link other objects to the Number value and use individual Scale/Offsets in these links to control differing behaviors across the several objects, say, a row of 5 pointed stars. The first would be a 1:1 relationship with the onscreen control angle; then second could be offset 36 degrees, the third 18 degrees, and so on so that when a user twirled the control, all the different objects could also be made to rotate at different rates and directions (negative scale).

Numbers generators do not need to be "turned on" in order to work this way, so you can add them to your project and uncheck them in the layers list. However, a caveat to note: onscreen control filters with rotation values usually stop at a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 360. Also, some of the parameter "values" of different objects are surprising. In the inspector, you'll see 0 - 360 degrees, but the value that the Numbers gen sees is radians (so adjust the Custom Mix to 0.573 [0.572958]). Other parameters may show similar variations; just be aware they can show up and that it's "normal" and usually for "precision".

You can further complicate your life by adding parameter behaviors to the Numbers generator Link parameters Scale and Offset... 🙂 So while under OSC control, there could be other animations like oscillating around the user's settings... The possibilities are endless... er... maddening... (I wish apple would just give us a simple function parameter behavior that we could script in mathematical expressions! Or better yet: JavaScript.)

I've got a generator coming out that has 4 drop zones in each "quadrant" of the frame with adjustable divider lines with onscreen controls. When the user adjusts the divider lines, the drop zones move to the new centers of the quadrants automatically. Under animation, say for example, the top vertical divider animates off the screen, the two top drop zones "stay in focus" so to speak (panning controls are available to counteract that behavior if desired, or set the center of the main point of interest -- but that relationship stays intact), moving in relationship to the divider line animating away with one side eventually taking top center screen without any further manual control by the user. It's all done with "divide down" numbers generators (the DZs to the right of the divider lines were a little difficult to figure out... think it was a "lucky accident" 😀 )

Something to consider. It's cool. A little crazy. And requires more work than the other "toys".

Getting a true reciprocal is going to be a challenge... and take some more time to figure out.

[What I used to control the scaling of the group was a Scrape OSC and the Rotation, which maxes out at 628 (radians * 100), so my effective scales in my trial are 0 - 628% -- not quite 1000]

What I have so far is:

Number generator for interim outline calc

Link'd to Scale

Set Scale to -1

Value offset to -1000 (or Maximum Scale)

for the Shape's outline width:

applied a Link parameter to Outline Width.

I set the Link Scale to 0.1, 0.2 -- somewhere near this range. This link parameter is the parameter to control the outline width of the shapes however you want that to be done. Motion's "precision" seems to be 4.5 decimal places, but will not show more than 4. You can type in exact values like 0.00127 (motion will display 0 until you click on the number, then it will show 0.0013 -- but since you can type in 0.00125 and the display will be 0.0012, I believe the 5th digit is still somewhat significant.)

Anyway, the above example: the outline is 0 at Scale = 1000, but as the scale decreases, the outline increases (it's not a 1:1 increase, but it works visually so that within the range of 0 to ~ 750% it "looks" genuine enough.) Adjusting the parameters according will probably get you what you need up to 1000%.

I'll keep working on it... It's an interesting problem.

I was going to suggest rigging your parameters, it's actually the easiest way, but I thought you might have some important purpose for the onscreen control as a design point for the template/project... and you can't add parameter behaviors to widget controls. Setting up inverse value behaviors isn't that difficult, but there is always the issue of ranges: going outside the range of values always reduces the other parameter to zero or negative values. Then there is the issue of "scale" -- without knowing the original size of a shape, the scale becomes "imaginary" vs. an outline width, which is the same regardless of shape size but is also scaled with the shape... And, scaling from 100% greater is a completely different than scaling from 100% to 0 (or negative ranges), so it becomes a "pivot" point and without knowing the specific details of your ranges, working around your stated problem was completely dependent on the setup.

Glad you resolved your issue!

SWEET!!! Thanks for that! Did not realize that could be done! I'm so used to right clicking a value to add parameter behaviors that it never occured to me to go to the parameters menu.

Now I have to wonder if I build templates with this method if it's going to break in future upgrades of Motion because if Apple intended this to be possible, why on earth can't you add a parameter behavior by using the right-click context popup? I've been "caught" before when Apple changed the way OSC filters were applied to the "timeline" in 5.0.2. I had to scramble to fix a lot of effects/etc. when that happened.

Hea guys, this is off the track of your situation, but after reading your post, your quit a bit ahead in your learning curve. One question if you will please. Do you have Motion 5 highest build running in good order as a whole, or is she slow for you all as well, and this is using Motion by itself with no inputed footage, everything set the lowest it can go at 60 fps using around 5 emitters, a couple of filters in 3D with three light no motion blur,,,,does she bog,,come on guys, please share a truth,,,can one work in this program at this point with the proper set up, as we have been fighting with it ? ? ?

Thanks for your time,,,,,,,,,,,PS.: fps drops down to almost a stop with mac pro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad Core Intel Zeon snow lepord 10.6.8 in 64 bit kernnel

ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 gig vram 14 gig internal idefraged hard drive with plenty of disc space,,,,,,,,,,,running Motion alone,,,,,,,,,and still bogger baby,,,,,,,,,what up,,,,,,please,,,,thanks,,, most are dealing with this as well as you can see on the discussions, but you are talking as though all is ok and would like to know your take on this,,,,,,,,,,Slow at present program ?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Motion is not designed as a video editor, nor is it expected to run at full frame rates when you load it down with emitters and a lot of extra content with animation. It's a compositing application. It takes considerable work for Motion to create each frame, especially in "real time". Motion does, however, attempt to rasterize as much as it can for playback and if you let the project play several times through, you should notice a framerate improvement (depending of course on the complexities it has to deal with... and hardware.)

Some things you can do to help speed things up: turn off the preview icons in the layers list [View > Layers Column > Preview]. Go to the Group(s) containing emitters and set Fixed Resolution (this will keep Motion from rendering particals past the boundaries of the canvas [sometimes it helps to *isolate* emitters into their own subgroup].) Also for emitters, keep the birth rate down to a small number - you can turn it up later for the final effect (this includes animated airbrush Strokes which are essentially the same thing). (For 3D with cameras and lights:) turn off Lighting, Shadows, Reflections, and Frame Blending from the Render menu while you work (you can turn these on for export from the Export dialog > Render tab). Turn off layers that aren't required for your "current edits" (in other words: only turn on the layers that you need to focus on at any given point in your development.) You can also just turn off filters on layers until they're required. [You don't have to do all of these all at once... but knowing your options and "scaling back" visible portions or items and/or effects with high rendering requirements (anything that Rasterizes! like Extrude, etc.) as you go will help maintain sanity 🙂 ]

It is a very rare Motion project that will play back at full framerate.

If you absolutely have to see the project at full speed, you can export (with all required Render options — Motion will "remember" what changes you make in the export dialog on subsequent exports) at "Current Settings" (which *should* be ProRes 4444). While you're developing the project, Motion can be made to overwrite the exported video, and when you're done, just throw it in the trash (unless you need it for something else.)

Thanks Fox. Mentioning what you did helped confirm what is already being done within the process of most all project at hand. This statement helped very much " it is very rare Motion project that will play back at full framerate " This program is being compared to adobe in our earlier days, affter effects ex. On a pc it smoked this program, but of course not at the frame rate that is available with Motion. We still are challenged to make a move, but are hopefull that the speed with the amount of allowed elements will somehow increase with updates.

The over all bogging is still believed to be happen to early in the process of building, but for 50 dollars and your comment mentioned in quotes above, it's worth the hassels, and helps confirm the expectation of this program.

Thanks so much Fox for your time and detail,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,