depth of field

Yes, very easily. Here's how:

http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/miniature-effect-in-fcp-x-shiftslant

I think the simplist way is to duplicate your clip layer and then in the duplicated layer mask out the object you wish to keep in focus and then apply a blur filter to the original layer.

That's what I said.

Yes, the technique is the same and you can use a mask of any shape. In fact, Slice X from CoreMelt would help you out a lot if doing this inside FCP X.

But inside Motion, you simply draw a circle and use that as your mask. Here's what you'd do. This is very rough and overly simplistic, but you'll get the idea.

In Motion, make your two layers of the same video. Blur the bottom. In the top layer draw a custom shape around your subject. Turn off fill, turn on outline, keyframe it to follow your talent. That simply draws the shape and keyframes it.

Now, turn off the visibility of that shape layer. Right-click the top video layer, select Add Image Mask. Then in the Inspector for the Image Mask layer, drag your keyframed shape into the Mask Source well in the inspector.

Yes you did. Sorry, I didn't see your reply until I posted.