Editing a clip from FCPX in Motion

Unfortunately there is no round tripping between Motion and FCPX, so the approach you are using of exporting and importing is the only approach. If you are using FCPX 10.0.6 or later you can export a selection. Using I/O or the range selection tool simply select a clip, group of clips or part of a clip and export that and import to Motion. Not as useful as round tripping would be but not as bad as prior to 10.0.6.

Jim, please be more specific.

When you say to export the clip from from FCP X after selecting a range, do you mean to create a Project with just the desired clip and export that file. For example, export and create a new QuickTime file?

You then import that exported clip into Motion?

How are you exporting the file from FCP X?

There is nothing you can do in Motion that makes it worthwhile to export any video from FCPX. Everything you can do in Motion can be *made available* in FCPX (... well... almost everything...).

You have Effects, Generators, Titles and Transitions to pick from. If you are considering making alterations to the video itself inside motion, consider starting with an Effect Project. The Effect Source layer you are given is exactly the content of the video of the clip in FCPX... It is a "holder" for the video in the Storyline. When you apply an effect to a clip in FCPX, it is *exactly* as if you exported that clip to Motion, performed your magic on it and sent it back, with one exception: you can use that same effect over and over and over again in the future with any other clip in FCPX... forever (or for as long as Apple produces FCPX...)

If you decide to use a Title, then the Title Background is everything that is visible under the title added to the storyline... And the Transition is exactly the handle lengths of the incoming video clip and the outgoing video clip in the storyline with Transition A (green layer) and Transition B (red layer) respectively.

[Generators are like "old" Motion projects, and they have no "reference" to clips inside FCPX at all.]

These "holders" (they look very similar to Drop Zones) stand for the actual clip in FCPX. There is no need to export it, no need edit it in Motion, and no need to roundtrip it back into the project. Pick your project type, build whatever actions you need, and Save... Then use the effect inside FCPX just like you would any other pre-built effect.

Even while developing an effect, Saving the Effect project is immediately available in FCPX, so it can be tested and tweaked *with* the video you mean to have altered.

Roundtripping was a huge waste of time. The Motion "engine" is built into FCPX. That means once you've built the template or even just a simple project, you have the power and flexibility to make changes directly within FCPX (provided you remember to publish the parameters you will need to have access to in the future 🙂 )

When you select a range with I and O or with the range selection tool you can directly export it. Use the share button at the right side of the tool bar under the viewer and select master file location. This will export a QT movie with the settings you specify in the share window and it will be what you have selectd not the whole project. You can then import into Motion. As Fox has explained in the case of effects, titles, transitions etc you can build those in Motion and publish to FCP where you can find them in the media browser and use like the built-in ones. That might be a better solution depending on exactly what you aare wanting to do.

There is nothing you can do in Motion that makes it worthwhile to export any video from FCPX

If Motion was meant to be used in all the ways you suggest, it would be custom-baked to allow for it. You wouldn't be creating titles by trying to remember that you might need an "Effect Template". When you "publish" templates they stay visible to all projects and require manual deletion. They're called "templates" for a reason. You seem to be pretending these hacks are deliberate integrated solutions.

Apple's own advice limits these ideas "This [Effects] template was designed for a single purpose: to apply one custom visual effect to a Final Cut Pro clip."

The last title I worked on in Motion used motion tracking, so the titles would sit on objects in the video. I also used masked images with custom blend modes onto the underlying video. I selected a range of video in FCPX, exported it, did the entire intro in Motion and exported it back out to ProRes 4444 and then back into FCPX. A painful process if you decide to change something.

Does this make it worthwhile exporting video?

Publishing it as a generator is certainly a hack. As every single title I ever work on piles up in my generator folder (and gathering in my internal drive's Motion Templates folder). There's no question these templates weren't designed to be used as a per-project integration tool. And hence I think it's bad advice to pretend it's an integrated solution.

Roundtripping is needed. The real "waste of time" is that it's not here yet.

furrytoes wrote:

There is nothing you can do in Motion that makes it worthwhile to export any video from FCPX

If Motion was meant to be used in all the ways you suggest, it would be custom-baked to allow for it. You wouldn't be creating titles by trying to remember that you might need an "Effect Template". When you "publish" templates they stay visible to all projects and require manual deletion. They're called "templates" for a reason. You seem to be pretending these hacks are deliberate integrated solutions.

Apple's own advice limits these ideas "This [Effects] template was designed for a single purpose: to apply one custom visual effect to a Final Cut Pro clip."

The last title I worked on in Motion used motion tracking, so the titles would sit on objects in the video. I also used masked images with custom blend modes onto the underlying video. I selected a range of video in FCPX, exported it, did the entire intro in Motion and exported it back out to ProRes 4444 and then back into FCPX. A painful process if you decide to change something.

Does this make it worthwhile exporting video?

Publishing it as a generator is certainly a hack. As every single title I ever work on piles up in my generator folder (and gathering in my internal drive's Motion Templates folder). There's no question these templates weren't designed to be used as a per-project integration tool. And hence I think it's bad advice to pretend it's an integrated solution.

Roundtripping is needed. The real "waste of time" is that it's not here yet.

We apparently view Motion 5 as two completely different applications...

Advice: anything you know you're going to export from Motion (like your motion tracking project) and not meant to be reused in FCPX should be created as a "Motion Project" allowing you to save the project anywhere else on your system besides IN your Motion Templates folder and won't add to the clutter of your FCPX effects browser. The only difference between a Generator and a Motion Project is exactly this ability and any other type of project you choose to create in Motion *will* automatically save that project with the FCPX Motion templates with no option to save elsewhere.

You can clean up your FCPX templates by going into the Motion Templates folder and removing the "effects" you know longer need or want and either trashing them or archiving them. If most of them are extraneous generators, moving out of the Motion Templates folder will reduce them back to a common motion project. You should shut down FCPX first.

Hmmm, and how to handle this, if you want to use motion tracking on e.g. a title?

Me personally? I'd just manually track the title in FCPX and be done with it... it's the fastest way.

But first I'd build a title in Motion to handle the job because the Transform properties in FCPX tend to get "stuck" in easing. The title should have a bigger onscreen control with center crosshairs (the silver disc thing works well), offsets from the tracked point so you can move the text off the target in X & Y with rotation if you like, font tracking (for grins) and the Font, Size and Alignment controls for extra convenience. Set a keyframe and go frame by frame moving the control over the target. If the motion is somewhat predictable/regular, you can move 10 frames at a time by holding down the shift key when typing the left/right arrow keys. (You should manually set keyframes over sections where the tracking doesn't move.) It's actually much faster work than it sounds... still a bit tedious though... I've always been able to manually track faster than the time it usually takes to deal with using automatic tracking in Motion, and I don't have to worry about Motion wandering off the mark.

... and while I was thinking of these details, I put together the pieces in Motion and tried them out in FCPX. You can download the Title here: http://sight-creations.com/fxexchange/BasicTracking.zip if you're interested in using it or embellishing on the concept.

Here's a short demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WTHhZoIa7As