That's it, Al! That's the solution! The method you laid out is the answer to the whole puzzle! (I mean, I was puzzled; obviously you weren't).
I didn't notice the reverse button up there in the upper left corner of the FCP Ken Burns crop window until you pointed it out, but that (reversing clips) is the solution to the whole problem of creating continuous, multiple-move Ken Burns effects within FCPX, by the method you described. No third-party plugins required!
By doing what you said: creating a Ken Burns clip in FCPX, duplicating it, reversing the copy, and butting the two together in the Timeline so that the starts and ends match, then repeating the process over and over with each new clip in turn, an unbroken series of pan/zooms can be created and kept up for as long as you want.
Each time that you duplicate and reverse a clip, you change the destination of its pan/zoom to the next place on the picture that you want to land on.
Also, holds or pauses between each pan/zoom can be made by putting freeze frames (a freeze of the image at the stop/start points) in between the Ken Burns motion clips, and the length of these holds can be adjusted by simply lengthening or shortening the clips containing the freeze frames.
In the same way, as you pointed out, the speed and timing of the Ken Burns pans and zooms can be adjusted in the Timeline by just lengthening or shortening the clips that contain them.
This evening, by using this method, I was able in just a few minutes to create the series of pan/zooms that I wanted on the men in this picture, moving from one man's face to the next, pausing at each one to do the voice-over narration. I have freeze frames at the beginning of the sequence, at the end, and in between each of the pan/zooms.
I was able to make all the motion match the narration perfectly with a final tweaking of the timing of all the moves and holds, just by slightly lengthening or shortening the clips that contain them. The whole sequence of movements came out looking smooth and polished. Neat!
I have a lot of photos to put into this project, so I will be using this method continually throughout this documentary!
Many thanks!
Tom B.
