How Can I Create My Own Plugins in FCPX?

thanks a lot!

I am using Fcpx for some months and haven't heard about about Motion before.

Will absolutely get my hands on it. I was wondering all the time how all these add effects get created because they are so expensive and often just focus on one tiny problem!

OoKhaledoO wrote:

… wonder if it's possible to create our own plugins. …

I'm making and publishing plug ins for about 2y now… a few listed here, I frequently publish here, soon, I'll test to go 'commercial'… (whooo, big news 😉 )

There are basically three ways of making your own plug-ins:

• modify/customise existing effects/transitions/titles/generators… just right-click 'open copy in Motion'

That is a good start for plugin-making - just look&learn how others have done it …

• create from-the-ground new plugins… here, again two methods: get inspired by others, aka 'rebuild' effects/transitions/titles/generators, for instance 'copy' existing screen-designs (sports, gameshows, news…)

Or, …

Imagine your very own tools. Have to admit, a 'scrabble-title-generator' is really exotic, of little practical use and very niché, but was an exceptional exercise… 😝

Or my VerticalVideoFixer, had a need for that in 2015 while editing a 'birthday greetings video' … meanwhile available in version 3, three thousand clicks…

• the 'pro'-method: download the plugin-SDK from developers.apple.com (it's free) and with a splash of engineering and a dash of C+ programming, you can create for example your own UI for your plugin, such as In Colour Finale.

… I have a 101% NO clue how to accomplish that… 😮

All methods demand some insight into Motion5 - I learned my skills via the many tutorials, free and $$, from rippletraining.com. Others prefer books, or learn just from the Manual, or @izzy, or what else...

Plus the many helpful people here and at fcp.co, who taught and still teach me some very tricky tricks, to emphasise board member fox_mahony, who, I assume, teaches the engineers at Apple what their product can accomplish.....

A long journey, but big fun. M5 reminds me a bit of Lego - when I was a kid, the hurdle was "How to construct round buildings with square bricks?" - not so different in Motion…

Motion allows you to create effects, titles, transitions and generators to be used in FCPX. You create your plug-in in motion and publish it to FCPX where it will appear in the appropriate effects menu i.e. if you create a title it will appear in the titles panel. Motion also allows to publish many of the parameters associated with the effect so you can change parameters in FCPX.

xandrucea wrote:

…was wondering all the time how all these add effects get created because they are so expensive …

… there are thousands of free ones, partly in absolute pro-quality, to start with.

but …

hmm, 'expensive'?

How much of YOUR time does it save? compare to your $$/h price tag you get paid …

Plus, it needs some time&efforts to learn programming, creating, testing, upgrading, customer care …

There are very, very few plugins I'm aware of, with a price-tag which make me "oomph!", ColorFinale was an example - IF you need color-correction on that level; and, with vers. 10_4 of FCPX mainly obsolete … (hope, Mr Riddle keeps sharing his insights into color in the future…).

And I dare to say, ColorFinale and coremelt (came out a little late with their CCtool) are/were the only ones, to generate enough $$ to finance kids high school … 😝

Heard from other makers, it finances once a year family pizza-day … LOL

When you pay peanuts all you get is monkeys …