motion 5

Thanks for your suggestion but I regret it has not cured the problem.

I created a 25fps project in Motion, imported a 250 frames 1080 HD video.....typed a 3D single letter , applied a material, applied a simple straight motion path, published it as a generator ...created a 25fps timeline in FCPX imported the generator...and it still played very jerky.

Initially I thought it was a frame rate mismatch so that is why I matched the exact number of frames in each element

I find it hard to believe that the jerkiness is being caused by a lack of processing power because I have a 27 inch 5k Retina iMac, with a 4Ghz processor and 32 gig of RAM....?

I appreciate your help, thanks.

Thanks for getting back to me on this...

The output from Motion is a 250 frame 'Generator'.

FCPX does not recognise the video properties of the generator ? so I set the timeline manually to 25fps Apple Prores 442, 1920x1080.

I dropped the generator into the timeline and it automatically renders in just a few seconds...but still plays with noticeable jitter.

I have spent the last 2 hours checking everything I can think of. Trying, by a process of elimination, to pin down what could be causing this....?

The original problem was evident when using a single 3D letter and an attached particle generator, three masks and a base layer of 1080 video...... so your original thought about computer processing power made me simplify what I did .......but the jitter was still there ...... and is still there even when I reduce the computer 'work load' to virtually nothing....? A single 3D letter used without a 'Material' applied, behaves exactly the same as when a 'Material' is applied and there are no masks.

I tried creating an open spline geometry and 'Align' the 3D letter to and 'Move' to get movement along the spline...

'Move' gives a 'strength' control but at slower 'strengths' ( speeds) the jitter is less obvious but still there...?

I am still inclined to think that there is a mismatch somewhere between the 3D letter properties and the frame rate...

I am currently looking for a way of precisely controlling the speed/ movement of the 3D letter...?

I regret I do not know how to get the 'Generator to you ... but thanks for the offer.

Best Wishes

Eureka .....well almost.... !

After a couple more hours of testing/ trial/ sweat, I put 500 frames of 4k 3840x2160 -50fps into a correctly matching Motion 5 Project and found that it was giving me a 9.49 seconds project NOT THE 10 SECONDS THAT I EXPECTED...and which is set in the preferences .... ?

The 500 frames are being read at 52.68 frames a second.... ! ! !

How on earth can that be....?

I am now trying to find how to adjust the frame rate in the project ...?

Thanks for your suggestions.....

I posted the original question because I could not get a single Letter or Shape to follow a smooth Motion Path...

I have checked and double checked everything I can think of and ensured that the video is exactly 500 frames.

After another couple of hours double checking and searching for possible answers, I gave up.

I created a motion path without the video which was smooth ......

I published this as a FCPX Generator with alpha and used that as a layer in FCPX over a layer which contains the original 500 frame video ...and the motion path is smooth in FCPX....... !

That is how I will use Motion 5 and FCPX in future and maybe how I should have been doing it all along.....?

Thanks again for your help.