Working with Drop Zones in Motion, and... Wow... Huh...???

I actually have to agree with you on the documentation. It used to be really good (not great, but serviceable) and it has turned into whatever junk the 'surf-nazis' at Google require to achieve a decent SERP. PLUS! Accordions are for playing music!! Google is solely responsible for dumbing down the internet.

To make matters worse [see this split into a new paragraph which should be part of the first paragraph? — this is a 'new habit' dictated by Google for shorter paragraphs — THEY think everyone on the planet is too stupid to follow a thread] ALL of the old documentation for Motion (versions 1 - 4) are completely missing. I cannot find them anywhere — not even on archive.org. Since Motion has not essentially, or fundamentally changed since, say, version 2, this is worrisome. Version 3 saw the "upgrade" to 3D "space". Version 4 beefed up the app considerably.

Back in those days, the relationship of Motion to Final Cut Pro ("Studio") was that as a separate graphics creation package to which you could do a thing called "Round-tripping". Motion 5 changed all that around so that Motion is now actually an "extension" to Final Cut and instead of prepping single project insertions into a *timeline*, you now Create Once - Use Always ... **Templates**.

Motion 5 *retains* its past via the Motion Project — which saves as a stand-alone "composition". The other 4 options are templates and when Saved, are automatically placed into Final Cut's template system.

Transitions are essentially THE special case template. Their purpose is explicit. The 3 remaining (Effects, Titles and Generators) are considerably more flexible. You can add Text to Generators and Effects and you can create Title templates without any text at all. This is where the lines become blurred... and their purposes can become arguable...

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Drop Zones are a PITA, to me at least. I try to avoid using them at all costs. One reason: there's no audio with drop zones. Another, taking an existing clip from a storyline to place in a drop zone frequently results in a Still Frame. You can get around the still frame ("bug"?) by creating another thing I don't like to deal with: a Compound Clip, and using the CC as the DZ Source. Otherwise, use the original clip from the Event Browser.

Another thing that drives me crazy about DZs — they all START playing from the first frame of the template... EVEN IF the drop zone doesn't appear til after the start of the template.

How drop zones have worked in Final Cut has changed two or three times over the years. (They were a real mess in Motion 5.0.) I don't want them changing in any way again so I'll live with how they are now.

I prefer to create an Effect that does to a clip what I would have wanted the Drop Zone to do. There's audio, I won't have to use a compound clip, and it starts and ends where I place it in the storyline.

Just sayin'.

Hi Dolmetscher

If you have an objective goal and you can share all relevant information with us about the animation you want to do and the functions you want to set up for use in Final Cut Pro, then we can help you achieve that goal or we can confirm that the goal is not something Motion can do. 

If you deem those solutions and methods that we offer to be non sensical and in violation of your own personal views on what is good and bad software, that is all completely beside the point and I have no enthusiasm for such discussions. You can either be fixated on how Motion should work, or focus on mastering how it actually works.

if you have feedback for Apple, then use the appropriate channel here.

Feedback - Motion - Apple

This forum is for helping people learn Motion and solve the obstacles to their project goals .If your problem is how Apple develops software, then there is nothing we can offer you to resolve that. If the nature of your post is to seek solutions to project goals, I will do all I can to help.

If you have an urgent need to get up the learning curve with Motion, then again, I recommend that you do some comprehensive professional training, and Ripple Training is the best resource for that.

Hi

When you add a file to the drop zone to prompt the pan and scale to appear, be sure to go back and use the 'clear' function.

A dropzone has the pan and zoom parameters, and in the properties, it also has position, scale, rotation, anchor points....all of the general property parameters..and so does the group it is sitting in.

You can publish scale for the dropzones asset = quick tip - link the y scale to the x scale so that you only need to publish the x scale for a general scale control. The property scale parameter is a different function than the dropzone zoom parameter - I'm am not 100% on the different but Fox can explain that. if you want to be able to move the dropzone as an asset, in FCP - then publish the dropzone position controls, or the position for the group the DZ sits in.

You don't need to import an image to use in the dropzone to prompt the pan and zoom. There is already an image in the template media that you can use - that is the image file to display the placeholder. Just click the source menu and select 'title background' - that will prompt the pan and zoom to display, and then be sure to use the clear function after that.

As we already covered before, use a mask on the dropzone, either as image mask or mask tool - and use the mask parameters to define and control the area, height, width for your published controls.

A place holder has a different function to dropzones. In a title template, they are the 'title background' asset. In an effect they are the 'effect source'. You use these to apply effects and instructions to the media in FCP.

A dropzone is what you would use to display media within the template.

A placeholder is what you would use to display images and video clips in FCP. When you create a new title template, the placeholder is there by default.

You do not have to use it. You can delete or turn it off.

Any thing you apply to this placeholder - keyframes, masks, filters and behaviors will be applied to the media the template is applied to in FCP. If you put a blur filter on this, then the media it is applied to in FCP will be blurred for example.

Not sure about the issue regarding published parameters means. Note that in the published parameters section you can double click to name them anything you want, and you can also drag them around to change the order.

You could use a double dropzone for this as you have described, 1 full screen and 1 with a defined aspect ratio sitting on top of it and apply the blur to the full screen one, but it sounds like you just need to apply the blur to your title background asset and have 1 drop zone with whatever masking you need to set the area and with the drop shadow active

From your description I think this is what you are describing.

This is the result in FCP

In this case, no need for any full screen dropzone, I can just apply the blur directly to any media that the title template is applied to. That is just my preference for something like this. If I just wanted to apply instructions to the media in FCP, then I would use an effect template instead of a title template.

When you convert to a title, the message is asking what you want to use as the title background asset..the menu is contextual and will only list any items in your project that could be converted - otheriwise by default it is 'none' or 'new asset'. If you have dropzones in your template, you will see them listed in the menu so that you could select one to be converted to the placeholder.

As for Ripple Training, you should contact customer support and ask which courses best suit your needs. It is a sales support channel though, not a Motion help desk, so whoever gets your email is not likely to be able to answer technical questions about Motion.

Just thinking back to when I was in your exact position, I think that the general 'get started in Motion' and the Rigging and Publishing for FCP' are the two courses that will likely set you up for more progress.

Hi Dolmetscher.

My response here is going to be frank.

First of all, your observations on 'pointless terminology confusion' are just your own subjective opinion and i have no response to that. In general, sweeping generalisations about Apple's competency are of no value and provide no resource for generating solutions.

For us to be able to help we need to understand the goal of the project. If you are moving from A to Z and get stuck at C, then share with us everything about Z, so that we can then lower the rope for you to climb up.

Nothing in Motion has any significance until it is placed within the context of the goal. How text anchor points in Motion work is irrelevant in isolation. The text anchor points only matter in relation to the animation you want create and the functions you want to provide in FCP. We still have not heard from you exactly what purpose the centre anchor point of a text layer was going to serve.

The issue in FCP with the static image sounds like user error. The drop zone will only behave according to the instructions you assign. In this case, you have instructed the media to begin on the last frame - which is what produces a static image. When you select your media for the drop zone pay attention to the range selected and the in point selected.

I think the general point about apple documentation not being very helpful is valid. There are many resources on line that fill in the gaps. Unfortunately providing you with links to these resources, let alone the ones that are good, is not permitted according to forum terms of use.

So that is where we come in. We can help you forward, but as I noted before = focus on the goal and if you need help here, share with us the goal so that we can place everything else into context.

For my part, even though I can empathise in some cases, there is zero enthusiasm or interest in sentiment. Your level of patience is irrelevant to the question of whether or not Motion is capable of achieving the result you want. It seems that you expected to be able to jump right into Motion and understand everything quickly if not instantly because you have experience using other mograph tools and/or vector illustration tools. As far as alternatives for Motion, ..if the production is based in FCP, you have no 'better' alternative. There are workflows for AE to FCP but these are all uphill battles compared to Motion.

To answer your questions

1: Are we working with files? This is a rhetorical question. Anything on a Mac or PC system is a file or a command. Clearly your motion projects are files, what else could they possibly be? I see nothing illogical or misleading about this. Any project is a file. Just like any spreadsheet or music is a file. There is no contradiction here and certainly no objective impediment to learning Motion.

2: Not correct. When you add a dropzone, you are adding a placeholder. Adding a dropzone is the default method for adding a placeholder. The options available after that step are all contextual and depend on the type of project you are working on - title, effect, generator, motion project, or transition.

3: Correct. The way to replace a title background is to add a new placeholder. It will be a dropzone by default and we change the mode to title background. You can add a title background asset to your library and add it to any title background project from there. This is actually more steps to take.

4: If only a title template supports a title background. then why would you expect to be able to 'simply

add one to another kind of project?

5a - if the 'to' menu does not do anything that is because it has nothing yet to do. Add some media to the project and check it again.

5b - Yes correct because only a title template can support a title background.

I don't understand the issue with gradients. The structure of a gradient is based on a 2 point line, the same as any other software. The start and end values for Y of 100 and -100 are just the default values and are not the hard min and max values. So the size of the project is irrelevant.

As for scale. if you have multiple layers that each have a scale parameter then you will have multiple scale parameters to work with. Use whatever parameter is appropriate for the goal. In the published parameters you can rename them and you can move them around. I see nothing contentious here.