Scrolling Years - animated timeline — Beware of "influencers"

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Level 6

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Scrolling Years - animated timeline — Beware of "influencers"

Part 1:

I've recently seen an influencer video (I won't say who's... here...) that annoyed me because he said "due to some significant bugs" he'd been running into with Apple Motion, that the project would be a "regular" Motion project to be exported out as video later. Well... Numbers is "special" and does not always behave as you might expect it to — there's a lot in Motion going on "under the hood" that may look like Numbers "gets wrong"... but generally... it really doesn't. The "complaint" of bugs made me start working on this... I didn't find any on the Motion side.

And this ALSO happens far too often in many influencer videos: starting the project with a size ("whatever you like") and a ***frame rate you typically work with*** (and/or: "it doesn't matter") and then they select 29.97. [(***of course it bleeding matters*** — the project size does too for certain things.)]

Why would anyone want to do this? 29.97 is a HACK, both analog and digital. It was an analog hack to keep chroma information from causing interference with the original B&W (NTSC) broadcast signal - it was used to keep people who had already purchased (very expensive - back in those days) B&W TV sets from *being forced to buy* new (even more expensive) Color TVs when color was introduced. The actual frame rate is 29.97002997002997002997002997002997... forever. There isn't a computer made that can handle this data — so a new hack is applied to "emulate" it. It's just EXTRA WORK the computer has to do for compatibility. Why would you want this??? on any level???

Now, if the influencer let it go a the "frame rate you typically work with" and didn't actually show the frame rate they were going to use for the project, that would be one thing — but what you, the viewer sees is: the influencer picks 29.97 and if you're following along, you probably would too. The influencer complained about bugs... this is definitely an issue that could make it seem that way... I won't go into the details but suffice it to say: this post may just prove that "FRAME RATES DO MATTER"!

You can see and work the project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wrQ8l3_CnU

The influencer goes on to start the project with a Numbers generator and to "locate the animate checkbox — this is where the first of *many bugs* on this project came into play — and he actually *needed* to disable it. They go on to keyframe the Value from 2000 to 2024 over 24 frames — should have been 25 frames but they account for this a little later on with a **different** parameter (Replicator Points).

Continued in Part 2...

Posted on Aug 15, 2024 2:49 PM

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Answer 1

fox_m Author

Level 6

12,511 points

Aug 15, 2024 2:49 PM in response to fox_m

Part 2:

SO LET US BUILD AN ACTUAL TITLE TEMPLATE THAT WORKS FOR FINAL CUT PRO!

Start a Title project, 10 seconds long, and for the FRAME RATE: CHOOSE 100FPS. OR, 120 (but 100 will be easier at first — and it DOES matter — I will only be discussing 100fps from here on).

Add a Numbers Generator and LEAVE ANIMATE ON. There is a SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP between the Replicator and Numbers Generator of which we will being taking advantage. There will be no need for keyframing.

Set the Numbers > Start to a generic starting year and the Numbers End to the Start + the number of frames of your project (which should be 10 * 100 = 1000, but including zero - the end number will be the Start + 999). There is a "bug" - but it's not in Motion — it's in Final Cut and I'll go over it later. For this millennium, set the Start to 2000 and the End to 2999.

NOTE: You can set the start and end to anything you like - the values will be changed by the frame number between the two... important to remember! For this project, we want 1 sequential number for every frame of the project. This should point out that the relationship of frame rate in Motion is that of *fit* (not match) in Final Cut. Imagine 1000 frames of animation in however many seconds you make the Title (Transition, Generator or Effect) in Final Cut.

Uncheck the Thousands Separator in Numbers.

Select the Numbers generator layer and type 'L' to create a Replicator. As in the video, set the Shape to a Line and the Start and end points similarly — but for 25 four digit numbers, an End X to 3000 should be sufficient to begin with depending on the font size (which defaults to 48, I believe). Bebas Neue is a really good number font.

Set the Replicator > Points to 25.

Turn off Play Frames. Set the Source Frame Offset to 1... for sequential dates; to 10 for decades, etc... (there still is a limit to how many years you can skip based on the Numbers End parameter... but you can play with that the more you learn.)

WITHOUT keyframing anything, you now have the same basic Replicated Number setup as in the video with a 1000 year range.

And now for a bonus:

Increase Replicator > Source Start Frame. You can now set ANY starting year in your millenium range of numbers without having to keyframe or change the Numbers Value.

*About that Bug I mentioned:

In Final Cut, if you set the Numbers Start Value to 0 and expect the Replicator Source Start Frame to be able to move it to 1 for a 0/1 starting option... it breaks - you will get 1 for both. Setting the Numbers Start Value to -1 will GET you the -1 start but the 0 value still will start at 1.

How to get around this?

Add the Numbers Start Value AND End Value parameter to a Slider Rig. For the Rig 0 value, set the Numbers values to Start 0, End 999 and the Rig 100 value to whatever millenium you want to start on -- let's use 3000, so set the Start Value to 3000 and the End Value to 3999. Set the Rig Widget's Range Maximum to 3000.

If you publish the Rig Slider (as "Starting Year" or "Starting Number") you will have the option for one thousand-number number ranges beginning at any Slider value selected. AND, you still have the Replicator Source Start Frame "adjustment" option available! As well as the Source Frame Offset to create skips by 2, 5, 10, etc... in year values (until they "run out" at the start + 999 year "marker").

Oh - and the "bug" in Final Cut is fixed by rigging it.

Make a title that works!

PS - a *similar* use can be made of Date/Time generators with Replicators.

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