Cannot Get Motion L3 To Key in FCP

[puredrifting]

Hi all:

Really lame question but I am very graphically challenged and only deal with motion graphics when someone puts a gun to my head as they have on this project.

I customized the "Weave" template in Motion 2. Changed it around enough to make it look pretty decent. Did a cool looking open and bumper. Bring them both into FCP, work and look great. Now my confidence is up. However, it quickly plummets back to Earth when I do the L3. When I bring the L3 into FCP, it has no alpha, even when I export it from Motion as "lossless+alpha" movie or as a DV (timeline in FCP is DV). When I look in the browser columns in FCP, the clip shows up with no alpha channel.

The L3 template in Motion shows up with a Grey background with a film strip that is labeled, "Background - Replace Here" in the Motion timeline. Do I need to somehow replace the BG with some sort of alpha channel before I export it? If I export it as is, that Grey background actually shows up in FCP. If I delete it and export it that way, the actual L3 clip ends up with a black BG, not an alpha channel BG. That means I have tried exporting the L3 from Motion in three different ways but no success.

What really obvious step am I missing here? You don't have to export the video clip you want to key the L3 over from FCP, into Motion, then back into FCP do you? There is a way to actually just export the L3 clip from Motion and bring it into FCP and have it key over a clip, right? Tried every composite mode in FCP too. Some of the almost got it but it still didn't look right. Some of them looked very weird too.

Motion 2, FCP 5.1.4, G5 dual 2.3gHz, 4 GB ram, QT 7.2

Thanks!

Dan

 

[puredrifting]

Hi:

Messed with it for a while longer and finally figured out what I was doing wrong. It was the export. I figured if you are doing a DV project, export DV, right? Nope, you need to export using "Lossless + Alpha Movie" in your export codec. Take it to FCP, render it and it works great.

Hope it helps anyone else going through this.

Dan

 

[cheezweezl]

why even export from motion? you can just drag a motion project file onto your timeline in FCP. alpha is perfect every time. then when you go back and make revisions to your motion project, FCP updates automatically.

 

[puredrifting]

why even export from motion? you can just drag a motion project file onto your timeline in FCP. alpha is perfect every time. then when you go back and make revisions to your motion project, FCP updates automatically.

Thanks for the tip. I gotta sit down with my Motion training DVDs and really learn this app.

Dan

 

[cheezweezl]

Thanks for the tip. I gotta sit down with my Motion training DVDs and really learn this app.

Dan

here's a nifty trick you may or may not know. say you have a greenscreen clip on your timeline in fcp that you need to key and throw a motion background on. you can select the clip, right click (or ctrl+click) and select "send to/motion project". this will automatically open motion, create a new project using the clip's settings and length, and replace the clip on the timeline with the new motion project file. so you do your thing in motion, save and close. when you go back to fcp, everything you just did in motion is there on the timeline and perfectly synced. if you need to make changes, just open the motion file again and make changes. when you save, fcp will update itself.

this same method works with other apple apps such as shake, soundtrack, etc.

if only, they could buddy up with adobe and make a "send to after effects" command, i would be in heaven.