Final Cut Pro X Title: Overlap – that works with new keyframing method

A couple of changes in Final Cut Pro 10.0.3 seem to be in response to user problems. Instead of having a transition media preference, FCP X makes sure storyline length isn’t changed when a transition is applied – warning if there isn’t enough media in the clip to apply the clip.

The new keyframing method is that if you have set a keyframe for a parameter at a given time and you go on to change the value of that parameter at a different time, FCP adds a keyframe. Before 10.0.3 FCP would apply the change in parameter to all the keyframes of that parameter at the same time.

Unfortunately this causes problems for some title generators – including the ones supplied with Final Cut.

To use ‘Overlap’ as an example, you might want to reposition the position of the two text elements:

You can do this by dragging the origin controls for each text element:

This worked perfectly well in versions up to 10.0.3, but the new keyframing method causes a problem – if you play the title after repositioning the text elements, they move from where they originally were to your new position and back again. It turns out that moving title text elements adds keyframes to their position parameters. In 10.0-10.0.2 moving title text elements would reposition all the keyframes at the same time.

That means some title generators that have text elements that people are likely to want to move need to be remade so that they animate using Motion behaviours instead of keyframes.

In the case of ‘Overlap’ I’ve modified the built-in Motion template so moving the text elements shouldn’t be a problem. If you use the Build In and Build Out options, the text will start in the same places and finish in the same places, but you can choose where text stays while the title is being shown.

Installation

Download this disk image:

It includes an installation script for Spherico’s Motion Template Tool application, if you don’t have it on your Mac, download it. It is a freeware/donationware tool that simplifies effects installation for Final Cut Pro X users. MTT installs the title in the correct folders, creating them if need be. You don’t need to have Motion 5 installed for MTT for the title to work.

Once you have MTT installed on your computer, double-click the ‘Install ‘Overlap a4d’ v1.0′ file.

If you don’t want to use MTT, install these effects in Home / Movies / Motion Templates / Titles / Lower Thirds:

Check out my free effects and articles on my Final Cut Pro X home page.