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December. 2004
Keyframes?
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Keyframes!
By Jude
Cotter
Setting keyframes in FCP
is quick and easy, However, as most working editors will attest,
if it can be done quicker and easier, then so much the better.
This is a brief description of a clean
and very simple way of moving text, graphics and video on and
off screen without having to use a single keyframe.
For starters, let's say you want to do
something basic like bring on the name of a competitor in a race.
First make a title in your titler of
choice. For this demo I have just gone for a very simple text
out of Title 3D, which is in the FCP application. If you can't
find Title 3D it could be that it is hasn't been installed. You
should be able to find and install it from your FCP 3.0 or higher
install disk. If not, or for more information on this nice free
little product, see http://www.borisfx.com/products/calligraphy/
Once you have made the title, drop it
on V2 above the point in the timeline where you want the title
to be.
In most cases this will centre the title
in the middle of the canvas like you see here.
In the canvas, turn on 'Image and Wireframe'
so that you can drag the title to the position that you want
it to appear. It's also a good idea to turn on your 'Title Safe'
guides at this point to help you with positioning the text.
OK here comes the easy bit. Once you
have the text positioned correctly, select the head of the clip,
go to transitions, and apply a push slide. Render if you
need to and see what happens.
By default the transition will make the
text push in from the bottom of the screen to the position you
placed it in over a period of one second. This is pretty naff,
though, so I'd suggest changing the duration of the transition
to something more like 12 or 15 frames and changing the angle
to -90 degrees.
OK. Not too bad. A bit hard to read though.
Maybe a lower third bar would help. I'll just whip one up with
a colour matte like so...
...bump my text up to V3 and put the
lower third bar on V2.
Now of course the bar comes on kind of
awkwardly. Easy enough! Apply a push slide to this one too. This
time, just for something different, make its incoming angle 90
instead of -90. Render. Watch. Cute huh?
Moving stuff off the screen is as easy
as applying the same transition to the end of the clip.
These basic ideas can be applied to any
number of different situations. Animating logos is especially
fun and easy. Just take the logo and knock it into pieces in
Photoshop, then bring it back into FCP and rebuild it in the
canvas. Apply a couple of quick transitions and there you have
it. Job done and client impressed, all in much less than the
four hair-pulling, eye-scratching hours it looks like it should
have taken.
Once you get a handle on this method
you might like to experiment with some other transitions to see
what weird and wonderful combinations you can come up with. A
fifteen layer logo assembly where everything comes in at offset
times and angles via a cube spin transition looks like an awful
lot of work. Thanks to FCP, it's just a walk in the proverbial.
Copyright ©2004 Jude Cotter
Click
here for Print Friendly Version
Jude
Cotter lives and works in Australia
as a freelance broadcast editor, as well as FCP trainer and troubleshooter.
All screen captures and
textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
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