Drop Zone Conundrum

So im trying to make a proper template for my editors to use for this project but the drop zone behavior is being very non-reliable and making me question the viability of this entire process.

This is my template


and, as you can see, I assign the entire right hand portion of the screen for a drop zone. All the pictures we're using are scaled to be under 550 pixels so they should all fit nicely in the 1280x720 frame. I set the drop zone type to center in case others are taller or wider and so there is no scaling or stretching.



But when we get into FCP, sometimes when we place an image in the drop zone, it crops the hell out of it, in no relation to drop zone or image and doesnt always crop in the same way!



If i open the master template in Motion, hit save, and then go back to FCP, it fixes it but this is not a good workflow. Does anyone know whats going on here? This happens across multiple machines so i know its not a trash preferences type of deal...I desperately want to retain the ability to modify the master template across the project as needed but i might have the guys just make their own motion projects for each instance of this instead. Any ideas?

I have found dropzones work best if the media is all exactly the same dimensions, unfortunately.

Make sure in Motion that the dropzone doesn't have any cropping applied.

Well, i decided to put this whole thing through the entire process and see if it held up. It definitely shows up in the FCP renders, but upon export through Compressor(how we get out of FCP), it turns out fine. I guess its just a display bug in FCP which is annoying but since its not a crucial part of the design, i can live with it. Next time i'll make the photographer delivery consistent media dimensions...

=S=

Thanks for posting - good to know it comes out okay after rendering.