Can a Filter Come AFTER Some Scaling?

Question

Is there any way to force a Filter effect to be applied AFTER a Motion tab effect?
I'm asking because I have a sequence to which I'm applying a Widescreen Matte filter to each clip. (The filter has to be applied to each clip individually to allow for vertical repositioning using the Offset control.) But some of the clips also require a Scale adjustment under the Motion tab, increasing the image size to 105 or 110%, for example.
In these cases, I find I have to apply the Scale change, then Nest the Clip, THEN apply the Widescreen Matte filter to the nested clip. If I try to do both in the original unnested clip, the Widescreen matte gets applied first, then that entire matted image is Scaled to whatever % I've chosen -- and that obviously changes the apparent size of the matte onscreen.
While you can easily change the order in which different Filters get applied to a clip, I've yet to find a way to change the order in which Filter effects vs. Motion tab effects are applied.
Is there in fact a way to do this, or is my workflow of scale the clip, nest the clip, then apply the filter matte, the only way to go?
John Bertram
Toronto

Answer 1

You don't use Andy's letterboxer to offset the pix,
you put it on a layer above the clips, then
use normal motion tools to offset the pix underneath
the generator (which remains unaffected by the
resizing/repo'ing of the clips below it).
Make sense?
Perfect sense -- though that being the case, I'm now curious as to why Andy chose to include an Offset control at all, since in its present state it's not really practical to use. (Then again, I suppose it's possible to imagine a scenario in which you wanted a certain widescreen ratio mask effect that wasn't centered vertically -- just not sure what that scenario would be.)
But I'll give the workflow Patrick describes above a try with my next sequence and see how it feels. Sounds like the main advantage will be that I'll end up with a sequence containing far fewer nested clips -- and am I correct in assuming that the fewer the nests, the "cleaner" the overall media management tree becomes down the road?
(And in the meantime, maybe I'll turn the "option to apply Filters AFTER Motion Tab effects" into another feature request and send same to Apple FCP Feedback.)
And, you're only allowed 2 helpfuls and one solved.
As I feared (and as I now see spelled out on the Terms of Use page). Seems a bit stingy, though -- what if you get helpful advice from 4 or 5 different people on a given issue, all of whom deserve some credit for taking the time to contribute?
Is there any kind of Feedback page for the Apple Discussion Forums in general?
(Guess that means all I can offer for now is sincere appreciation to Patrick and "Links" for their helpful posts. Thanks guys.)
jb
(PS: Patrick, I notice a few people who have fun .gifs as part of their sig. What's the best way to do that? Did you drag it into one of the text boxes in the My Settings page?)