Dashed line / dotted line coupon effect? FCPX

Question

Seeing if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to create a dashed line type of effect around an object in a video, making it look like a coupon or like it was cut out of paper?
The line doesn't necessarily progress around the object in the video -- it can be a static layer. Though, if anyone DOES have tips on animating the lines, that could be cool, too!
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Familiar with Motion?
Draw a short horizontal line. Select the Anchor point tool and drag the center to the right end of the line you drew. Replicate the line. Change the Arrangement to Outline.  In the Cell Controls section, check the Align Angle option.
You will now have a dashed outline rectangle. You can publish the Size parameter and change the size of the rectangle with the Width and Height parameters from Size. You can increase the number of line segments with the Points parameter and you can animate the outline with the Offset parameter (but there's a catch.)
When animating the offset, you will have line segments extend "outside" the base rectangle shape briefly (since they are aligned to the side they are attached to, then snap to another side when the anchor point changes over from one side to the next.)
To get around that, you need to create another rectangle that is 100 by 100 and link the Scale X and Scale Y parameters (separately) to the Width and Height of the Replicator (in the Link behavior, set the Scale to 10 for both.) Drag the rectangle onto the Replicator in the Layers List and hold until you get the popup menu -- select Add Mask to Object. [PS -- you should center the Replicator AND the rectangle before adding the rectangle as a mask!] [You can create a square rectangle then select the Shape > Geometry tab and type in the exact points: (-50, 50); (50, 50); (50, -50); (-50, -50) to create the exact size you need.]
If the mask is perfectly aligned, you can now animate the dashed line and it won't look weird. You can change the width and height of the replicator and the mask will change in perfect synchronization.
You can also make the dashes longer or shorter by manipulating the Scale X parameter in the Cell Controls of the Replicator. If you made the original line white, you can colorize from the Cell Controls as well.
After that, you'll need to figure out if you want a solid color background; a drop zone or effect source/title background; what kind of text you want inside the dashed outline (or you can manually place a Basic Title in FCPX if you like); etc...
Hope this helps...  If  you need further help with this, let me know.