Duration of bezier curve with shape style

I have drawn a bezier curve and put 'light streak' shape style to it. Everything is okay, except the speed of light streak animation is way too fast. How I can slow it down? The bezier curve is about 10 seconds on timeline, but the animation only lasts few seconds, and I haven't found a place where I can modify the duration or speed of the 'light streak' animation.

It's a little more difficult with Motion 5. The global animation menu for Color Over Stroke doesn't work so you have to do each piece individually.
Click on the Stroke section of the Shape Tab. Click on one of the opacity tags (the little rectangle boxes connected to the opacity bar (see image). Below are the parameters affecting that selected tag. They will no longer be grayed out. Click on the animation menu for each parameter you plan to stretch and Show in Keyframe Editor.
Each parameter will be added to the keyframe editor, making its keyframes visible to you. For opacity tags, you want to add the Opacity and Location parameters for EACH tag. For color its the same, unless you also want to stretch the keyframes that change color in which case you'll have to add them as well.
I hope this makes sense. It's a bit of a pain in Motion 5, but I think there's a bug related to why. If you right-click the word Color Over Stroke (just below Stroke Color Mode), you will get an option to Show in Keyframe editor, but nothing happens. I consider this a bug and I've filed it with the Feedback button. I would suggest you do the same so hopefully it can get fixed.
Andy

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I noticed that within the video animation editor, there is the ability to add ease in/ease out (bezier curves) to the opacity keyframes, but did not see the option to do this with scale (zooming) or position (panning). Am I just not noticing it or is this just another limitation of Final Cut X keyframing?

Did you try right clicking the keyframes after making the position changes, or scalling? See attached screenshot.

Motion Path with Shape Style

I have a camera following a path. I copyed the same path and add a shape style, but when i add the Shape Style the shape disappears but only goes around a turn. When its just a line it works find.
Greg

It's not disappearing around the turn for me.
You could try creating a new blank project that has the same settings, then with both projects open, rearrange the windows and drag all your groups from the current project into the new one to see if that helps.
You could also try a shorter line, it may be a graphics card limit issue.

Bezier curve question

Hi all,
I'm not very comfortable with math.. what I'm trying to do is to find a point at the 1/4 length of a Bezier curve, with one control point, ie QuadCurve2D. I don't know which thing I should use and how, for instance "solveQuadratic" is static, and thats a pity, because I don't know what parameters to pass! "subdivide" looks useful, hmm, heh, it seems I just found a solution, to subdivide 2 times and get the end-points of the new curves. But what if I needed a point at 3/5 of the curve?
All help is most warmly appreciated, thanks

Hi, i found this in Computer Graphics for Java Programers, by Leen Ammeraal. Excellent book!
Anyway this is a B-Spline drawing method, i used it in a path tool for a level editor. I hope you don't have to use Bezier curves.
    public void bspline(Graphics g){
        g.setColor(Color.red);
        int n = points.size();
        int xA, yA, xB, yB, xC, yC, xD, yD,
        a0, a1, a2, a3, b0, b1, b2, b3, x=0, y=0, x0, y0;
        double time_delta = 0.01; // this chooses how many point to go trough the curve, smaller number, more points.
        double xd0= 0;
        double yd0 = 0;
        double xd1= 0;
        double yd1 = 0;
        double x_delta = 0;
        double y_delta = 0;
        boolean first = true;
        for (int i=1; i<n-2; i++)       { // Loop Through Control Points
            iPoint2D p0 = (iPoint2D)points.get(i-1);
            iPoint2D p1 = (iPoint2D)points.get(i);
            iPoint2D p2 = (iPoint2D)points.get(i+1);
            iPoint2D p3 = (iPoint2D)points.get(i+2);
            xA=p0.x;
            xB=p1.x;
            xC=p2.x;
            xD=p3.x;
            yA=p0.y;
            yB=p1.y;
            yC=p2.y;
            yD=p3.y;
            a3=(-xA+3*(xB-xC)+xD)/6;
            b3=(-yA+3*(yB-yC)+yD)/6;
            a2=(xA-2*xB+xC)/2;
            b2=(yA-2*yB+yC)/2;
            a1=(xC-xA)/2;
            b1=(yC-yA)/2;
            a0=(xA+4*xB+xC)/6;
            b0=(yA+4*yB+yC)/6;
            for (double t=0; t<=1.0; t+=time_delta) { // Go from start to end of curve
                x0 = x; y0 = y;
                double x1 = ((a3*t+a2)*t+a1)*t+a0;
                double y1 = ((b3*t+b2)*t+b1)*t+b0;
                x = (int)Math.round(x1);
                y = (int)Math.round(y1);
                if (first){
                    first = false;
                else{
                    g.drawLine(x0, y0,x , y);
    }The main loop goes from T=0 > T=1, so at T=0.25 you 1/4 trough the curve.
Now im like you, not that good at math, but working on it!
So there might be a more effective solution. Though i know this will work.
Hope that helps!
Harley.
Plus here is the link to the complete examples
http://home.wxs.nl/~ammeraal/software/English/grjava.zip
Amazon book link
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471981427/qid%3D1033446353/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-6165914-4071849

Motion 5 shape styles make render extremely slow?

Hi guys, I just wanted to ask about your experience with shape styles in Motion 5.
I'm currently working on a blue screen animation type video. I'm encountering extremely long render times for comparatively short videos and simple animations. When I isolated all the individual elements in my video to see which one is causing these render times, it came down to a bunch of lines which have shape styles applied to it.
The design is basically a relatively simple spider web, made up of 9 individual lines. I applied the "chalk easy" shape style to each of these lines and used a simple animation using "last point offset", just to have the lines come on 0-100%, nothing fancy.
When I remove the shape styles, rendering takes less than 30 seconds, with the shape styles applied it takes 10 minutes or longer.
What I wonder is, do you guys use shape styles? Have you experienced issues like this? Is there a viable alternative to shape styles?
I rarely use them, but it seemed like a good idea here because we're going for a bit of a drawn look, therefore I wanted the lines to look a little irregular without too much effort.
Cheers

Shape styles fall into the category of replicator/emitter. You are increasing the complexity of the artwork significantly and it will slow down Motion both in playback and rendering (depends on the style and complexity of the style.)

Object scaling does not seem to work correctly with objects containing Bezier curves

I created a closed object that had a Bezier curve as part of it's definition. I wanted to scale it by 110% and then use this second enlarged object to create a sort of a background underneath the first object to create a sort of a shadow effect. But rather than the second object being uniformly larger than the first it intersects the original object in ways that don't make sense to me.
Is there an easier/differnt way to create an effect like this? I can do it but have to manually adjust a lot of points in the new object so that they create a uniformly larger version of the original object but it's a lot of effort for something that works fine for normal polygons with straight lines (e.g. a star with 5 points).
Thanks for any suggestions or ideas.
-Bubba
ps - i've attached an image of what I get with this technique of creating two examples of two objects one a 110% scale version of the other. The first star shows the effect I'm trying to get and the second shows the problem (the red border does not surround the black object uniformly around the perimeter)

Bubba,
Referring to post #16 (trying to get it more right from the start than in post #15),
the scaling will be symmetric with parallel segments if the original object is rotationally symmetric and reflectionally symmetric about two orthogonal axes, and that is also the case.
The scaling of the object in post #16 is in fact symmetric because corresponding segments of original and scaled object have the same distance all the way round.
The five star in the OP is rotationally symmetric but only reflectionally symmetric about one axis, so the segments are parallel, but the scaling is not symmetric because there different distances between corresponding segments, even though you were actually satisfied with it:
The first star shows the effect I'm trying to get and the second shows the problem
This could be mended by scaling from the centroid.
If you need to have the same distance between all the segments of original and scaled object, with scaling you are restricted to objects where all segments start and end at the same distance from the centroid, as in regular polygons (including the square), regular stars, and the circle (with its curved segments). Objects with curved segments derived from regular polygons and stars will have varying distances and non parallellism within each segment.

Is there a way to change the color of the Bezier Curves and points to a different color other than black I find it perplexing while setting points and curves working on a photo that needs to be separated from it's background for placement on transparent

Is there a way to change the color of the Bezier Curves and points to a different color other than black I find it perplexing while setting points and curves working on a photo that needs to be separated from it's background for placement on transparent backgrounds. Any thoughts?

Yes. Well, sort of: instead of a "path", set the pen tool to "shape" in the tool properties. Then set the fill colour to transparent, and the stroke colour to the colour you want. You can also set the stroke width.
Not perfect, but at least you can see the path more clearly - the anchor points and handles still remain the default colour. Open the path panel, and right-mouse click the path shape to create a selection based on that shape. The Paths panel menu also allows you to create work paths based on that shape.
Unfortunately when you try to move the handles the black thin outline appears again until you release the mouse button.
This is one of several things that works better in Photoline: in Photoline, once the path is set to a specific colour, editing the path uses the actual colour and stroke width. which is extremely handy for creating path based selection with awkward background colours and/or a high resolution screen. In Photoline the handles and bezier points are also much, much larger, which makes it rather simpler to work with as well - especially on a higher resolution screen. And when selected the handles and points are a clear red with a black outline - again easier to spot and identify. I just works better, in my opinion.

How to make shape style move slower?

Hi. I've drawn a nice mask with dabs over an object, applied Light Streak 1 shape style to the mask so that the object draws on over time with a nice light stroke. But it happens too quickly. I would like the effect to happen slower, or possibly slow down and hold the light effect at a certain point. Can't quite figure out how to do this. Please help. Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the assistance. Got things to work better, and even tried using the pen tool to create the line that draws around the object, but couldn't seem to get it 100% right. Using the mask tool and doing a few cheats to get the duration longer. The link provided was a great help, but alas, everything tried there didn't work 100% either. Grabbing keyframes works for making shorter durations, but making the motion longer... had some troubles. Ah well, it's solved for now!

Missing bezier curve node type

The current bezier curve has control nodes that extend from the curve node itself, and the curve passes through the node.
There is a different type of bezier curve where, for example, you draw control nodes in a square, and the curve forms a circle within that square because it curves around not touching the control nodes.
This bezier curve type that I described creates the smoothest curves and shapes. I use this interchangeably with the other bezier curve types.
Unfortunately this curve type is not available in Adobe Illustrator, and as such all of the curves that I create in Adobe Illustrator for the past year are very tedious, awkward, and have strange quirks in them.
I hope that you will know what I am talking about from this example. Since I paid $600 for software I don't want to switch at this point but I am disappointed.

On the right is the way of constructing curves that I have found most useful.
X,
What you depict is an ordinary quadratic (second degree) Bezier curve, a simpler and more limited type commonly used in limited drawing programs, like the drawing modules of "works" or "office" applications. It's also what Flash's original drawing tools create, and what Flash paths actually become when exported to SWF. (The ability to draw using more versatile cubic (third degree) Beziers in the native Flash environment was added later.)
Canvas provides a separate tool for drawing with quadratic Beziers (among others). Corel Draw has is 3-Point Curve tool for those who want to draw that way. I never use those tools when working in Canvas or Draw.
Quadratic Beziers require less processing because there is but one control handle associated with each segment. But illustrating with them is actually more tedious, because you have to create more segments. A good way to become irreversably convinced of that is to try to actually draw typeface glyphs using quadratic curves instead of cubic (which you can do in some font-editing programs). It's a royal pain. That's why it's common among those who create TrueType fonts to draw using cubic Beziers and then convert them to quadratic TrueType curves. And it's why cubic Beziers are considered the conventional-wisdom norm in more serious mainstream drawing programs.
Try making a single segment cross itself with a quadratic curve. You can't do it. Bezier curves can be described by higher-order equations than cubic, too. Look up Bezier Curve in Wikipedia and you'll find some animated depictions. Quartic and higher-order Beziers can create even more supple curves with fewer on-path anchors. But in addition to being more computationally demanding, constructing a reasonalbly intuitive interface would become increasingly difficult. So the defacto standard cubic Bezier interface you don't like (right now) is a balance between useability, functionality, and computational efficiency. And it's the right balance. And that's why it's the curve rendering equation used by PostScript. (Remember PostScript? PostScript is the language of the print world. The original intent of FreeHand, Illustrator, and most programs like them was the PostScript-centric print environment.)
How about you... Can you create a perfectly smooth circular shape without any blunt or sharp edges, and without painstakingly fine tuning every curve?
I can do what you can actaully do with quadratic curves using more versatile cubic Beziers--but using your quadratic curve tools does not ensure "circular" curves. Users accustomed to quadratic Bezier tools and trying to become familiar with cubic Bezier tools often struggle because they think it necessary to add curvePoints in the middle of curves. That's usually not necesary.
That's one large reason why the ability to use a gesture to bend straight segments without imposing an additional segment is so valueable in a cubic Bezier interface. FreeHand has provided this for most of its history (the so-called "Bendomatic" method). Illustrator does not. Xara Designer Pro has what most AI, FH, CV, CD users (including myself) would consider a sub-standard Pen tool. But it almost makes up for that by simply providing this one important interface element.
The click-then-bend method lets you simply click, click, click along while drawing a path, and intuitively bend the resulting straight segments into smooth curves anytime you want, as you proceed. It's a great way to teach newcomers to programs like FreeHand because it is simple, intuitive, and predictable. It enables those new to cubic Bezier drawing to get up-to-speed quickly. But it is not just a beginners' tool. I take advantage of it quite often in programs which provide it.
But since you specifically mention wanting to ensure circular curves, again I will suggest you should take a look at Inkscape. (It's open source--cost-free--by the way, so you have nothing to loose by trying it.) Below, the red line indicates the shape drawn quickly and loosely with the Pen tool, which has the conventional-wisdom cubic Bezier interface, familiar and intuitive to users of all mainstream drawing programs like AI, FH, CV, CD. The black path is the automatically-generated result when the Spiro Spline feature is turned on:
Unfortunately, the image below shows the resulting cubic Beziers after invoking the Object To Path command. Far more segments than necessary to draw the figure, had it been drawn deliberately without the Spiro Spline option:
So the Spiro Spline idea is an intriguing innovation, and useful for those willing to explore it, but still a work-in-progress (as open source should be--that's a good thing) in terms of interface, as I take it.
JET

Motion Shape Styles missing, but still in the Library?

Hi All-
In Motion 5 I am no longer seeing any shape styles listed in the usual location under the "shape" tab, "style" tab, "Shape Style:" drop-down. The only option I have is "Save Shape Style...". Note that shape styles in existing projects still display, I just can't select new ones. This appears to affect all my projects equally. And this just appeared today -- previously everything's been working fine.
I can see in /Library/Application Support/Final Cut Studio/Motion/Library/Shape Styles/ that everything is still present in the filesystem, it's just that Motion seems to not be finding them. Note also that I still have Motion 4 installed and shape styles do still appear there.
I tried trashing prefs, no dice. Permissions in the Library are read-only for everyone, and as far as I know that is typical.
Ideas?
Thanks.
Edit: This is a Motion *5* question, not FCPX -- there was no Motion 5 option in the post UI.

Thanks. I'm aware of the utility, but temporarily swapping out Motion prefs is a simple affair of moving two files out of /Library/Application Support. No dice. Shape Styles were still gone with blanked out prefs.
However they did reappear eventually and then disappear again. Quitting and re-launching the program a few times may or may not have been responsible for the disappearances/reappearances. I should note that when this happens, the preset list of gradient fills also disappears.

ERROR ITMS-9000: "index_split_000.html(257): attribute "name" not allowed here; expected attribute "accesskey", "charset", "class", "coords", "dir", "href", "hreflang", "id", "rel", "rev", "shape", "style", "tabindex", "target", "title", "type" or "xml:la

I have all these errors, can anyone help with this all means? trying to get my book published in iBooks. Nedd your help. Thanks, Jo
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Use of the block quote element can cause ePubecheck to give the error "text not allowed here". Text must not be alone inside of a body tag and if it is not enclosed in some other block level tag, this may lead to the error you are receiving.

I have all these errors, can anyone help with this all means? trying to get my book published in iBooks. Nedd your help. Thanks, Jo
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Use of the block quote element can cause ePubecheck to give the error "text not allowed here". Text must not be alone inside of a body tag and if it is not enclosed in some other block level tag, this may lead to the error you are receiving.

XYZ Camera Rotation w/ bezier curves - CS4

Hi, I've been doing a workaround but I'd like to figure out the proper way to do this...
It's really simple:
Camera rotates left 45º on y-axis (like you are turning your head)
then, Camera rotates up 45º up on x-axis (like you are looking up)
I want to be able to control the motion with bezier points.
-- Problem: the y-axis rotation does not offset the x-axis rotation (apparently on world not local) and the camera twists the horizon line (like you are twisting your head like a confused dog)...
Workaround 1:
y-axis Rotate
x-axis Orientation
-- Problem, orientation does not allow XYZ bezier point manipulation in the AE graph editor (severely handicapped motion control) <anger><hostility>
Workaround 2:
y-axis Rotate on Camera
parent camera to a null
x-axis Rotate on Null
-- Problem, keypoints to animate camera are on 2 completely different objects.
There has got to be a better way. Please, please, enlighten me...
(disclaimer: I'm used to Lightwave 3D's camera rotation, and AE7 messed me up with the new graph editor – velocity graph doesn't make any sense to me)
p.s.
found this thread after I posted (even though I searched):
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1952927#1952927
thanks Mylenium
http://www.guerrillacg.org/home/3d-rigging/the-rotation-problem
Gimble Lock is something I've fought in Lightwave so I'm aware of that. But a fixed world x-axis rotation on a camera seems AE specific – it's really weird.
Last, Orientation and Rotation x-axis both seem to be world coordinates. Both produce the same problems if using x and y on the same parameters...
Message was edited by: Eric Bintner

There are a couple of ways that I would approach this. The first would be to animate the point of interest instead of rotation.
The second would be to put the camera on a dolly. I do that all the time by adding a Camera, then adding a Null, making it 3D and then moving the null to the same position as the camera (copy and paste position). I then name the Null "camera dolly" and use the dolly to move the camera. Now you can simply adjust the pan of the camera with the Y rotation of the camera and the tilt with the x rotation of the dolly or by animating the point of interest.
It's nearly impossible to get the kind of movement you expect by setting X, Y and Z keyframes for camera rotation or by setting keyframes for orientation with Auto orientation turned off. Movement is much easier when you split the controls between a null and the camera.
As far as adjusting the movement with bezier curves, you can control the timing with bezier curves, but if you want to use curves for the angle you'll have to use the point of interest and adjust these curves with the (g) pen tool in the comp window using something other than Active Camera View.
I hope this helps. One of these days I'll put all of my camera techniques in a tutorial.

Speed of a shape style

This seems like it should be be easy but I have been racking my brain for awhile. I have created a straight line and change the shape style to one of the light streaks. The streak has it's own built in write on behavior. How can I adjust the speed of the streak? For this purpose I can't adjust the length. Adjusting the length of time, applying the drag behavior, and various options in the Shape tabs have left me scratching my head with no change in results. I'm looking at speed it up. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Thomas

Thanks Mark, that makes tons of sense now. I completely missed the key frame indicator in the gradient.
BTW, I'm using this on a mock up I created from your first Motion video. I'm using the clip from the Green Screen tutorial clip since it has the same qualities as our footage. I'm hoping to pick up second
Ripple Training DVD soon. Looks great!

LR working w Canon RAW with Picture Style

Hi there,
I LOVE LR, like it workflow & retouching but... i very confuse recently with LR
I know LR can't "read" those picture style setting...one day, i tested Canon 5DMKII raw Canon DPP vs LR, sigh....Canon is much better I do think, color in LR is not so good enogh
any comment n idea to deal with raw in LR,
superb appreciate!
Teddy

I shoot Canon but have never experimented much with Picture Style settings. But looking at my camera's Field Guide Book, it says that Picture Styles make adjustments in Tone Curve and Color Saturation. In the Landscape Picture Style specifically, the book suggests the camera also adjusts Color Temperature for greens and blues.
There's no foolproof automatic, one-click way to get the exact same effect as you'd get with a Picture Style in LR, of course, but you can experiment in Develop Mode. You should be able to come close. In fact, you should be able to find more nuanced adjustments that look even better to you, with some practice.
In most cases, rather than adjust the Color Saturation slider in LR, try the Vibrance slider first. (I would slide Vibrance to the right a bit to duplicate in LR's Develop mode what Canon's DPP is doing in these shots.)
To adjust color temperature in LR, you can experiment with the various presettings found when clicking the arrow to the right of "As Shot," or in the second shot, by clicking the eyedropper icon to the left of "WB" and then clicking something purely white (the left subject's jacket, or a white part of a cloud). More nuanced adjustments can be made with the Temp and Tint sliders. It appears to me that in the first shot, Canon's selecting a slightly warmer color temp (higher Temp number) than you set in LR, and in the second shot, Canon's selecting a slightly cooler color temp (lower Temp number) than you are in LR. You could try those adjustments in LR and see if you agree.
I would avoid using the Brightness or Contrast sliders or the Tone Auto button in LR to adjust the tone curve, and instead experiment with three other ways LR's Develop mode can help you adjust the tone curve in a more nuanced way. One is to position the LR cursor in the Histogram so you get a double-sideways arrow icon, and drag the bars left and right, particularly near the two sides of the histogram, until the tone curve extends to each end of the histogram without lighting up either of the triangles in the two upper corners of the histogram.
A different way to adjust the tone curve in LR is to start by moving the Exposure slider so that the overall exposure looks correct. For these two shots, the histogram will be highest in the middle if the Exposure slider is set correctly. (With a nighttime scene or other predominantly dark shot, of course, you want the histogram highest on the left side, not balanced in the middle.) Then, if the histogram does not extend all the way to the left of the graph, move the Blacks slider to the right until the triangle in the upper left lights up, then reduce the Blacks slider just until that triangle goes dark again. Then, if the triangle in the upper right corner of the histogram is lit, move the Recovery slider higher just until the upper right corner triangle goes dark. (If that triangle is already dark, leave the Recovery slider at 0.) Finally, you can move the Fill Light slider if you want to decrease contrast, as in your second shot, make the shadows a bit lighter. Otherwise, leave it at 0. Some photographers would, and some wouldn't. Others would just say, don't take a shot like that in harsh midday light if you have a choice, but not everybody can wait around for a week until the light is perfect!
The third way to adjust the tonal curve in LR is to scroll down in Develop mode and manipulate Tone Curve in various ways. You can drag the sliders in the Tone Curve graph, click points on the graph and drag them up or down, or move the sliders under the Tone Curve. Both your shots appear to me to have slightly lower levels on the dark side of the graph, as if Canon's DPP had pulled LR's Darks and Shadows sliders slightly left. But you'll have to experiment. And this is why it's best not to use Brightness and Contrast in LR, particularly in the second shot, but instead use the Tone Curve or Histogram sliders, because you don't want to affect the contrast everywhere in the shot to get the effect DPP is getting; you want to adjust the contrast specifically in just the darker or shadowed areas.
Finally, are you using a hardware to device to calibrate your monitor? If your prints are not matching what you see displayed in Lightroom, particularly in color and contrast, and you haven't tried a monitor calibrator (hardware, not just software with eyeball adjustments), I'd suggest trying one. Don't just plug it in and use it, read and follow all the instructions carefully. Otherwise it may not help or may even make things look worse.

Shapeable garduated filters using Bezier curves

LR’s graduated filters are an excellent feature, which I use quite a lot.
However they’re still limited in the same way as real grads are: they run in a straight line across a region of equal width.
I often wish it was possible to tweak their shape into a curve and widen the graduation in some parts of the image while keeping it narrower in other parts. It would be great, if the three lines could be altered independently like you draw Bezier curves in a vector drawing application. That would allow to adjust the graduation to fit the image’s content better, without having to resort to workarounds such as using the local adjustment brush to undo the effects of the graduated filter.

Yeah I've definintely run in to the same problem. I like the idea. Another one would be the option to erase and add to a gradient, though I'd imagine that would take a lot of programming and problem solving...

Duration of bezier curve with shape style

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