Motion keyframes help

I'm struggling with a couple of issues with motion keyframes in FCE (there is no documentation on this feature in the FCE manual).
1) In a number of still images, I simply want one keyframe at the beginning of the clip, and one at the end. It seems that no matter what order I create keyframes in, I always seem to have to redo the first keyframe. That is, I create the first keyframe (the diagonal cross hairs turn green), then I create the second keyframe, adjust parameters, etc. When I return to the first keyframe in the clip, it's gone, and I have to recreate it. Generally it seems to "stick" after the second attempt.
Can someone enlighten me as to what I might be doing wrong here?
2) A couple of times I've wanted to razor the clip in the middle, and then dissolve it into itself at a different zoom. Unfortunately, after dividing the clip, I have a devil of a time finding the keyframes. I think what might be happening is that each clip half ends up with unreachable keyframes--I know this happens with audio level and opacity keyframes, so it makes sense that it would happen with motion--but since you can't "see" the keyframes on the timeline, it's difficult to know what's going on. Anyway, I've decided it's just a bad idea to do this--better to start with a clean clip and apply the motion keyframes from scratch. Still, if anyone has any suggestions on how to better manage (and visualize) keyframes, I would appreciate hearing them.
Thanks,
Bob

I often find that the first keyframe won't stick...not always, but a fair percentage of the time. I just accepted it as a quirk of the program.
Also sometimes if I play around in the middle of a clip with zoom or motion, then move to where I'd like to actually like to insert that motion keyframe I find that FCE kinda insert one for me back where I was playing around.
So i've stopped....
..playing around, that is...
...i mean, in the middle of the clip. I am more careful now to think about where i am goind to want my keyframe, then go there, then muck about with the settings, THEN insert a keyframe there...
.....THEN after I do the second keyframe, go back and redo that first keyframe that has inexplicably gone on vacation.
I wonder if the keyboard shortcut would work better than the mouse click/button push? Like, would it be more likely to register? Then again, I DO always make sure that my crosshairs register a hit (go green) so that should be a good enough confirmation that the mouse click/buttonpush worked...

Similar Messages

Delete Motion Keyframe

I'm pretty sure I knew how to do this at one time, or it's patently obvious, or it was discussed here -- but tonight I'm drawing a blank...
How do I delete a motion keyframe?
and...
How do I move a motion keyframe (I have a 5 second, still image clip; I've keyframed a slow zoom in to 3 seconds, then the remaining 2 seconds have no motion -- I want to change the slow zoom to be the entire duration of the clip)
Anyone?

Hi Leif.
Press Option and choose the Pen Tool which will now be in Pen Delete Mode. Click the Keyframes you want to delete and then release the Option Key.
I should imagine you just put a Keyframe at the end of the clip and set the zoom appropriately. (The Help Menu should explain in detail).
Ian.

Setting motion keyframes on head and end of a clip in the timeline

I've been exeriencing a weird problem lately.
If I throw a clip into the timeline, then double click it
back into the viewer, then use CONTROL K to place keyframes
across all motion perameters at the head of the clip, THEN hit the down arrow button to get to the end of the clip so I can make adjustments and have keyframes placed at the end of the clip, the process of hitting the down arrow to get to the end of the clip actually takes me to the head of the next clip in the timeline and up in the Viewer keyframe viewer.
If I use the left arrow to move one frame backwards to try and get to last frame of the clip I actually want to place a keyframe on the end of, it doesn't get
me back to the original clip...I've still got the second clip up in the Viewer motion keyframe area.
It's been requiring me to reload the clip from the timeline again, drag the viewer playhead to the end of the clip being careful to not accidentally go past the end of the clip, or it again goes into the next clip and it's impossible to navigate back to the first clip without double clicking it back up into the window.
So long question...after having placed keyframes at the very head of a clip double clicked back into the viewer from the timeline, how do I quickly get to the end of the clip to place my changed keyframe perameters, without overshooting the clip and running into the next?

To get to the Out point of the current clip, instead of the next clip/edit, you need to press Shift-O.
Also helpful: pressing Shift-I takes you to the In point.

Final Cut Express 4 motion keyframing

I'm thoughly famaliar with FCP6, but haven't seen Final Cut Express since FCE Version 2.
I've been asked to teach FCE4 to a friend, but haven't seen it yet and am trying to prepare.
Is motion keyframing (scaling, cropping) handled the same way in FCE4 as it is in FCP6
(ie. in the motion tab of the Viewer), or do you have to do it in the timeline overlay area?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: brvideo

Yes, FCE4 handles keyframing the same way as FCP6. You can do it in the motion tab of the viewer or by clicking the keyframe button in the canvas to add a universal keyframe to all motion parameters. You can do the scaling, cropping, etc. in the motion tab or in the canvas if it is in Image+Wireframe mode.
Message was edited by: skalicki`

Adjusting speed of a motion keyframe

When I created a motion keyframe path, the clip just zips of the screen and I cannot figure out how to adjust the speed.
Thanks for any tips!
Best Regards,
Eric

Vid man wrote:
When I created a motion keyframe path, the clip just zips of the screen and I cannot figure out how to adjust the speed.
speed = distance x time +hey, that's 5th grade physics!+
example:
you have keyframe#1 on the very left of viewer
keyframe#2 on very right of viewer...
if #2 is set just 4 frames later than #1 => speedy!
if #2 is set 120 frames later than #1 => a gentle, smooth move..
check, where _in timeline_ your KFs are set..

Move FCE Motion Keyframe

is there any easy way to move a motion's keyframe from one spot in the clip to another? say i have a clip and i add a keyframe at the clip's 'in' point and then another at the clip's 'out' point. the result is say a slight zoom and move across the screen.
ok now later on i realize that clip needs to be longer - so the clip gets extended several frames. however - the keyframe that was at the clip's previous ending is now a few frames from the end - resulting in the motion "stopping" at the clip's previous endpoint. my solution now is to open the clip in the viewer and manually add a new keyframe at the end with the same parameters as the 'old' end keyframe and then delete the 'old' keyframe.
is there an easy way just to move that old keyframe from it's position to the new end point? i think it would be easy if it was an opacity keyframe and this was the timline - but i don't think motion keyframes show up in the timeline?
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

The short answer: no. Basically do it the way you're doing it is the best way.

How to accomplish a motion keyframe move across several clips?

I'm very familiar with how you acheive motion moves within one clip in
the timeline.
However, I can't figure out how to make two of three consequtive clips
make one continous motion move.
For instance, lets say I have three still digital images, 5 second each, in the timeline, one after another. I want the first still to start at 50% size and want a continuous growth to 100% at the end of the third clip. I know how'd I'd do
this within one clip (a motion keyframe of 50% at the head of the clip and a 100% keyframe at the end of the clip.
But how do you make one smooth continuous move across several clips in a row? I realize I could take those three clips, export them out as a quicktime and bring them back in as one clip, but that seems a long way to go everytime you want to do this. And if I nest the three clips, when I go to doubleclick them back to the viewer to add the keyframes, the nest just opens up again into it's own sequence.
So how is this accomplished?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks.

or option double click...
Please click on the or buttons over posts as appropriate...
Patrick

Motion keyframe effect stretch to new clip duration

Sorry for the lame subject title, but I'm not sure I know how to be more descriptive, or search for previously posted info about this.
I have 98 still images on a timeline to which I want to apply a "zoom in" motion effect, and add a 2 sec dissolve transition between each. Is there a way to apply the "zoom in" effect without the dissolve in between, and then, when I add the dissolve, have the motion effect stretch out to affect the new clip duration? As everyone here will know, the transition adds time on to both ends of the clip with the previously applied motion keyframes staying put. Obviously, the effect I get is a dissolve happens, the clip then zooms up, stops, and then the next dissolve occurs.
Sorry to over-explain something so simple. Just looking for, hopefully, an overlooked shortcut.

But in your method Alex, the transitions are adding frames at the beginnings of clips which means the new clip will dissolve completely in before moving. I'm sure that's not what the OP is looking for.
The easiest method for this is actually a variation on Arsenal's first post.
Apply a transition between the first and second pics in your timeline.
Then keyframe your move on the first pic so you are seeing all the available frames (including the ones used in the transition). If it's a simple zoom move for instance, mark a keyframe at the first frame of the clip, and then on the last frame adjusting the scale to taste.
Apply transitions to all clips in the sequence. If using the same transition this can be done easily by lassoing all clips in the timeline and dragging them into the Canvas, choosing overwrite with transition to apply the default transition to every clip. In FCP 7, this has been made even easier.
Once you have transitions on all your clips, copy the properties of the first pic (CMD+C).
Select all the other clips in the sequence. Hit OPT+C to bring up the Paste Attributes dialog box. choose Basic Motion and make sure that Scale attribute times is selected. Hit OK.
The same move from the first pic will be stretched or shrunk to fit the length of each clip in the sequence and FCP takes the transitional frames into consideration as well.
Andy

Motion Blur help.

Alrighty, I'm using Photoshop CS4 Extended, and I'm having troubles with motion blur.
When I set the angle to anything above 60 really and distance to about 300 it crashes saying Adobe Photoshop CS4 has encountered a problem and needs to close.
This happens every time. So I tried restarting Photoshop, then restarting my computer, then I uninstalled and reinstalled fresh and it still crashes when I begin to use motion blur, infact I believe it even crashed just by opening the motion blur window for over 40 seconds.
Any help or ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Thanks a lot Mylenium! I'll do that in a few minutes, by the way heres an update with some more information.
Photoshop crashes when I change the angle to 49 or higher, anything lower is fine.
I went to my event viewer and I found this:
Faulting application photoshop.exe, version 11.0.0.0, faulting module mmxcore.8bx, version 11.0.0.0, fault address 0x0000d62a.

Can I edit and "update" an image, in the timeline, without re-importing it and re-doing all the motion/keyframes?

I have an image in my Final Cut Express project, which has lots of intricate movements and keyframes assigned to it.
I've just discovered I need to change something in the image (give it a photoshop edit).
Do I have to re-import the image all over again, and copy over the numerical details in for the "motion" section, or can I just do something to replace the file and have FCE use that new image in the timeline, keeping everything that was setup?
Thanks

In system preferences set the external editor for stills to Photoshop. Control-click on the image and select open in editor. Make the changes. Save the image.

Keyframe help

Using Keyframes in Color has been very confusing. Maybe my workflow isn`t the right one. Any suggestion will help:
I have 3 to 4 minutes clips to color correct.
Each clip has:
- Primary corrections via Highlights Midtones Shadows and saturation.
- 8 secondaries via Highlights Midtones and Shadows, Saturation, KeyBlur and HSL (2 with vignette).
I have all my grades ready. In each 3 to 4 minutes clip, I have to go from grade A to grade B via keying (for primaries and for secondaries). Sometimes from A to B to C (3 different grades).
Now that I have my A and B grade, my plan was to set up key frames in primary and in secondaries and load grade A and grade B to each key frame.
For some reason, sometimes I add a keyframe but it doesn`t show up in the time line or it shows up but it s not conneced to another one... Going from one key frame to another is also not always working... Dragging a Keyframe is not always working well ...
The manual is not very detailed about all this...
What is the correct worflow? Add the key frames and then load the grade A then B? What about when it`s from A to B to C? Why is a Keyframe sometimes not connected to another one? Am I missing something? Is my method the wrong one?
Many thanks.

You need to recast your paradigm for keyframing.
Keyframes only effect the room you're in.
You can keyframe each of your Primaries, 8 secondaries, each ColorFX node, and Geometry Room separately.
You can't keyframe grades turning on or off, rooms turning on or off (though you could keyframe back to neutral).
You can create 4 completely different grades. Render each out separately and do dissolves between in editorial - but that's a hack compared to what you want to do.
Also, once you add a keyframe all parameters lock on that shot. To make further changes you must make them where a keyframe exists. So you need to add a second keyframe and then sit on that keyframe to make your change.
So:
Each of the 4 grades are independent of the others. There is no way to switch between them via keyframes.
Each Room is independent of all the others and can not trigger actions.
Once added, a keyframe locks down any further changes in that room. To make changes you must be parked on a keyframe first - meaning keyframe #2 must be added before making the tweak. Color does not auto-add keyframes.
HTH... and makes sense.
- pi

Behaviors and Motion Tracking help

I just started using Motion today and am having some problems. I am trying to add an angel like halo effect over a head and am having trouble. I imported the clip I want to add the halo to into Motion via the Final Cut timeline. After it opens the clip in Motion I try to use "add behaviors" but it wont work when I click it.. I have the clip selected. I imported the clip into Motion but it's not letting me use behaviors for tracking.. It's also not letting me bring up certain windows like the Inspector. It will only show me the layers/media/audio and timeline windows. Please help. Thanks in advance.

I have no idea why it posted my question three times... I only clicked once.

Keyframes help

Hi
How does a person copy and paste keyframes in the motion tab?
tx in advance
peace

You can use the 'Paste Attributes' function to copy and paste keyframable attributes such as filters, and all the parameters in the Motion Tab (as well as others).
You can't however, directly copy & paste keyframes by selecting them on the Keyframe Timeline in the viewer Motion Tab.
To Paste Attributes, select the clip you want to copy, press command+C, then select the clip you want to paste certain attributes to and press Option+V. Then tick whichever attributes you want to paste from the little window that pops up.

Stop motion animation help using images from a digital camera...how tricky is this?

I'm teaching a media arts course for the first time, and I'm trying to figure out how to use images taken with a digital camera, import them to Premiere Elements 7, and put them in the timeline without having to shorten the length of them. As soon as I drag an image from the project bin onto the timeline, it automatically plays for 5 seconds, and I have to try to shorten it to one frame length. If that's what it takes, this process is going to take a lot of time, because the students are going to be taking several hundred photos. If I edit them in the preview, it's still just as difficult. Is there any way to change the settings before I import the images so that they automatically are one or two frames in length on my timeline? Your help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.
As Steve points out, setting the Edit>Preferences>Still Duration BEFORE Importing, will get what you want.
When doing Stop-Motion, I find that a Duration = 3 to 5 Frames, works best, but that will depend on the images, how far apart, they were shot, and the exact effect that I want. It might take a little experimenting, to get things correct to both your eye, and to the images from the camera.
Also, Scaling the Still Images, prior to Import is a very, very good idea, and especially so, with Stop-Motion, as you will have lots of them.
Good luck,
Hunt
PS - if you are using Transitions, between the Still Images, you will want to alter the Duration of those too, prior to applying them.

REALLY fast stop motion..HELP!

So I am trying to make a stop motion using imovie 09 and it wont let me make the clips shorter then .1 seconds...does anybody know how I can make them shorter? I am trying to make this REALLY fast...Help!! This is for a major film project I am working on. All help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

hjsami01 wrote:
So I am trying to make a stop motion using imovie 09 and it wont let me make the clips shorter then .1 seconds...
that's right. for smooth stop-motion, you need 1 frame per second.
you need tools as QuicktimePro vers7, which allows to convert a folder of pics into a smooth stream of video, or designated stop-motion tools as framebyframe (free) or iStopMotion ($$, therefor much more elaborated&convenient).
and Welcome, hjsami01, to the  boards ...

Motion keyframes help

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for