Updating Motion Templates for FCPX

[RoverStar]

Motion 'templates' don't seem to be actual templates for what I'm looking for. Say I made a title sequence, save it, use it in Final Cut. I add text and titles; maybe there's drop zones where I put some video clips and images. I make 100 videos with this template.

Now say 6 months later, I change the font on the template. I save it. But wait, my projects don't actually update. I have to redo everything all over again-- text, video clips and images. As if the entire thing is a new project.

Isn't there a way that FCPX/Motion automatically updates a template? Drop zones, text, etc. had no change, so it should be recognized and updated. That's the purpose of using a template!

 

[sevoneone]

Motion 'templates' don't seem to be actual templates for what I'm looking for. Say I made a title sequence, save it, use it in Final Cut. I add text and titles; maybe there's drop zones where I put some video clips and images. I make 100 videos with this template.

Now say 6 months later, I change the font on the template. I save it. But wait, my projects don't actually update. I have to redo everything all over again-- text, video clips and images. As if the entire thing is a new project.

Isn't there a way that FCPX/Motion automatically updates a template? Drop zones, text, etc. had no change, so it should be recognized and updated. That's the purpose of using a template!

Are you using Motion 5 and publishing your templates to Final Cut? If so, you should just have to right-click the generator in the FCP effects browser and choose open in motion. That isn't working?

 

[RoverStar]

When you 'open in Motion' it opens it back up in Motion. What I'm talking about is for it to update the effect/title in the Project. So, for example, changing the font on a title in Motion and publishing to Final Cut will update the font for future uses of it, but if I have 100 projects already completed and I want the new font, I have to manually replace all the titles, instead of having the new font automatically applied.

 

[Zwhaler]

By chance can you use the replace function to drag the new title from the titles browser onto the existing title in the timeline and hit "replace from start", does that update it in the way you want it to? That's what I do when I want to use a different text animation without having to delete and redo everything, it simply copies the text over. Not sure if this applies to fonts though, it's worth a try.

 

[RoverStar]

You're right, I normally go through and use Replace with Retime to Fit. That's ok for small projects, but I think there should be an option for a more automatic template update rather than a manual process of replacing each element. Think about having 100 or 1,000 videos all with title sequences, captions and lower thirds, etc., and having to go through every piece of that for relatively minor changes.

If you think about indesign or even powerpoint templates, you can replace the background and style on your whole presentation or document in a minute. In Final Cut, you still have to touch every piece of it.