Wanna learn to make videos that use documents

Question

I want to make videos that are documentary, and will often have documents and images in them.

I figured out how to do simple animations and Ken Burns Effects with Motion. Just wondering if I am going to end up making every scene in Motion and exporting it to drop into Final Cut Pro, or if there are easier ways to do it.

A good example would be suppose I want to show a document. I might want to swipe it in, then zoom to one part of it, then highlight some of it. I think I could do that with Motion. Wondering if instead though I should be finding or making effects in FCPX instead, then just dropping the document into it, reframing the zoomed portion, and where the highlight goes.

Here is a good example:

of some types of effects, although I think some of these are a little hokey. I just wonder if they are making each zoom and animated transition. Thinking no.

Answer 1

When you want something to happen on screen, at the very minimum, you need to tell it:

1. When to start
2. When to stop
3. Where to be

Motion lets you create templates for generators, transitions, and titles. So you'll build the details of an effect in Motion, and then apply, and re-apply that template in FCPX as often as you need. You can also decide which parameters you'd like to retain control over while designing your templates in Motion, and make them available to Final Cut, so that you can tweak elements as necessary.

Designing the movement of these graphic elements is the domain of a profession known as "Motion Graphics." Like any other artistic practice, being a good motion graphics designer requires much talent, dedication, and practice.

Often, motion graphics designers will sell their designs, so that people who are less practiced can apply a polished look to their own projects, the same way a typographer might design a font for licensing to a broader audience. If you search the web for "Apple Motion templates," you will find many of these pre-designed packages, complete with built-in controls for tweaking various elements to taste.