In this exercise, we'll build on our exploration of rigging by creating our own rig and selecting parameters we want associated with it to control which arrows we see. We'll then publish that rig over to our existing Color Arrows Final Cut Pro generator.
From the exercise files of this chapter, double-click on the 11_06 project. Press the Space bar to play back the project. It consists of the same animated arrows from the past exercise. We'll create a new pop-up rig so that we only see one arrow appear at a time rather then all of them at once.
- Select the Arrow 1 layer. In order to control the visibility of arrows in Final Cut, we can use the opacity parameter. Press the F1 key to go to the Properties tab of the Inspector. Ctrl + click on the word Opacity and navigate to Add to Rig | Rig | Add to New Pop-Up, as shown in the following screenshot:
- In the Layers tab, a new pop up is added under the existing rig. In the Layers tab, rename the pop up to
Arrow Choice. Select Arrow Choice and press the F4 key to go to the Widget tab of the Inspector. - We're going to add the opacity parameters of the remaining arrows and then link them to the appropriate snapshots. Select Arrow 2 and, if needed, press the F1 key to go to the Properties tab in the Inspector. Ctrl + click on the word Opacity and navigate to Add to Rig | Rig | Add to Arrow Choice.
- Repeat the preceding step for Arrow 3 and Arrow 4.
- Select Arrow Choice in the Layers tab and notice in the Widget tab that all four arrows' opacities appear. We must link them to the appropriate snapshots. Click on the Rename button under Snapshot 1. Rename the snapshot as
Arrow 1. Drag down the opacity sliders to0for Arrow 2 to Arrow 4 (Watch out! They're in reverse order). - Set the value of Arrow Choice to Snapshot 2. Click on the Rename button and type
Arrow 2. Drag down the opacity slider to0for Arrow 1, Arrow 3, and Arrow 4. Use the following screenshot for reference:
- Set the value of Arrow Choice to Snapshot 3. Click on the Rename button and type
Arrow 3. Drag down the opacity slider to0for Arrow 1, Arrow 2, and Arrow 4. - Click on the plus icon to the right-hand side of the Arrow Choice pop up. Rename it as
Arrow 4. Drag down the opacity slider to0for Arrow 1, Arrow 2, and Arrow 3. - Ctrl + click on the words Arrow State and from the menu choose Publish. Click on the Project layer and in the Project tab of the Inspector, verify the different pop-up states and that they correspond with the correct arrows' opacity.
- Since this generator is already published to FCP X, press Command + S to save it. The file will be updated in Final cut.
- Launch Final Cut Pro. Search in Media Browser under Generators and bring the Colored Arrows into a project. Look in the Inspector. The new pop-up widget Arrow State has been published over, as shown in the following screenshot:
When we update generators for FCP X, they're updated in the Generators section of the Media Browser only. If you have updated a generator in Motion that is embedded in a FCP X project, the project version of the generator does not get updated. Simply replace the generator in your project with the generator from the Media Browser.
- The Creating a lower third for FCP X recipe in Chapter 5, Let's Make Text
- The Publishing a Motion 5 generator and its parameters to FCP X recipe
- The Creating a transition for FCP X recipe
- The Creating an effect for FCP X recipe
- The Publishing parameters versus publishing rigs 101 – part 1 recipe