Publishing a template to FCPX
In the previous recipe, we've created our custom lower third, one that we plan to reuse many times in future projects, perhaps for a video series we are creating. While we could export a video file of this title, the problem is that it would lock in the actual words we have now (FIRST LAST and DESCRIPTION), so that's obviously a no-go. Instead we will publish this project as a template to FCPX so it shows up in our Titles browser so we can reuse it forever and change the text on a case-by-case scenario.
Getting ready
We're picking up right where we left off in the previous recipe.
How to do it...
1. Go to File | Save. (by pressing Command + S). The window that pops up is not a traditional save window. This is because when we first started the project from the Template Chooser, we chose a very specific type of file, a Final Cut title. So Motion is immediately trying to save this directly as an FCPX title template.
2. Give the template a name. We'll call it
Blue Green Lower 3rd.3. Under Category, select New Category... and type
My Lower Thirdsand click on Create.4. Leave Theme to None for now.
5. Put a checkmark next to Save Preview Movie:
6. Click on Publish. Motion takes a moment to process its task.
7. Quit Motion and open up FCPX.
8. Open your Titles browser and click on the new My Lower Thirds category. You will see your Blue Green Lower 3rd appear:
9. Click-and-drag the title on top of any clip you like, most likely, a speaker shot.
10. Make sure the title clip is highlighted in the timeline and double-click on the text to edit it and replace the placeholder text.
In our example, these default colors are a pretty awful choice for this shot. Don't forget you can adjust font color in the Inspector under the Text tab.
There's more...
Modifying your custom template
If you decide somewhere down the line that you need to modify your original template, there are multiple ways to do so. One of the easiest ways is to right-click on the title template in the Titles browser in FCPX and choose the option Open in Motion. This will open the original project file and let you make any changes. It does not say Open a copy in Motion like before because this is a template you created, not one of the original templates that came with FCPX.
After making changes in Motion, you have two options. You can save it normally to immediately update your title template in FCPX. Alternatively, you can choose Save As, which will take you through the template publishing process again. You might want to do this if you wanted to keep the original text template and have a second, slightly altered template.
For example, with the lower third we created, perhaps we wanted a second version with a logo. We could open the original template in Motion, drop in a logo, choose File | Save As, and name the new Blue Green Lower 3rd Logo template. When you returned to FCPX, you'd have both versions of the lower third to select from!
See also
Read the next recipe to learn how to make it even easier to modify elements of your new lower third without having to go back to Motion!
