Can I or how do I extend a single text overlay over multiple slides? This would seem like a basic thing to do. Is it possible in the Beta?
Physically, no – each layer element of a slide has to confine itself to a single slide. I’m not sure what your final goal is. The only solution at the moment (which has been the same in previous versions of FM) is to duplicate the text layer to the next slide and copy/paste the geometry from the previous slide to the next slide. Depending on your transition effect, the text will just appear where it’s supposed to and where it was.
With the new features in FM 6.0b35, you have a lot more control over layers than earlier versions. Opacity adjustments and Effects can help out, and you can adjust them over the length of the slide.
Hope that helps – if not, what’s your intent?
My intent at a minimum is to place the text (as it is animating) over a series of related photos. Easy to do in many video editors. One the other hand, I did get this 40 slide with text on each slide done in 6 hours, so there’s that!
If you’re trying to animate the SAME text from one slide to another, that sometimes gets a bit tricky. You have to adjust timings and make sure the text at the Finish of one slide appears at the exact same spot as the Start of the next slide. If the text CHANGES from one slide to another, that’s almost impossible to work with (it does depend on the text, of course, and what you’re trying to do with it, where you’re trying to place it, etc.)
6 hours to do 40 slides!!! I’d sure like to see what you’re doing that it took that long. I’d be a bit cautious in working in the 6.0beta versions, though. Some things might change (although I’m guessing that what you’re trying to do probably will not), and it would be a bit frustrating to find all your work having to be redone.
And yes, I’m aware that there are probably OTHER video editors out there that could handle your aims. But if so, why aren’t you using those instead? Just asking. The only editors I’ve ever used were iMovie and FotoMagico. You could probably do a bunch of cool stuff in some of the Adobe apps as well. There’s also the re-released version of Pro Show Gold (from the Windows platform) now called Photopia for the Mac. I tried experimenting with that. It does a hell of a lot of stuff that I would really like to see in FM – BUT – you’ve got a pay-as-you-go (by month or year) cost, which is prohibitive as far as I’m concerned. And, the GUI is VERY confusing and convoluted – there’s a large learning curve. I’ve decided to stay with FotoMagico, and found it ideal for my slideshow presentations. And trying to do creative things with it has been a lot of fun.
With all the text animations, I thought six hours was good. Really, I’m included a lot of prep work, so it would be more like two hours once I figured things out. I wanted to use Fotomagico because I never get to use it and I’ve been a big proponent of its capabilities for many years, often recommending it on my blogs, as an example. I’m pretty expert at Final Cut Pro, but was looking for a new challenge, and to learn more about the product. I’m not familiar with Photopia for the Mac. I’ll look into it, but I like the GUI of Fotomagico. It uses a traditional timeline, which many slide show apps don’t.
You are right - animating a single text layer that extends over multiple slides is extremely hard to do at the moment. Your feature request is noted for a future version. Not sure whether it will be in 6.x or 7.0 though…
It is the only thing that makes me want to switch back to a video editor to do a slide show. I know the workarounds-- I started in the multi-projector slide business, but it is a hassle. The copy geometry feature makes it somewhat easier, but the process adds significant time to what otherwise would be a totally efficient edit. Thanks for the response. Given V5 has been around for 5 years, I can’t imagine if this deal-breaker would be fixed in my lifetime!