Cracked , broken in 2 effect

Created another version2. Like Luis, I also use keyframes in my animations. I made the crack mask a little more complex and added more expressiveness.

Functions used

・Mask

・Keyframes

・Transform: Rotation, Position, Anchor

・Generator: White

Here's my 2¢ — no pen tool, no keyframes. It can be timed for any length into the clip.

I started with a rectangle, Replicated; lots of rows and columns to create a jagged edged shape. Moved it over to cover about half.

Cloned it twice. Used each clone as a mask to the original image - placed into their own separate groups. I placed the clone copies *over* the copies of the image and used Silhouette Alpha for one and Stencil Alpha for the other. Both groups need to have the Blend Mode changed from Pass Through to Normal (this stops the Stencil/Silhouette Alpha effects from going "outside" the group the blend modes are used in.

I set Anchor Points for each *group* to be at the bottom of the "crack" along the edge of the bottom edge of the image.

I set a Link behavior on the Rotation Z of one of the groups and linked it to the Rotation Z of the other group, setting the Scale to -1.

A added a Ramp behavior to the Rotation Z of the "control group" with a Start Value of 0 and the End Value of just a few degrees (a little over 3º).

I added the Start and End Offsets of the Ramp to a Slider Rig widget and set it so that the 0 setting of the slider had:

Start Offset 0

End Offset 300 [the number of frames you use for your project]

and the 100 setting of the slider to:

Start Offset 299 [one less than your total number of frames]

End Offset 0

Use the Rig Slider value to set the animation to whatever % into your clip you want the animation to occur

[Note, setting a 0 value will create the crack on the first frame - so no animation; and setting a 100 value will not create a crack animation effect at all - effectively turning it off.]

PS - it was very late when I wrote this - if you need more clarification, I can add more tomorrow...

Here is how I did the example above.

I put two copies of the clip stacked on the timeline.

I added a Draw Mask effect to one of the copies. Reduced the Viewer scale to be able to work outside the frame while creating the mask:

- I selected the clip that has the mask, Command-C to Copy;

• I selected the other clip, and Command-Shift-C to Paste Attributes, to copy the same Draw Mask;
• In the Inspector for the second copy, check the box to Invert the Mask

Now we have one copy showing only the left side and another copy showing only the right side.

From here, I selected each clip, activated the Transform tool, and added a keyframe on the very first frame.

I moved the playhead and adjusted the rotation and position (since I had that keyframe at the start, FCP automatically adds more keyframes).

If this is one-off thing, it is instructive to actually do it all inside FCP. It is not too hard, and it may well teach you some nice things about it. If this looks like something close to what you are trying to achieve, let me know and I can elaborate on how to do it. It takes just a few minutes using two copies of the image, a mask and the standard transform tools.

Here is a step by step on images. I hope it helps.

Clip A (top) with Draw Mask (I tapped the letter V to temporarily disable Clip so we can clearly see what the mask is doing):

Clip B (bottom) with mask copied from Clip A and inverted (again, Clip A is temporarily disabled to better see the effects of the mask):

Activated the Transform tool, and clicked the diamond to create a first keyframe (applies to Position and Rotation and also Scale). Do this for Clip A AND for Clip B.

NOTE: you could do this at the first frame of each clip, but it is better to put at about 1 second in (see below for why)

To be continued...

At about 2 seconds in (just an example; you can of course experiment with different durations and different position and rotation settings), set

X Position of Clip A to -30,

Rotation of Clip B to 10º

X Position of Clip B to 30

Rotation of Clip B to -10º

This already should give you more or less what you wanted.

For a finishing touch or two:

• Make the two clips into a compound clip (select them both and press Option-G).

• Add a copy of the clip before the compound

• Add a cross dissolve between the two.

Note: when adding the cross dissolve, you will get a warning that there is not enough extra media. Click "Create Transition". This is why I suggested you place the first keyframe about 1 second into the clips and not right at the start.

Further bonus: After creating this you may find that the timing of the keyframes is not exactly right.

Enter another feature of FCP: the Video Animation pane.

Double click to open the compound clip, and then press Control-V to open the Video Animation pane. Drag the diamonds to adjust the timing of these keyframes (you can also add new ones there, or deleting existing ones).

Press Control-V again to close. Press the < at the top of the timeline to return to the project.

When you add a keyframe to one parameter of one clip (say, Rotation of clip A), then any subsequent changes to that parameter of the same clip will automatically create new keyframes. But you have to add the first keyframe manually, for example if you also want this for Rotation of clip B, or for Position of clip A.

Maybe you are adding a keyframe for Position but not rotation?

There is a way to add a keyframe for all of the transform parameters of a clip (Position, Rotation, Scale) at once: do it in the Viewer. Click the Transform icon at the bottom left, and then click the diamond at the top right.

What about expressions like this? It falls while breaking.

Functions used

・Shape mask

・Blend mode: Addition

・Transition: Earthquake