Blackmagic Forum

I wanted to insert the fusion title “text box” from the “edit template” tab of fusion tools onto a planar tracker plane and while I successfully inserted the title where I wanted it, the “text box” is just static and has no animation.

When using the fusion title “text box” in the timeline of Resolve the text box is drawn on and the text slides into place but this doesn’t happen when I make it part of a fusion comp, or at least as the foreground on a planar tracker node.

There appears to be no global in/out controls on the “text box” node or any kind of controls that I can see to control when the animation would start.

What am I missing? I thought the fusion titles were basically nested fusion compositions and I can see no reason why they wouldn’t animate when part of another fusion comp.

Resolve Studio 17.1
16” MacBook Pro
MacOS BigSur

It seems to be working for me. I am using Resolve 17 so maybe it's a 17.1 issue.

xunile wrote:It seems to be working for me. I am using Resolve 17 so maybe it's a 17.1 issue.

Thanks for looking into it. Your comment made me go back and look at my comp and what I noticed is that the underlying mediaIN clip was trimmed on the timeline before the fusion comp was created. Could this be the issue since the fusion comp is before the timeline in the pipeline?

Slightly different but similar enough question. What would you do if you didn’t want the “text box” animation to start at the beginning of the fusion clip? Say for example you wanted two different text box animations to happen one right after another in the same location. How would you delay the second textbox to start after the first one without global in/out controls?

xunile wrote:It seems to be working for me. I am using Resolve 17 so maybe it's a 17.1 issue.

Also, it looks like you don’t have the planar tracker output going to the mediaOUT? That’s why you can see the textbox on your left side planar tracker screen but not on your mediaOUT screen on the right? Not sure if that would make a difference for you

I connected the PlanarTracker to the MediaOut and it still works.

xunile wrote:I connected the PlanarTracker to the MediaOut and it still works.

Thanks! I don’t know why it’s not working for me then.

How are you switching to the Fusion page? If you are switching to the Fusion Page from a clip, the Title will draw on at the start of the clip, stay on for most of the clip, then draw off at the very end. The Titles use the KeyFrameStretcher node so that they can adapt to the length of the clip. If you want it to start and end in the middle of a long clip, you might consider using an Adjustment clip to add the Title in the Fusion Page.

xunile wrote:How are you switching to the Fusion page? If you are switching to the Fusion Page from a clip, the Title will draw on at the start of the clip, stay on for most of the clip, then draw off at the very end. The Titles use the KeyFrameStretcher node so that they can adapt to the length of the clip. If you want it to start and end in the middle of a long clip, you might consider using an Adjustment clip to add the Title in the Fusion Page.

Very interesting thanks!

I just put the playhead over the clip I want to turn into a fusion comp in the timeline page and then navigate to the fusion page from the menu at the bottom.

I take it there’s no way to deconstruct the fusion titles back to their original nodes so you can change things? I used Apple Motion to learn the ropes of basic vfx and animation and found it very useful that any template media is always deconstructed so you can see how it was made and change things as needed or even take elements/behaviors from a template and use them for other effects. Any way to do this with fusion templates?

You can modify the Title in Fusion, just double-click on the TextBox group. You can also modify the timing of it by moving the keyframes, you would just have to remove the KeyFrameSTretcher node if you want to modify the timing.

xunile wrote:You can modify the Title in Fusion, just double-click on the TextBox group. You can also modify the timing of it by moving the keyframes, you would just have to remove the KeyFrameSTretcher node if you want to modify the timing.

Mind friggin blown

Thanks so much I can’t believe I didn’t know you could do this! This is the single most valuable piece of information I’ve learned on this forum to date! Thank you so much!

You're welcome.

xunile wrote:You're welcome.

Ok I figured out what the issue is but I don't understand why it is happening or how to make it work the way I want.

In the first attached image you see the clip sign.mov under the playhead and it is on top of another instance of sign.mov. The bottom one is how I want it the top one is the original clip. I trimmed the beginning and end of this clip on the timeline in the edit page then opened as a fusion comp.


The reason the textbox wasn't animating for me was because the the textbox animation was starting at the beginning of the original full length clip, not when I trimmed it down to.

You've helped me learn how to fix this manually but its a bit of a pain and I really just wish it worked how I feel like it should starting at what is the beginning of the clip after I trimmed it down. It doesn't make sense to me that Fusion can understand the clip starts at frame ~265 but makes the animation start at frame 0 which is blank in the fusion page.

Is there anyway to change this behavior?

Why do you have two versions of the same clip, one on top of the other? Which clip are you adding the Fusion comp to? Are you right-clicking on the trimmed clip and choosing "Open in Fusion"?

xunile wrote:Why do you have two versions of the same clip, one on top of the other? Which clip are you adding the Fusion comp to?

I only put the top version on the timeline to illustrate what I was talking about because I didn’t know if I was explaining it very well. Only the bottom instance is actually on my timeline and is the one that is the fusion clip.

xunile wrote:Are you right-clicking on the trimmed clip and choosing "Open in Fusion"?

No I just put the play head over the clip and then switch to the fusion page. So would right clicking on the trimmed clip result in what I am looking for? I didn’t realize there was a difference between the two methods thanks.

Sometimes it’s the little stuff that can be easy to miss.

I think your issue is happening because you are trimming the beginning and end of the clip. Fusion will start at the frame of the clip at the point you trimmed to. I would try using an Adjustment Clip above your clip instead of just switching to the Fusion Page when the Playhead is on top of your trimmed clip. Drag an Adjustment Clip from the Effects to your timeline on a track above your clip and size it to fit right above it. Drag this Adjustment Clip to the Media Pool to fix an issue with Adjustment Clips, then delete the one on the timeline. Drag the one from the Media Pool back to the timeline above your trimmed clip. Then have the Playhead above the Adjustment Clip and switch to the Fusion Page. You should be able to do the track and add the Title without the issue you are having, you might still need to delete the KeyframeStretcher node and manually adjust the keyframes.

Here is a video that explains why you have to drag an Adjustment Clip to the Media Pool before using it on your Timeline.

xunile wrote:I think your issue is happening because you are trimming the beginning and end of the clip. Fusion will start at the frame of the clip at the point you trimmed to. I would try using an Adjustment Clip above your clip instead of just switching to the Fusion Page when the Playhead is on top of your trimmed clip. Drag an Adjustment Clip from the Effects to your timeline on a track above your clip and size it to fit right above it. Drag this Adjustment Clip to the Media Pool to fix an issue with Adjustment Clips, then delete the one on the timeline. Drag the one from the Media Pool back to the timeline above your trimmed clip. Then have the Playhead above the Adjustment Clip and switch to the Fusion Page. You should be able to do the track and add the Title without the issue you are having, you might still need to delete the KeyframeStretcher node and manually adjust the keyframes.

Here is a video that explains why you have to drag an Adjustment Clip to the Media Pool before using it on your Timeline.

Oh sweet learned a lot of things from that video. Adjustment clips seem to really be the way to go for Fusion comps in general. I also didn’t know about power bins. That will be very handy.

Thanks!