Create a Split-Screen Template in Motion for Final Cut

Here’s a playful, animated split-screen effect that is easy to create in Motion and a big time-saver when working with split screens in Final Cut Pro. This takes less than ten minutes to create.

NOTE: This template is included as a free download at the end of this tutorial.

(Images courtesy of www.2ReelGuys.com.)

Here’s where we’re going – creating a Motion generator that displays a 3-way animated split screen, where the size and position parameters for all images are baked into the template. All you need to do is fill it with video in Final Cut.

OVERVIEW

This effect consists of three layers:

• Animated background
• Blurred border around the images
• The image drop zones

We’ll create this for a 1080p project, however it can be scaled to any size or frame rate in Final Cut to match the specs of your project without damaging image quality.

Creating this takes less than ten minutes, but you can tweak it as much as you want after the basic template is created. There are lots of ways to adjust this.

GET STARTED

Open Motion and, from the Project Browser, select Final Cut Generator. Then pick the image size, frame rate and duration you want.

NOTE: Because the background uses generated media, you can stretch the duration of this clip in Final Cut to whatever you need. Using 30 seconds is fine for the template.

• After the new project opens in Motion, create three Groups (shortcut: Shift + Cmd + N).

• Name them, from top to bottom, Drop Zones, Border and Background.
• Select the Background group.
• From Library > Content > Backgrounds find something you like that is dark, blue and animated. (You can actually pick any background, but faces look good against medium to dark blue.)
• I chose Sudden Impact.

• Except the image is too small. Sigh… Twirl down the Background group. Select the Sudden Impact folder and drag the corners until it fills the frame.

NOTE: Normally, backgrounds fill the frame. Naturally, I picked one that didn’t.

You are now done with the Background group. Twirl it up and ignore it.

MEASURE YOUR SPACE

You don’t need to measure anything, you could simply rough things in by eye, but I’ll show you how to use guides to make it easier to be precise.

We need to allow room for Safe Zones and make all three drop zones the same size. Here are the numbers I used for a 1080p frame.

• Choose View > Show Rulers (shortcut: Shift > Cmd + R). Rulers now appear on the left and top edge of the Viewer.

• From the left ruler drag a yellow guide to -900 pixels and second guide to 900 pixels. This creates a 30 pixel pad on each side leaving an 1800 pixel horizontal space in the middle.
• From the top ruler drag a yellow guide to 490 and a second guide to -490 pixels; creating a 980 pixel vertical dimension.

• Add two more guides from the left ruler at -300 pixels and 300 pixels. This creates three equal blocks: 600 x 580 pixels each.

Into these three equal areas we will add drop zones to hold the images in Final Cut.

ADD A BLURRY BORDER

We could add the drop zones now, but I think it’s easier, since we’ve marked their space, to add the blurry border. This border could be anything you want, but I’ll keep it simple.

• Select the Border group in the Layers panel.
• Select the Rectangle tool and draw a rectangle that covers the three rectangles indicated by the guides. Don’t go all the way to the edge of the frame.
• Select the rectangle in the Layers panel.

• Go to Inspector > Shape:
• Set Fill Color to medium light gray
• Set Fill Opacity to 50%
• Set Feather to 50

Here’s what this looks like currently.

ADD DROP ZONES

• Select the Drop Zone group in the Layers panel.
• Choose Object > New Drop Zone (shortcut: Shift + Cmd + D)
• Double-click this new drop zone’s name in the Layers panel and change it to “Right Zone.”

Select the drop zone, then in Inspector > Properties:

• Set Position (X) to 600 (this moves it to the right side)
• Set Scale to 90%
• Crop Left: 640 pixels
• Crop Right: 640 pixels

NOTE: Crop is located at the bottom of the Properties panel. Click Show to reveal the contents. Don’t change top or bottom crop.

Add a second Drop Zone:

• Change the name to Center Zone
• Set Scale to 90%
• Crop Left: 640 pixels
• Crop Right: 640 pixels

Add a third Drop Zone:

• Change the name to Left Zone
• Set Position (X) to -600 (this moves it to the left side)
• Set Scale to 90%
• Crop Left: 640 pixels
• Crop Right: 640 pixels

(Click to see larger image.)

Here’s where we are now. We’ve now completed the template.

Choose File > Save (shortcut: Cmd + S). Because this is a generator, Motion saves it automatically into the Generator browser. I store all my custom Motion templates in a folder with my name. You can use whatever folder you want.

Click Publish and you’re done.

APPLY IN FINAL CUT

The really nice thing about any Motion template is that once you create it, you can reuse it as many times as you want from inside Final Cut. No need to go back into Motion again.

• Open Final Cut, then open a project into the timeline.
• Go to the Generators browser and edit the template you just created into the timeline.

Here’s what it looks like in the Final Cut Viewer.

• Select the template in the timeline and go to the Generator Inspector.

• Click inside the top drop zone in the Inspector, then click the clip in the Browser that you want to fill it.
• Repeat for the other two drop zones.
• Click the blue Apply button to lock in the changes.

Play the timeline. Everything moves – the clips in the drop zone and the animated background.

Very cool!

FREE TEMPLATE: Here’s the Motion template we just created. Unzip this and drop the entire folder (“3-way split screen”) in [ Home Directory ] > Movies > Motion Templates > Generators. It will appear in the Generators browser the next time you relaunch Final Cut.

EXTRA CREDIT

Because every element is separate, you can modify template this by changing backgrounds, playing with the colors, feathering the border layer – even remove it entirely.

This is a highly-flexible template. You can use this same idea to create a 2-way split screen or add far more images. Just remember each image needs its own drop zone and all drop zones need to be centered in their space.

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