FxFactory Developer

Beginning with Final Cut Pro X, Apple's professional video application no longer supports FxPlug plug-ins directly. Visual effects may only be delivered through a technology called Motion Templates, based on the Motion project file format.

A template does not need to rely exclusively on Motion's built-in features. It may also use FxPlug plug-ins. Motion Templates have thus become the only vehicle to deliver products based on FxPlug plug-ins to Final Cut Pro X users. Certain limitations are imposed by this technology:

• Slower to load and render than native plug-ins, presumably due to the extra work required to load and render a Motion project.
• Poorer output quality than it is generally possible with a native plug-in. Footage may be scaled to full-frame, cropped, etc. thereby introducing filtering artifacts. Results vary according to the version of Final Cut Pro used and the snapshots included by the Motion Template.
• Templates cannot be deployed or installed easily. Developers and end-users have additional responsibilities to ensure that visual effects can be found and loaded by Final Cut Pro X.
• Templates are inherently open. The architecture contains no provision which prevents end-users from editing and/or redistributing your templates.
• No parameter grouping. The specification contains no official method for grouping parameters together in groups, thus making it extremely hard for users to learn and use complex products where a large number of parameters is unavoidable.
• Custom UI is not allowed. Beginning with Final Cut Pro 10.1, it is now possible to publish custom parameter UI from a Motion template.
• Dynamic UI is not supported. Beginning with Final Cut Pro 10.0.6, it is now possible to implement dynamic parameter UI.

To help make Motion Templates a viable platform for visual effects development and distribution, FxFactory has introduced a new product type: FxTemplates.

To create a new FxTemplates-based product, launch the FxFactory application and select the New > Templates command under the File menu:

At the heart of each FxTemplate is a new document format¹⁾ which groups multiple Motion Templates inside a single logical container. The FxTemplate stores your Motion projects, effect thumbnails and any media referenced by the template.

A unified development UI provides access to both basic and advanced features that are available with FxTemplates:

The idea is simple: you use FxFactory to build your product, and let FxFactory handle product installation, licensing and asset management for you.

• Existing Motion Templates can be imported to a new product simply by dragging Motion project files from the Finder onto the Templates list.
• Templates are arranged in groups. Different types of effects may be grouped under a single category. FxFactory will take care of installing each template in the correct location based on its type (effect, generator, transition or title).
• The template theme can be changed easily, without having to edit the XML data in the Motion project.
• The group and theme correspond to the labels used by Final Cut Pro X to display each effect in the effect browser.
• Only a single thumbnail graphic is stored for each template. FxFactory will create the correct representations needed by Final Cut Pro X when the product is installed²⁾.
• Media files used by each template are automatically imported and stored in the FxTemplate. Multiple templates can reference the same media files in order to make product packaging more efficient.

• Developers can rename templates, template categories and/or themes without fear of breaking project compatibility for end-users. This allows developers to easily re-categorize their effects within the Final Cut Pro X effect browser even after products have shipped.
• FxFactory guarantees reliable deployment of your products. Templates are installed and deployed consistently on all systems. This ensures that users do not have to deal with effect missing/offline errors.
• An FxTemplate may have dependencies on another product, be it an FxPack or a different FxTemplate. The FxTemplate can share a single licensing structure and inherit state ³⁾. This allows for seamless deployment of products that are a combination of Motion Templates for Final Cut Pro X and native plug-ins for all other video applications.
• If you have created high-quality thumbnail graphics to represent your product in Final Cut Pro X, you do not have to worry about Motion overwriting those thumbnails when you save the template: FxFactory will preserve the thumbnail graphic until you explicitly request it to use a different one.
• Multiple versions of a template can exist within the same product. FxFactory allows you to assign version numbers and mark templates as “Obsolete”, which has benefits for developers and end-users alike⁴⁾.
• If multiple templates within your product reference the same Media (e.g. a large movie), there is no need to distribute multiple copies of those files to your users. FxFactory lets you embed a single copy of an asset which may be referenced by multiple templates.
• FxFactory can apply a watermark to the output of any templates being used without a license. The watermark allows you to distribute a trial version of your product. The user can unlock the product and remove the watermark simply by purchasing a registration code from our online store.
• FxFactory performs product-integrity checks to ensure that users are indeed using the product you shipped to them. Any changes to the Motion projects are detected and - whenever possible - fixed automatically.
• FxFactory handles systems with multiple user accounts seamlessly. Products are automatically installed for any new user the first time they fire up Final Cut Pro or FxFactory.

• Users can disable products simply by toggling a checkbox inside the FxFactory application.
• Users can easily license your FxTemplate-based products via the FxFactory application. Our advanced licensing options allow you to create product families, allowing a single registration code to unlock any combination of FxTemplates and FxPacks.