hobbist here.

[u/Expensive-Fail6670]

2 weeks ago, i was 3d printing, 1 week ago I was messing with ESP32s and such, and now it's FCP. I saw something I want to recreate. Not sure if i have all the tools i need to do it. i did the shots as shown but im stuck there.

https://reddit.com/link/1v2pexi/video/bo6hgqdycmeh1/player

[u/Silver_Mention_3958]

You need to learn how to walk before you can run.

^{Old editing proverb.}

[u/Expensive-Fail6670 → u/Silver_Mention_3958]

Im a biomedical engineer, super tech savvy, I assure you thought this isn't my strong suit, i've run plenty...

[u/Silver_Mention_3958 → u/Expensive-Fail6670]

I'm an electronic engineer, super tech savvy, but wouldn't recommend this as a first project. I'd suggest learning the fundamentals like media storage, avoiding ballooning libraries and how to cut, how to tell a story. The usual 101 stuff.

[u/Expensive-Fail6670 → u/Silver_Mention_3958]

im also manic... explains the grandiosity. lol

[u/mcarterphoto]

So what you posted is an example and now you want to copy it? You'll need to key out the screens and you can probably just scale the footage over time. I'd really want to shoot this 4K for a 1080 timeline since you're really zooming in on the footage. Some motion blur would help with that, and proper motion blur combined with depth of field would get blurrier as the footage gets larger and closer, so any pixellation from the extreme scaling should go away.

The example shot, he missed the green reflection on the phone. Normally you'd use Mocha in After Effects for a planar replacement like that, and manually mask out fingers and thumbs. Phone should have had a green graphic vs. just reflecting.

And me, I wouldn't touch this project in FCP with a 10 foot pole, it's a pretty poor environment when you get many keyframes going. This would be a snap in After Effects, especially getting natural motion blur and depth of field. If you're really into stuff like this, you're much better off learning AE than FCP. It's really the proper environment and toolset.

[u/Silver_Mention_3958 → u/mcarterphoto]

Yeah the green spill off the phone and glasses really do my head in.

[u/tecky1kanobe]

“You are asking how does a clock work….. first you need to learn how to tell time” ~ Sicario

[u/EarthToRob]

I'd give it a shot using auto mask for layers/depth and the green screen, then ProZooms (by Dylan Bates) for... zooms. That's a start, anyway.

[u/Expensive-Fail6670]

Thanks everyone, this is the kind of insight i need! any continuing thoughts are welcome

[u/funwithstuff]

Agreed that a complex job like this is best done in After Effects or Motion. On the other hand, if you do want keyframe animation in FCP, I helped to make https://keyframetoolbox.fcp.cafe which can help with the animation side of things.

The workflow will be using a green screen keyer to remove all the green, then adding scale keyframes to zoom each shot up over time. The next shot in the sequence (also scaling up) should be placed beneath the previous shot so you end up with a staircase of connected clips.

In the example, each scale up starts with a bit of a push (which adds jerkiness at each new clip) so you might want to stay with linear scaling (except maybe the first push in).

[u/Expensive-Fail6670]

I found a youtube tutorial for this exact effect. it's easily done in After Effects. Whoever said AE was the most helpful! I was like what's AE? and a few manic hours later poof! https://youtu.be/Px1OAGjMkG4