television graphics, final cut pro, motion and xml
April 18 2008Updated: Code now available
Yesterday I got an email from an engineer at the mothership asking for advice on tweaking a small utility I put together. The utility automates the creation of on-screen menus for TVNZ 6, which are created using Apple’s Final Cut Pro and indirectly use Apple’s Motion.
Today via Creative Workflow Hacks I see that Apple has now documented the Motion XML format, which should make it easier for assembling smooth automated workflows. The FCP XML format is already well documented.
Database + XML + Python + Python libraries + FCP/Motion = rocking solution
I did some weekend based research on FCP’s Apple Event (AE) support whilst investigating the best way to do those menus. With the help of HAS’s appscript AE bridge I put together a first cut of some Python code that could get and send XML to FCP via AE. I didn’t use this approach in the actual solution, instead opting just to have the operator manually import a XML file.
I’ve placed that code onto the Python code snippets site Useless Python, hoping that it err may be useful to some. Why is Useless Python developed in PHP?
It’s not available yet, will link directly to it after it’s been reviewed and approved.
Well, turns out Useless Python is useless, nothing happening there. So I've pasted the code onto Pastie for those that are interested
