Motion Sketch – novice needs some hints

[Guy Burns]

I had a look at this tutorial and thought I could just about handle creating a Motion Sketch. But no, I can't get any keyframes.

This is what I have done:

1. New Project, and created Comp 1.
2. Added some text ("Testing") to the top middle window.
3. A new layer appeared in the bottom left window called "Testing" (under Source Layer)
4. I clicked on the Source Layer called "Testing", it turned white.
5. Selected Window > Motion Sketch, and clicked on "Start Capture". In the Info window "Click to begin capture" appeared, just like in the video.
6. However, unlike in the video, when I moved the cursor across to the text to move it around, my cursor didn't change to a cross and I don't get any motion keyframes.

There must be something very basic I have not done. This test project can be downloaded here.

If anyone has any suggestions to get me going, they would be most appreciated.

[Byron Cortez · Accepted solution]

I'm using your project to do it but the truth is that everything is correct.

- Select Layer in Timeline

- Go to menu Window and open Motion Sketch

- Press Star Capture (cursor change to a cross)

- Go to text in composition and move it around. 

[Guy Burns]

Thanks for that. Looks like I'll have to reload my AE. My cursor doesn't change to a cross when I click on Start Capture.

[Guy Burns]

Another question: when you click on Start Capture is the playhead supposed to start moving?

Further tests

I restored my archived diskimage of OSX 10.9.5 running CS6, an unused OSX, and when I clicked on Start Capture I see the cross hairs, but if the mouse moves even 1 pixel, the cross hairs disappear.

My guess is that Motion Sketch in CS6 running under OSX 10.9, does not work. Luckily, I keep diskimage archives of all my old OSXes, so I'll restore 0SX10.6.8 to an external drive, and see how that goes.

[Guy Burns]

Turns out this is a known problem that Adobe was aware of. No need for any more input here.