So how hard can all this FxScript plug-in building be?  Not hard at all actually. The few lines of text below can be compiled into a plugin that allows you to do some nice extreme stretch blur transitions.  The first 3 lines just define and name the plugin, the second three define and name the controls, the next “code” just tells FCP that the actual calculations it needs to perform are what follows ...

And how exactly is this code any different from Apple’s own Wind Blur filter?  What did you do to pimp this bad boy?  Let us in to your secrets oh you masterful coding God (?) ...

Jeez! Ok then. See that line where it says:

Steps = 100*integer(Steps);

... well I added the 100* bit.

If you’re interested in playing with FxScript then just dive in.  Really.  Right click an effect in the Effects bin, choose Open in Editor and have at it.  Tweak some numbers and see what happens, unlock your own coding genius within ... worse that can happen is it’ll say “Effect failed to Render” or “Error, Divide by Zero” or similar, not that I’ve ever seen those messages ;-)

scriptid "Andy’s Wind Blur Extreme" //DO NOT LOCALIZE

filter "Andy’s Wind Blur Extreme"

group "Blur"

input Theta, "Direction", angle, 0, -360, 360 detent 0;

input Radius, "Radius", slider, 10, 0, 100 detent 10;

input Steps, "Steps", slider, 2, 1, 10 snap 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10;

code

float r;

Steps = 100*integer(Steps);

r = 100*radius / renderRes;

motionBlur(Src1, Dest, integer(r*cos(Theta-90)), integer(r*sin(Theta-90)/aspectof(dest)), steps);