Troubleshooting a corrupt Motion Project

When I CLOSE a certain Motion transition file it crashes Motion 5.0.6 .

I've tested it on 2 different computers with the same result.

I've trashed preference files and repaired permissions and disk but it still crashes when I close that file.

Any ideas on how to fix a corrupt file or troubleshoot it?

Maybe I have to do it at the code level...

I think it might have something to do with a mask's feather. The rig icon shows next to the feather parameter but it isn't really rigged anywhere.

Well I replaced those masks with new ones and it still crashes.

Never seen this issue before. I'm stumped.

I've found that image masks can get corrupted and crash Final Cut Pro.

Does Motion crash when you save as well as when you close? If so, copying all your layers and pasting into SimpleText will preserve layers if Motion crashes.

To fix image mask corruption I've renamed rigged image masks (or image masks that use mask layers which have behaviours) as XXXXX and their associated rigs (if any) and then opened the .motr file in SimpleText and searched for 'XXXXX' and deleted from mask to /mask and the relevant rig nodes.

@Alex4D

Thanks for the help Alex.

Motion only crashes when I close the file. I can save it just fine.

I created this file by dragging a mask (feather rigged) from another file into the layers of the new file.

I guess Motion doesn't like dragging rigged elements between files.0

How do I find the relevant rig nodes when I can't rename the rigs because they don't exist?

If the rig is not listed in the layers pane, it probably isn't in the project (unless it's a Display Aspect Ratio snapshot rig, which are invisible, but from what you've said, this doesn't apply).

So, delete the image mask (in Motion if you can, or in a text editor if you can't), and recreate it in your destination project.

In practice, Motion doesn't like layers with behaviours being used as sources for image masks - probably due to the execution order of behaviours vs. image masks.

I suggest you use the shape you want to apply the rig or behaviour as an alpha or luma mask using a stencil or silhouette blend mode (and stopping the blend mode stencil applying to all layers below by setting the blend mode of the parent group of the luma or alpha mask to Normal instead of Pass Through).

@Alex4D

I couldn't get it to work correctly so I started over from scratch. Now no problems!

I guess Motion doesn't like dragging rigged elements between files.0

I've found this to be a no go. When creating themes I always set up the first (e.g. title) project, copy and paste into the new (e.g. effect) project then rig things them up individually.

I keep learning that the hard way.