Instruction Manual

Chapter 20 Shapes, masks, and paint strokes 870
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Roundness: A slider that controls the roundness of the corners of a shape. Use this control to
create rounded rectangles or to smooth the edges of any shape.
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Shape Style: A pop-up menu that applies a preset shape style (from the Library) to the
selected shape.
Edit shapes as layers
After you create a shape or a paint stroke, it becomes a layer. Because shape and paint stroke
layers share most of the characteristics of other layers in Motion, you modify them as you would
any other layer. Use the following tools and methods to modify shapes and paint strokes as layers:
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Transform tools: Choose a transform tool from the toolbar (Select/Transform, Anchor Point, Drop
Shadow, Distort, or Crop) to activate onscreen transform to modify a selected shape layer.
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Transform controls in the Properties Inspector: The onscreen transform tools are shortcuts to
like-named controls in the Properties Inspector. To set specic values, or ne-tune any of the
transforms, use the Properties Inspector. For more information on the Properties Inspector and
onscreen transform tools, see Parameters in the Properties Inspector on page 223.
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Opacity, Blend Mode, and Preserve Opacity controls in the Properties Inspector: Use these controls
to modify a shape’s overall transparency. For more information on using object blending
parameters, see Blend modes overview on page 229.
Shapes with multiple blend modes
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Masks: Use the mask-drawing tools in the toolbar to create masks that punch holes inside
shapes. You can also apply an image mask to a shape, using another layer in Motion to dene
areas of transparency. For more information on using masks and image masks, see Masks and
transparency overview on page 888.
Original shape
Shape with mask set to Subtract
67% resize factor