Motion 2 User Manual
01112.book Page 2 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Apple Computer, Inc. © 2005 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
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Motion 2 Documentation and Resources Preface 01112.book Page 9 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Motion is an exciting new motion graphics application that lets you create content for broadcast and video. Discover all the resources you can use to help you learn this versatile application. This user manual provides a detailed description of the features in Motion and how to use them to create compelling visual projects.
01112.book Page 10 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Links in the body of the access page provide an additional way to locate important help and other documentation tools to assist you in learning and using Motion.
01112.book Page 11 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Because Motion is a creative tool, documentation can only go so far in describing its potential. The Motion 2 User Manual provides a detailed description of the Motion interface, features, and functionality, and introduces you to the built-in templates and resources to give you a sense of the versatility of the product. In the end, you are limited only by your own imagination.
01112.book Page 12 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Create Support Profile This option generates a special file describing the technical details about your computer such as processor speed, video card specifications, and so on. This file is used only by authorized Apple technical support technicians. Additional Resources For additional information about Motion, use the resources listed below.
01112.book Page 13 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM http://www.apple.com/creative This website provides news, information, and other resources on seminars, events, and third-party tools used in digital video, design and print, music and audio, web publishing, and the media arts. http://www.apple.com/education Look here for resources, stories, and information about projects developed by users in education using Apple software, including Motion. http://store.apple.
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01112.book Page 15 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 1 Getting To Know Motion 1 This chapter introduces you to the basic concepts of motion graphics and the Motion interface. It also describes how to work with all of the basic tools you need to get started. Motion is a behavior-driven motion graphics application that can be used for a wide variety of projects, including titles, broadcast graphics, and simulations.
01112.book Page 16 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Design Tools Graphic designers have been using software to facilitate their work for many years. Motion has incorporated many of the most valuable tools commonly found in layout and design applications, including guides, alignment, and direct manipulation for positioning, transforming, and distorting objects. It also contains some of the most flexible and sophisticated tools for creating and handling text elements.
01112.book Page 17 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Unique Tools As the field of motion graphics design has evolved, the tool sets in the most common applications have grown, but Motion takes a completely fresh approach to the task. It incorporates the cutting edge of software design and takes advantage of the latest powerful Apple hardware.
01112.book Page 18 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This turns the act of designing a motion graphics sequence into an act of exploration and discovery, which is the way most artists prefer to create. Motion provides not just a new set of brushes for the motion graphics artist, but a whole new type of work environment.
01112.book Page 19 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Utility Window When you open Motion, the Utility window appears on the left side of the screen and contains the File Browser from which you can add files to your project. The Utility window also has tabs to display the Library, which contains all of the effects, templates, and other goodies that come with Motion, and the Inspector, where you can manipulate individual settings for those effects.
01112.book Page 20 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When you want to watch your project play back, the transport controls at the bottom of the window allow you to play at regular speed or frame by frame. The mini-Timeline lies just above the transport controls and below the main body of the window. This control provides a view of where selected objects in the Canvas begin and end in time. Mini-Timeline Transport controls The Canvas also contains two additional panes that are hidden in the default view.
01112.book Page 21 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Timing Pane The Timing pane also has three tabs, each to control a different aspect of your project. The Timeline is a broad overview of all the objects and effects and how they are laid out over time. The Keyframe Editor displays the animation graphs for parameters and effects, and the Audio Editor provides access to the level and pan controls for the audio components of your project.
01112.book Page 22 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Standard layout: This layout displays the Utility window on the left and the Canvas on the right. Alternate layout: This layout displays two Utility windows on the left, the top one containing the Inspector and the bottom one containing the File Browser and Library. The Canvas fills the remainder of the screen to the right. Cinema layout: The Cinema layout also displays two Utility windows.
01112.book Page 23 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Basic Window Controls In addition to choosing from the preset arrangements, you can manually arrange your windows, resize them, or minimize them to the Dock. m m m To move a window: Drag a window by the title bar to the new location. To resize a window: Drag the resize control in the lower-right corner of the window to resize it to the desired size.
01112.book Page 24 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tabs Motion uses tabbed windows to provide convenient access to multiple windows at once. You can switch between windows simply by clicking the appropriate tab. In addition, you can drag any tab out of its docked position to show the tabbed window in its own separate window. You can also drag a tab into another window. This lets you view multiple tabbed windows from the same group at one time.
01112.book Page 25 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Saving Custom Layouts Once you have the windows arranged to your liking, you can save your screen layout with a relevant title so you can switch back to it later. This makes it easy to set up layouts that help you perform certain tasks. For example, you might set up one layout that is good for editing curves, while another layout has an expanded Timeline for editing keyframes.
01112.book Page 26 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also create a new custom layout (based on the current state) by clicking the Add (+) button in the Manage Layouts dialog. m To switch to a saved custom layout: Choose Windows > Layouts, then choose the custom layout from the submenu. To delete a saved layout: 1 Choose Window > Manage Layouts. The Manage Layouts dialog opens. 2 Select the layout you want to delete. 3 Click the Delete (–) button to remove the item from the list.
01112.book Page 27 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Full Screen Mode Motion has an option to cover your entire monitor with the Canvas. This is helpful for watching playback of your project without the distraction of the software interface. In this mode, all of the tools and controls that affect the Canvas remain active, though you have to rely on keyboard shortcuts and shortcut menus (Control-click) to change from one tool or control to another.
01112.book Page 28 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tools are also grouped into categories of use. The first set of tools is called the View set because they deal with changing the view and manipulation method in the Canvas. The second category is called Create, and contains tools that add new content to the project such as text and shapes. The Mask category contains tools that add a mask to an existing object. Controls can also be grouped through the use of separators.
01112.book Page 29 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Button Tool name Keyboard shortcut Description Pan Tool H Allows you to drag your view of the Canvas in different directions. The Pan tool never moves individual objects. To reset the pan, double-click the Pan tool. To pan the Canvas without selecting the Pan tool, press the Space bar and drag in the Canvas. Zoom Tool Z Allows you to zoom in and out on the Canvas.
01112.book Page 30 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Button Tool name Keyboard shortcut Description B-Spline Tool B Toggles Bezier/ B-Spline Creates a new freeform shape with B-Spline vertices. To create a shape, click repeatedly in the Canvas to add points to your shape. To close the shape, click the first point of the shape or press C. To create an openended shape, double-click the last point. Text Tool T Creates new text objects and lets you edit the text of existing text objects.
01112.book Page 31 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM On the right side of the Toolbar, the first four icons make up the Effects controls. These are special controls providing instant access to the most common effects. Since these controls apply effects to existing objects, they are not available unless an object is selected. Icon Icon name Description Add Behavior Activates a pop-up menu of behaviors. Choosing an item from the menu applies that behavior to the selected object(s).
01112.book Page 32 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Customizing the Toolbar You have many options for personalizing the Toolbar. You can change which controls appear on the Toolbar as well as the order in which they appear. You can put spaces and separators between them to group them to your liking. You can view all of the controls as icons, icons with a text description, or just as text.
01112.book Page 33 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional Buttons and Icons The Customize Toolbar sheet provides access to additional icons that are not present in the default set. Customize: Opens the Customize Toolbar sheet. Colors: Opens the Colors window. Fonts: Opens the Mac OS X Font panel. There is also a font browser within the Motion Library. For more information, see “Using the Library Font Browser” on page 464. Layers: Shows or hides the Layers tab in the Project pane.
01112.book Page 34 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Audio Editor: Shows or hides the Audio Editor in the Timing pane. Template Browser: Opens the Template Browser. For more information on using the Template Browser, see “Creating New Projects From Templates” on page 141. External Video: When you have an additional monitor connected to your system, clicking this icon automatically sends output to the external monitor. Clicking it again turns off output to the additional monitor.
01112.book Page 35 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m Chose an option from the Show pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Customize Toolbar sheet. Icon & Text Icon Only Text Only Hiding the Toolbar Once you get familiar with the common controls and the keyboard shortcuts, you may want to hide the Toolbar altogether to simplify the interface and provide more room for the Canvas. m To hide the Toolbar, do one of the following: Click the roll-up button in the upper-right corner of the Canvas.
01112.book Page 36 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can directly manipulate the items in the Canvas to modify their physical attributes such as position, scale, and rotation, or use familiar drag-and-drop techniques to apply behaviors or filters directly to the items in the Canvas. See “Using Behaviors” on page 317, and “Using Filters” on page 701 to learn more about how to use these features.
01112.book Page 37 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Color Some motion graphics projects may require you to match or align different colors in your project. The Status Bar can provide visual and numerical information on the color of the pixel currently under the pointer. No clicking is necessary—as you move the pointer, the Status Bar updates. m To display the current pixel color in the Status Bar: Control-click the Status Bar, then choose Color from the shortcut menu.
01112.book Page 38 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: This number only appears while the project is playing. m To monitor the project’s playback frame rate: Control-click the Status Bar, then choose Frame Rate from the shortcut menu. You can also turn the Status Bar items on and off in the Appearance Preferences pane. To display Motion Preferences, choose Motion > Preferences.
01112.book Page 39 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM There are four pop-up menus at the right side of the Status Bar that provide access to these settings: Zoom Level, Resolution, Channels, and View and Overlay Options. Zoom Level View and Overlay Options Resolution Channels Zoom Level You can zoom in on the Canvas to allow precision alignment and placement of objects, and you can zoom out to get a sense of the big picture or to see the path of a moving object.
01112.book Page 40 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To zoom in and out of a specific area of the Canvas: Press Command+Space bar, then drag the area of the Canvas you want to zoom. While still pressing the keys, click the mouse to zoom in 50 percent increments of the current zoom level. Press Command+Option+Space bar, and click to zoom out in 50 percent increments of the current zoom level. Note: To pan the Canvas without selecting the Pan tool, press the Space bar and drag in the Canvas.
01112.book Page 41 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Transparent: Shows the background area of the Canvas as transparent. A checkerboard pattern appears where no images block the background. Alpha Overlay: Displays the image in normal color, but adds a red highlight over transparent areas of the image. RGB Only: Displays the normal mix of red, green, and blue channels but transparent areas (including semi-transparent areas) are treated as opaque.
01112.book Page 42 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Film Zone: Turns display of the film aspect ratio guides on and off. This can be helpful if you are creating a project for videotape that is to be transferred to film. You can change the size of the guides as well as their color in the Canvas section of Motion Preferences. Handles: Turns display of object handles in the Canvas on and off. Viewing object handles is necessary to perform transformations of objects. Handles only appear on selected objects.
01112.book Page 43 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To override the current project settings for field rendering on export: 1 Choose File > Export. 2 Optional: Select a name and location for the saved file. 3 In the Save As sheet, click the Options button next to the Kind parameter. 4 In the Output tab of the Export Options dialog, turn off “Use current project and canvas settings.” The “Use field rendering” and “Use motion blur” checkboxes become available.
01112.book Page 44 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM By default, rulers appear along the left and top sides of the Canvas. You can change the location of the rulers in the Canvas section of the Motion Preferences. To add a horizontal or vertical guide to the Canvas: 1 In the Toolbar, click the Select/Transform tool (or press S). 2 Click in the gray area of the horizontal or vertical ruler, and drag into the Canvas. As you drag, the value of the guide is displayed in the Canvas.
01112.book Page 45 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To change the color of the guides: 1 Choose Motion > Preferences. 2 In the Canvas section, click the Guide Color color well, then select a color. Playing Your Project Use the transport controls at the bottom of the Canvas to play your project and see how it looks over time. You can set playback to loop as well as set playback to begin and end on certain frames in your project. You can also turn audio on and off.
01112.book Page 46 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When “Record keyframes on animated parameters only” is turned on in the Recording Options dialog, keyframes are added only to parameters that are already animated. For more information, see “Recording Keyframes on Animated Parameters Only” on page 451. RAM Preview When you play your project, Motion performs complex calculations to represent the objects and effects that appear in each frame. This is called rendering.
01112.book Page 47 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When a section of your project is currently stored in RAM, the Timeline and the miniTimeline turn green to indicate which frames are stored. RAM Preview indicators RAM Previewing Regions Previewing large sections of your project using RAM Preview requires large quantities of RAM to store the frames. You may not have enough RAM to store all of the frames you want to preview.
01112.book Page 48 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Working in float has no effect on your RAM Preview. Although the project is rendered in float, the preview is down-converted to 8-bit for display on your monitor. Clearing the RAM Preview You can manually delete the RAM Preview to make room for a new RAM Preview or to free up RAM for other operations. m To clear the RAM Preview: Choose Mark > RAM Preview > Clear RAM Preview.
01112.book Page 49 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To add an object to the mini-Timeline: 1 Drag the object from the File Browser to the mini-Timeline. As you drag, a tooltip appears to indicate the frame where your edit will take place. 2 When you reach the desired frame, release the mouse button. The object is added to the project beginning at that frame. You can also add multiple objects to the mini-Timeline at once.
01112.book Page 50 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To move an object in time: 1 Select the object you want to move. The object appears in the mini-Timeline. 2 In the mini-Timeline, drag the object to the left or right to reposition it in time. A tooltip appears to indicate the new In and Out point of the object, as well as the amount of change from the previous position. 3 When you reach the position you want, release the mouse button.
01112.book Page 51 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM A tooltip appears to indicate the new In and Out points. Start of media Slip pointer End of media Note: You cannot slip a clip unless it has been trimmed first. For more information, see “Slipping Objects” on page 296. m To snap the playhead to a project marker in the mini-Timeline: Press Shift and drag the playhead in the mini-Timeline.
01112.book Page 52 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To increase or decrease the current frame or duration one frame at a time: Click the increment or decrement arrow for the field you want to change. Drag pointer Decrement arrow Increment arrow Value slider Note: You can also move the playhead forward and backward one frame at a time by pressing Left Arrow (or Page Up) to decrease, and Right Arrow (or Page Down) to increase.
01112.book Page 53 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To move backward a specific number of frames: Type “–” (minus) followed by the number of frames you want to move backward. To modify the current frame or duration dynamically: Click the center area of the field (where the numbers are), then drag to the left to increase the value, or to the right to decrease the value. Dragging the Current Frame field in this way is equivalent to dragging the playhead through the mini-Timeline.
01112.book Page 54 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM All of this can be accomplished in the Project pane, which is ordinarily to the left of the Canvas. m To display the Project pane, do one of the following: Drag the divider bar on the left edge of the Canvas. m Click the Project icon in the Toolbar. m Press F5. You can also switch the arrangement of the windows so the Project pane appears on the right side of the Canvas.
01112.book Page 55 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To display the Layers tab, do one of the following: Click the Project Pane icon in the Toolbar. m Choose Window > Layers. m Press Command+4. m If the Project pane is not already visible, click the Layers tab at the top of the pane. The information is displayed in a column view and there are many controls to let you customize the view while you are working.
01112.book Page 56 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Lock: Lets you lock an object to prevent any changes from affecting that object. Locking a layer prevents changes to all objects within that layer. This column may also include a Link icon when an object has a corresponding audio element. Show Columns button Link icon To display additional columns, click the Show Columns button at the right of the column headers. A pop-up menu appears containing three items: Preview, Opacity, and Blend.
01112.book Page 57 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing Columns Any window that contains columns of data can be reorganized to suit your needs. You can change the order in which columns appear as well as the size of the cells. For example, in the Layers tab, you may want the Preview column to appear to the right of the Name column instead of to its left. You can also sort the items in the column by type of file. To reorder columns: 1 Click the column header you want to move.
01112.book Page 58 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To sort the items in a column by type of file: Click the column header. Click the column header to sort by that column’s data type. Note: Sorting does not work in the Layers tab or Timeline. The objects are sorted in the column and a small arrow appears indicating the direction of the sort. The arrow in the column header indicates the direction of the sort.
01112.book Page 59 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Filtering the Layers List View As your project becomes more complex, you may want to temporarily hide certain objects from view. This allows you to focus on one or more objects without the distraction of all the other objects in your list. You can perform this sort of filtering by using the Search field in the upper-right corner of the tab. Once you begin typing in the Search field, the Layers list hides any objects that do not contain the text you type.
01112.book Page 60 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To display filters in the Layers tab: Click the Show Filters button. Click the button again to hide the filters. Turning Effects On and Off When certain effects are applied to an object, icons appear in the Name column for that item. This lets you know that such an effect is applied, especially if you have the effect objects hidden. There are icons for masks, filters, and behaviors.
01112.book Page 61 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Copy: Copies the object to the Clipboard. Paste: Places the contents of the Clipboard in the current location. Duplicate: Creates an identical object to the selection. Delete: Removes the selected object. Group: Places the selected objects into a group. (For more on working with groups see “Grouping and Ungrouping Objects” on page 202.) Ungroup: Restores the components to their ungrouped state if the selection contains a group.
01112.book Page 62 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Kind: Identifies the type of media, including QuickTime movie, still image, QuickTime audio, or PDF. See “Video and File Formats” on page 941 for a list of supported codecs and file types. Duration: Displays the duration of the media in either frames or timecode. Frame Size: Displays the native size of the image in pixels. The numbers represent width and height. This column remains blank for audio only objects.
01112.book Page 63 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To hide a column: Click the Show Columns button at the right of the column headers, then choose the item you want to hide from the pop-up menu. Editing Columns Any window that contains columns of data can be reorganized to suit your needs. You can change the order in which columns appear, as well as the size of the cells. For example, in the Media tab, you may want the Frame Size column to appear before the Name column.
01112.book Page 64 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Open In QuickTime Player: Opens the selected item in the QuickTime Player application. Reveal in Finder: Switches out of Motion, and opens a Finder window where the Media file resides on disk. Reconnect Media: Opens the reconnect media sheet where you can assign a new source file on disk to correspond to the Media file in Motion. Cut: Removes the object and places it on the Clipboard. Copy: Copies the object to the Clipboard.
01112.book Page 65 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Audio tab contains a number of columns with both display and editable information about the audio components of your project. On: Contains an activation checkbox to turn the audio for the object on or off. Name: Identifies the object by name. To edit the name, double-click the text area of a selected object. This column also contains a slider and value field to control the volume of the object. Numbers in the value field are measured in decibels (dB).
01112.book Page 66 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Navigate to the file you want to import, then select the file. 3 Click OK. The file is added to the Audio tab. To remove a file from the Audio tab: 1 Select the file you want to remove. 2 Click the Delete (–) button in the upper-left corner of the tab. The object is removed. Note: This action removes the file from the project. Filtering the Audio Tab As your project becomes more complex, you may want to temporarily hide certain audio files from view.
01112.book Page 67 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Timing Pane At some point in most projects, you will want to view the contents of your composition represented as a graph over time. This may be to compare when two objects appear or disappear, or when an effect begins or changes. You may want to add or remove objects in your project at a particular point in time, to observe or modify how different parameters of different effects occur.
01112.book Page 68 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Timeline The Timeline is the most general of the Timing tabs. It can display not only the visual objects in your project, but also the audio objects and effects such as masks, behaviors, filters, and keyframes. For more information on using the Timeline, see “Using the Timeline” on page 273. m To display the Timeline tab, do one of the following: Choose Window > Timeline: m Press Command+7.
01112.book Page 69 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Lock: The third column contains the Lock control which prevents any changes from affecting the object. This column also contains the Link icon for objects with both audio and picture components. Note: Changes made in the Timeline Layer list also change the Layers list in the Project pane and vice versa. Effects Controls When certain effects are applied to an object, icons appear in the Name column for that item.
01112.book Page 70 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Display Options As with the Layers tab, you can choose to show or hide effects such as masks, filters, and behaviors. Additionally, the Timeline lets you display keyframes. You can also choose to display audio objects and, if audio objects are displayed, you can hide visual objects. All of these display options are controlled by the row of buttons in the lowerleft corner of the Timeline.
01112.book Page 71 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Audio files appear in a separate section from visual objects. You can move the divider between the audio and video sections of the Timeline to show more or less of each section. Divider m To show audio files: Click the Show/Hide Audio button in the lower-left corner of the Timeline. Click the button again to hide audio files. m To hide video objects: Click the Show/Hide Layers button in the lower-left corner of the Timeline.
01112.book Page 72 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also use the track height control at the bottom of the tab. Click the track size indicator to set the tracks to that height. To change the width of the Timeline Layer list: 1 Position the pointer over the rightmost edge of the Timeline Layer list. The pointer changes to the column adjust pointer. 2 Drag left or right to resize the Layer list.
01112.book Page 73 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Track Area The main part of the Timeline, to the right of the Layer list, is the track area. Objects in your project are each represented by a colored bar. Different colors represent different types of objects. For example, behaviors and filters are purple and audio objects are green. For a complete table of colors, see “Getting Familiar With the Timeline” on page 274. Layer tracks differ from individual object tracks in two ways.
01112.book Page 74 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To collapse or expand a layer: Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the layer name in the Timeline Layer list. Disclosure triangle A variety of editing tasks can be done in the Timeline, including moving, trimming, and slipping. For more information on how to perform editing in the Timeline, see “Editing Objects in the Timeline” on page 293.
01112.book Page 75 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Markers can be added to your project to identify an important frame or range of frames. For more on creating and using markers, see “Adding Markers” on page 312. Zooming in the Timeline As you get familiar with using the Timeline, you will find yourself wanting to focus on an individual edit point one second, and the next, you’ll want to see the overview of your whole project.
01112.book Page 76 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Zoom Time View button toggles between the Zoom to Play Range and Zoom to Project settings. If no play range is established, choosing Zoom to Play Range performs a Zoom to Project. Changing the Track Display The tracks in Motion can be displayed in a variety of ways to satisfy different working styles. You can set your tracks to be viewed as Name Only, Name Plus Thumbnail, and Filmstrip.
01112.book Page 77 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To display the Keyframe Editor, do one of the following: Choose Window > Keyframe Editor. m Press Command+8. m If the Timing pane is already visible, click the Keyframe Editor tab at the top of the pane. The Parameter List The left side of the Keyframe Editor contains a list of parameters. You can choose which parameters are displayed in the list and set keyframing functions in the Animation menu. You can also create custom sets of parameters.
01112.book Page 78 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Name: Lists the name of the object and its parameters. Value: Displays the value for the current playhead position for that parameter. You can drag in the value field to set new keyframe values, or double-click in the field and type a new value. For more information, see “Keyframes and Curves” on page 401. Animation menu: The last column contains a pop-up menu to control animation and keyframing attributes for that parameter.
01112.book Page 79 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animation Menu States Depending on the current condition of the parameter, the Animation menu displays a different icon. The following table shows the Animation menu icons. Icon Name Description No Keyframes The parameter has no associated keyframes. Keyframing Active Keyframing is active on this parameter but the playhead is not currently positioned on a keyframe.
01112.book Page 80 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Ruler At the top of the keyframe graph is a ruler which provides a gauge for the positions and durations of the keyframes and curves. The ruler is identical to the one in the Timeline. For more information on working with the ruler, see “The Timeline Ruler” on page 74.
01112.book Page 81 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Control Buttons In the lower-left corner of the Keyframe Editor, four buttons provide additional control over the Keyframe Editor window: Snapping, “Show audio waveform,” “Fit curves,” and “Clear curve list.” Show audio waveform Snapping Clear curve list Fit curves Snapping: When snapping is enabled, keyframes snap to other keyframes, markers, grid points, and other snappable items.
01112.book Page 82 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Audio Editor The Audio Editor provides a view of your audio elements over time. You can view and modify the level and pan information for the audio files in your project. You can also view the audio waveforms of your objects. In many ways, the Audio Editor is simply a specialized Keyframe Editor just for audio. For more on using the Audio Editor, see “Working With Audio” on page 877.
01112.book Page 83 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Playback Controls The playback controls in the Audio Editor do not control playback in the Canvas. This allows you to listen to the audio component of your project without being distracted by (or slowed down by) the visual component. Use marked region Snap Jump to start Play/Pause Current Frame Jump to start: Moves the playhead to the beginning of the audio clip or to the beginning of the marked region (if the Use Marked Region button is on).
01112.book Page 84 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To change the object end time, do one of the following: Drag the center of the Out control. Dragging to the right advances, and dragging to the left rewinds. m Click the increment or decrement arrows at the side of the Out control to move forward or backward by one frame. m Click the Out field and type a new number into the value field. Level Control The third row contains controls to adjust and keyframe the selected file’s level.
01112.book Page 85 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Pan Control The fourth row contains controls to adjust and animate the selected file’s pan setting (left-right balance). Activation checkbox: Turns the keyframe graph on and off. It does not disable existing pan settings or prevent you from making new settings. Pan slider: Controls the left-right balance of the object. If the playhead is currently positioned on a keyframe, the slider controls the pan setting of that keyframe.
01112.book Page 86 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Audio Editor Keyframe Graph The remainder of the window contains the keyframe graph. This area contains the curves and keyframes for the level and pan of the selected object. Keyframes appear as diamonds, and curves appear as solid lines. Areas before the first keyframe and after the last keyframe are represented with dotted lines. The waveform of the selected object is displayed behind the curves.
01112.book Page 87 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Markers can be added to your project to identify an important frame or range of frames. For more information on creating and using markers, see “Adding Markers” on page 312. Note: The playhead in the Audio Editor is not the same as the playhead in the Timeline and the Canvas. The Audio Editor playhead shows the position within the selected object rather than the position within the entire project.
01112.book Page 88 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The File Browser The File Browser is a view of all of the files on your computer. Navigating the File Browser is similar to navigating a window in the Finder. You can drag items directly from the File Browser into your project. The Preview Area The top area of the File Browser contains a preview of the selected object.
01112.book Page 89 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Sidebar The middle section of the File Browser contains navigational controls as well as a list of servers, drives, and folders available on your computer. Path pop-up menu View buttons Search field Forward/Back buttons Clicking a drive or folder in the Sidebar displays its contents in the file stack below. Above the list of drive and folder icons in the Sidebar are several controls to navigate and sort the contents of the window.
01112.book Page 90 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can Control-click an object in the File Browser stack to display a shortcut menu. For most items, the following options are available in the menu: Open in Viewer: This option opens the file in a Viewer window. Open in QuickTime Player: This option opens the file in a QuickTime window. Reveal in Finder: This option displays the location of the file in the Finder.
01112.book Page 91 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Organizing Your Files You can organize the files and folders displayed in the File Browser just as you manipulate files in the Finder. You can move objects in and out of folders and create new folders. All of the changes you make to your file structure from within Motion are reflected in the Finder. m m To create a new folder: Click the “Create new folder” button at the bottom of the window.
01112.book Page 92 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In icon view, you can control the size of the icons using the Size slider at the bottom of the window. m To change the icon size: Drag the icon size slider. Dragging to the right enlarges the icons while dragging to the left shrinks them. In list view, the contents of the selected folder are displayed as a series of columns. The columns are Name, Date, Size, Duration, and Kind.
01112.book Page 93 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To import a series of numbered still images as a single object: 1 Click the “Show collapsed image sequences” button. This changes the view in the File Browser to see the multiple items collapsed into a single object. 2 Drag the object from the File Browser to the Canvas, Layers tab, Timeline, or Media tab. Note: Images from digital cameras are often numbered sequentially but are not part of an animation sequence.
01112.book Page 94 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To play a preview of an effect such as a generator: Click the object you want to preview. The preview starts playing. To apply an effect: 1 Select the object to which you want to apply the effect. 2 Select the effect in the Library. 3 Click the Apply button in the Preview area. The effect is added to the object. You can also drag the effect from the Library directly to the object.
01112.book Page 95 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Search: Filters the contents of the file stack to include only those objects whose names contain the text you type into the Search field. Note: Folders containing no matches are filtered out. m To clear the Search field: Click the Clear button in the body of the Search field. Library Content The Library contains all of the effects, presets, fonts, and other content available within Motion.
01112.book Page 96 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Text Styles: Contains a collection of preset type styles that can be applied to text objects. Music: This Library category allows you to browse for and import audio files directly from your iTunes library. The Music subcategories include the library and any playlists created in iTunes. The contents of each playlist appear in the file stack.
01112.book Page 97 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Organizing Your Effects You can organize the effects and folders displayed in the Library just as you manipulate files in the Finder. You can move objects in and out of folders, create new folders, and even delete some files or folders. Note: You cannot modify the objects and folders that are built in to Motion. m To create a new folder: Click the “Create new folder” button at the bottom of the window.
01112.book Page 98 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Inspector Every effect in Motion, from behaviors to particle systems to gradients, is controlled by a collection of parameters that modify the various attributes for that effect. For example, a Blur filter has an amount slider that controls how much blur is applied. Some parameters are controlled with sliders, some with dials or pop-up menus. In fact, there are thousands of parameters using 11 types of controls.
01112.book Page 99 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Control Control type Description Slider Perhaps the most basic type of control, dragging the thumb of a slider changes the value of the parameter. Typically, dragging to the right increases the value and dragging to the left decreases the value. An example of a parameter that uses a slider is Scale. You can Option-click to the left or right of the slider marker to decrease or increase by a value of 1.
01112.book Page 100 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Control Control type Description Color well The box you click to open the Colors window. You can also Control-click to pick a color from the pop-up color palette (pictured), or click the disclosure triangle to manipulate the individual R, G, B, and A sliders. An example of a color well is Drop Shadow Color. Gradient Editor Allows you to select a preset gradient style or create a new one.
01112.book Page 101 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Library Presets: Some parameter settings such as Gradients and Type Styles are so complex that they are commonly stored in presets. Whenever you see the Style Preset pop-up menu, you can save that particular parameter (or set of parameters) into a preset in the Library. Style Preset pop-up menu For example, the Text Style pane has a Style Preset pop-up menu at the top of the parameter list that allows you to save styles, formats, or both.
01112.book Page 102 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Click the Animation menu to display a pop-up menu filled with animation controls. Enable/Disable Animation: Remains unavailable until keyframing is applied to the parameter, either by using the Record button or by adding a keyframe. Once the parameter is animated, the menu item is automatically renamed Disable Animation. Activating it at that point effectively hides the keyframes you have set, restoring the parameter to its default value.
01112.book Page 103 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Inspector Tabs The parameters in the Inspector are grouped into four categories. Properties: This tab contains basic attributes about the selected object, such as Transformation (position, scale, rotation, and so on), Blending (opacity, blend mode, and so on), Drop Shadow controls, Crop Controls, and the object’s In and Out points.
01112.book Page 104 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Mask: Appears when a mask object is selected. The only keyframeable attribute is • • • • • the Feather (softness) parameter, but you can also control the mask type and how multiple masks interact by setting the Mask Blend Mode. For more on working with mask attributes, see “Mask Parameters” on page 854. Shape: Appears when a shape object is selected. Controls include the shape type, fill and outline colors, and textures.
01112.book Page 105 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Dashboard The Dashboard is one of the most versatile and handy tools in the Motion interface. It is a dynamically updating floating window that puts the most common controls for any selected object within easy reach. The Dashboard also contains special controls for certain types of effects such as Basic Motion behaviors and particle systems. These unique controls allow you to set multiple parameters simultaneously and in an intuitive way.
01112.book Page 106 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Choosing Control Sets The Dashboard can show a variety of controls, even for a single object. For example, if you had a shape with an applied blur filter and a Throw behavior, the Dashboard could conceivably show either the shape controls, the blur controls, or the Throw controls. In fact, it shows all three. You can choose between which set of controls to view in the Dashboard using the pop-up menu in the title bar.
01112.book Page 107 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To jump to the Inspector from the Dashboard: Click the Inspector icon (“i”) in the upper-right corner of the Dashboard. The Inspector appears and the tab corresponding to the Dashboard controls is brought to the front. Preferences Motion Preferences allow you to customize your workspace, tailor the interface for different types of projects, and define the presets for new projects and for exporting finished movies.
01112.book Page 108 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Open Last Project(s): Any projects that were open when the program was last quit are reopened. This allows a continuity of work across sessions. Create New Project: This command opens a new empty project. If a default preset has not been chosen, the Preset selection dialog appears. Show Welcome Screen: This is the default setting.
01112.book Page 109 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM LiveFonts These settings determine how LiveFonts are cached (stored) by Motion. Cache intermediate LiveFont sizes: This checkbox enables or disables caching of LiveFont data. This option is on by default, as it improves performance if you frequently use LiveFonts. Cache Path: If you choose to cache your LiveFont data, you can choose where you want to save it.
01112.book Page 110 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Thumbnail Preview The thumbnails that appear in the Utility window can provide helpful information about the objects selected in that window. For objects that are partially transparent, you can set the background that appears behind the image. Choose from either Checkerboard or Color. Checkerboard: This is the default setting. It displays a checkerboard pattern where transparent pixels appear.
01112.book Page 111 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Display Color As: Choose among three styles for displaying the color data. • RGB: This setting displays the red, green, and blue values of each pixel in ranges of 0–255. • RGB (percent): This setting displays the red, green, and blue values of each pixel in ranges of 1–100. • HSV: This setting displays the color as hue, saturation, and value (brightness) where hue is a value from 1–360, and saturation and value are ranged from 1–100.
01112.book Page 112 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Project Duration: Sets the default duration for new projects. You can type a number into the value field in either frames or seconds by choosing from the pop-up menu. Background Color: Sets the color and opacity of the background for the project. This color is rendered into the final movie when you output your project. By default, the background color opacity is set to 0 percent.
01112.book Page 113 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: For more information on the differences between the Large Still options, see “Using High Resolution Still Images” on page 165. Playback Control These settings control how Motion plays back your project. Time View Updating: When the Timing pane is visible, you can set the view to automatically move along with your project’s playback.
01112.book Page 114 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To store auto-saved projects in a specific location: 1 Choose Motion > Preferences (or press Command+,). 2 Click Project. 3 In the Autosave group, turn on Use Autosave vault. By default, the Autosave Vault folder is located in a folder called Motion Documents in your Documents folder in your home directory. m To set a new location for the Autosave vault: Click Choose and select a new location in the sheet.
01112.book Page 115 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Canvas This pane contains settings to customize your Canvas view. Background This setting allows you to choose a color for the background of your Canvas—the color outside of the project boundaries. This color is not exported with your project, but only acts as a guide for helping identify transparent and colored objects.
01112.book Page 116 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Ruler Location: This pop-up menu sets the position of the ruler in the Canvas. Choose from Top Left, Bottom Left, Top Right, or Bottom Right. Safe Zone Safe Zones are special guides to help you avoid putting objects in areas of the screen that might not appear correctly on consumer television sets. Objects that appear outside the Action Safe region may be cut off. The area outside the Title Safe region may have distortions that make text hard to read.
01112.book Page 117 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Output The Output Preferences pane tells Motion to render the contents of the Canvas out to a video deck or monitor connected to your computer via FireWire or another port. External Video These settings control how Motion plays your project directly to a video deck or monitor connected to your computer. Video Output: Set this pop-up menu to match the type of device connected to the monitor.
01112.book Page 118 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: For example, a 720p frame (1280 x 720) showing in raw mode on an 800 x 600 display only shows 800 x 600 of the image. To view Motion video output on a computer display connected to your computer: 1 Choose Motion> Preferences. 2 In the Output settings, choose one of the display options from the Video Output popup menu. Options: When a Video Output module is turned on, the Options button becomes active.
01112.book Page 119 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Presets The Presets Preferences pane contains presets for both project settings and export settings. In this pane, you can choose defaults, as well as create, modify, and delete settings. The default project preset determines the settings assigned when you create a new project. You can change any of these settings while you are working by opening the Project Properties window (choose Edit > Project Properties).
01112.book Page 120 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing Presets To make changes to a preset, click the Edit button to open the Project Preset Editor and enter the changes in that window. Locked presets cannot be edited. If you attempt to edit one, a duplicate copy is made and your edits are applied to the duplicate. m m To open the Project Preset Editor, do one of the following: Double-click an unlocked preset in the Preset list. Select an item in the Preset list and click the Edit button.
01112.book Page 121 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Export Options Dialog When you double-click an export preset, the Export Options dialog opens. This is where you edit the contents of the export presets. Name: This editable field contains the name for the preset. Description: Contains descriptive text to identify the preset. This text appears in the Summary box in the Preset Preferences pane. Beneath the Name and Description fields, there are two tabs, Video/Audio and Output.
01112.book Page 122 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Add spaces: When generating image sequences, clicking the Add Spaces checkbox causes extra spaces to be added to the filenames to ensure that the sequence of files is read in proper order by some other applications. Advanced: The Advanced button is only active for QuickTime movies. Clicking this button opens the standard compression settings dialog. In most cases, you should not need to make any changes in this dialog.
01112.book Page 123 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gestures The Gestures Preferences pane contains settings pertaining to using a tablet to control Motion. You cannot turn on gestures in Motion unless you have a tablet attached to your computer and the Handwriting Recognition is turned on in the Ink preferences in System Preferences. For convenience, you can open Ink Preferences directly from the Gestures Preferences pane by clicking the Open Ink Preferences button.
01112.book Page 124 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Menus The Motion menu bar provides access to nearly every control in the application. Many menu items are context sensitive, so they are dimmed when the command cannot be performed based on the current state of the program or what is selected. This section serves as a reference guide for all menus. Many of these commands have shortcut keys that perform the same command from the keyboard. These shortcuts are listed in parentheses after the description.
01112.book Page 125 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The File Menu This menu contains functions and commands that deal with files on your disk that are associated with Motion. New: Creates a new Motion document (Command+N). Open: Opens a dialog from which you can choose a Motion project to open (Command+O). Open Template: Displays the Template Browser, from which you can choose one of the built-in templates that come bundled with Motion (Shift+Command+O).
01112.book Page 126 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Export using Compressor: Outputs your current project to a file on disk using Compressor to make MPEG 2, MPEG 4, or other files for web, DVD, or other computerbased delivery (Shift+Command+E). Reconnect Media: When an object in your project refers to a file on disk that has been moved or modified, this command allows you to reestablish that link. This menu item is not active unless an object that has lost its reference file is selected.
01112.book Page 127 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Delete: Removes the current selected object. In the Timeline, Delete leaves a gap where the object was (Delete). Ripple Delete: Removes the selected object and closes the gap left behind (in the Timeline) (Shift+Delete). Insert Time: Adds blank space into the Timeline. You can only use Insert Time after selecting a time range in the Timeline ruler. For more information on time ranges, see “Defining the Play Range” on page 308.
01112.book Page 128 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Mark In: This command does two different things. If no object is selected, it sets the beginning frame of the play range to the current playhead position. If an object is selected, it trims the In point for that object to the current playhead frame (I). Mark Out: This command does two different things. If no object is selected, it sets the ending frame of the play range to the current playhead position.
01112.book Page 129 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Recording Options: Opens the Recording Options dialog where you can set the granularity of keyframe recording. The Go to Submenu This submenu contains all of the different commands to navigate to a particular frame within your project. All of these commands move your playhead to a new location. Project Start: Moves the playhead to the first frame of the project (Home). Project End: Moves the playhead to the last frame of the project (End).
01112.book Page 130 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Selection: Renders the range of time occupied by the selected objects and stores the frames in RAM. Once the frames are stored, the region plays back at full speed (Option+Command+R). All: Renders the entire project and stores the frames in RAM. Once the frames are stored, the region plays back at full speed (Shift+Option+Command+R). Clear RAM Preview: Clears the RAM cache.
01112.book Page 131 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Align Vertical Centers: Lines up the selected objects on their vertical center points. Distribute Lefts: Spreads the selected objects evenly between the leftmost and rightmost objects based on their left edges. Distribute Rights: Spreads the selected objects evenly between the leftmost and rightmost objects based on their right edges. Distribute Tops: Spreads the selected objects evenly between the topmost and bottommost objects based on their top edges.
01112.book Page 132 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Add Image Mask: Adds a mask to the selected object (Shift+Command+M). Convert to Keyframes: This command can only be chosen when the selected object(s) have behaviors applied. All behaviors are reproduced as keyframes on the parameters that they affect (Command+K). Make Particles: Uses the selected object as a cell source for a new particle emitter (E). Replicate: Replicates the selected object (L).
01112.book Page 133 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Correct for Aspect Ratio: Adjusts the display of the Canvas to simulate the non-square pixels that appear on a TV monitor. Preview for Float Bit Depth: When working in float space, turning this setting off drops the preview in the Canvas to 8-bit. Since working in float space drastically increases processing time, turn this setting off to speed your workflow. This setting does not modify the actual output of the project.
01112.book Page 134 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Field Rendering: Turns off field rendering to improve performance. When field rendering is enabled, a checkmark appears beside the menu item (Option+F). Motion Blur: Turns off motion blur rendering to improve performance. When motion blur rendering is enabled, a checkmark appears beside the menu item (Option+M). Show Rulers: Turns display of rulers in the Canvas on and off.
01112.book Page 135 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Lines: Turns the display of object border lines on and off. Handles must also be turned on in order to view lines. When lines are displayed, a checkmark appears beside the menu item. Animation Path: Turns display of animation paths on and off. Animation paths are the lines that show where an object moves in the Canvas. Handles must also be turned on in order to view animation paths.
01112.book Page 136 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Layouts Submenu This submenu is where you can choose from existing window layouts. Choose one of the layouts from the submenu to rearrange your windows to that pre-saved state. For more on managing window layouts, see “Window Arrangements” on page 21. Create Locked Inspector: Creates a new Inspector window that doesn’t update based on selection. This way you can have two (or more) inspectors to compare parameters across multiple objects.
01112.book Page 137 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Keyframe Editor: Toggles the display of the Keyframe Editor. If the Timing pane is not visible, this command causes it to appear. If the Keyframe Editor is the only tab in the Timing pane, this command closes the pane (Command+8). Audio Editor: Toggles the display of the Audio Editor. If the Timing pane is not visible, this command causes it to appear. If the Audio Editor is the only tab in the Timing pane, this command closes the pane (Command+9).
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01112.book Page 139 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Creating and Managing Projects 2 Learn how to create, save, and manage project files. In addition, learn how different kinds of objects are put together inside a project to create a composition. A project file consists of a single composition that you are working on. Project files contain objects, which are linked references to source media files on disk, but they contain no media themselves.
01112.book Page 140 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each project has a single group of project properties that define the duration of the project, the size of the Canvas, the frame rate of playback, and other details that affect how your composition is formatted. Later, when you have finished your project and you’re ready to export it, the project properties you select define the media file that is created.
01112.book Page 141 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Create New Project: Opens the Select Project Preset window, allowing you to pick a preset to use to create a new, blank project file. If a default project preset is set, this window does not appear. Show Welcome Screen: Shows the Welcome Screen every time Motion is opened. Browse Templates: Opens the Template Browser, allowing you to pick a template to use.
01112.book Page 142 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 When the Template Browser appears, use the Show pop-up menu to see templates that have been optimized for a specific video format, including NTSC, PAL or HD. (You can also choose to show All formats, or Other formats.) Show pop-up menu Preview area Project description appears here. Project properties appear here. 3 The collection list shows all templates of the selected type. Click a template collection to display its contents at the right.
01112.book Page 143 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Since you can have as many open project files in Motion as the amount of RAM in your computer supports, you can create a new project at any time without having to close projects that are already open. To create a new project: 1 Choose File > New (or press Command+N). 2 Choose a preset from the pop-up menu, then click OK. A new project window is created. It is not saved to disk until you choose a save command from the File menu.
01112.book Page 144 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The General Tab The General tab allows you to define the most essential properties of the project you’re creating. By choosing different parameters, you can accommodate nearly any video or film format you need to output to. These properties are the default settings used when you export your project to create the final output file. Preset: The Preset pop-up menu appears at the top of the General tab.
01112.book Page 145 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM A grayscale image comprises image pixels with 256 levels of gray. Each pixel requires 8 bits to represent the 256 shades of gray. Therefore, the bit depth of a grayscale image is 8 (28 = 256). An RGB image can comprise image pixels with 256 shades of each of the primary colors—red, green, and blue. In this case, there are 28 (256) shades of each color component. This creates more than 16.7 million possible colors (256 x 256 x 256 > 16.7 million).
01112.book Page 146 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Pixel Aspect Ratio: Defines whether the project is created using square or nonsquare pixels. Computer displays, film, and high-definition video use square pixels, while standard-definition video uses nonsquare pixels. Choose Square for projects intended for the web, high-definition projects, and film, or one of the nonsquare pixel ratios corresponding to each international standard-definition broadcast standard.
01112.book Page 147 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Render Settings Tab The Render Settings tab contains parameters that affect how Motion renders the objects and animation in your project. These settings can affect how your project looks when exported. Motion Blur: Simulates the effect a camera’s mechanical shutter has on a frame of film or video when either the camera or its subject is moving. In Motion, motion blur affects objects in your project that are animated using behaviors or keyframes.
01112.book Page 148 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The following image shows a shape that has been keyframed to move quickly across the Canvas horizontally. In the next image, Motion Blur is enabled and Samples is set to the default value of 8. Note: When using larger Shutter Angle values, it may be necessary to increase the Samples value to eliminate unwanted artifacts. • Shutter Angle: Defines the size of the motion blur that appears for animated objects.
01112.book Page 149 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Normal: The default method, Normal is a fairly quick way to render high-quality transformation effects. • Best: This method is slower, but it produces the smoothest results. Best is the recommended setting for projects that include thin lines. Once you’ve set the motion blur parameters you want to use in your project, you need to turn on motion blur separately.
01112.book Page 150 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Creating, Editing, and Deleting Presets If you commonly create projects using custom settings that don’t match any of the available presets, you can create a new preset with these settings for future use. Presets are created, modified, and deleted in the Presets pane of Motion Preferences. To create a new custom preset: 1 Choose Motion > Preferences (or press Command+,). 2 In the Presets pane, choose Project Presets from the Show pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 151 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Enter a frame size into the Width and Height fields. • Choose a Pixel Aspect Ratio, Field Order, and Frame Rate from the corresponding pop-up menus. 5 Click OK. 6 If you’re done creating new project presets, close the Preferences window. Note: For more information on industry-standard frame sizes, pixel aspect ratios, field order, and frame rates, see “Video and File Formats” on page 941.
01112.book Page 152 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Moving Presets Between Computers Each preset you create is saved as a separate file. If you’ve created one or more custom presets that you rely on, you may want to move them to other computers you use that have Motion installed. All user-created presets are stored in the Home/Library/ Application Support/Motion/Presets/Project folder.
01112.book Page 153 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To save a duplicate of a project: 1 Choose File > Save As (or press Shift+Command+S). The Save As sheet drops down from the title bar. 2 Type a new name into the Save As field, choose a location on your hard drive, then click Save. Important: When using the Save As command, it’s important to use a name that is different from the name of any previously saved versions of the same project.
01112.book Page 154 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To set a new location for the Autosave vault: Click Choose and select a new location in the sheet. To revert to an autosaved project: 1 Choose File > Restore From Autosave. The Restore Project sheet appears. 2 Choose a saved project from the pop-up menu. Reverting Projects The Revert command discards all changes you’ve made to a project since the last time you saved it.
01112.book Page 155 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To open one or more project files in the Finder, do one of the following: Double-click a Motion project file. Motion automatically opens with that project. m Select one or more Motion project files, then drag them onto the Motion application icon either in the Applications folder or in the Dock, if you’ve placed one there. m Select one or more Motion project files, then choose File > Open (or press Command+O) in the Finder.
01112.book Page 156 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To clear the Open Recent submenu: Choose File > Open Recent > Clear Menu. Managing Multiple Open Projects Each open project is self-contained in its own window, and each has its own Layers, Media, Audio, Timeline, Keyframe, and Audio Editor tabs. You can use the Exposé All Windows command to see all open project windows at once. For more information on how to use Exposé, see Mac Help, available in the Finder Help menu.
01112.book Page 157 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: If you move a project to another computer, its media may go offline even though you’ve moved its media files along with it. For more information on how to relink media files to your project, see “Online vs. Offline Media” on page 181.
01112.book Page 158 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM It’s important to understand that changing the size of the Canvas in no way changes the size or position of any objects already placed within it. Furthermore, since the coordinate system used by Motion uses 0, 0 as the center of the frame, all objects remain arranged in their current positions relative to the center of the frame as the edge of the frame shrinks toward the center.
01112.book Page 159 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Navigation Controls in the File Browser Preview area Forward/Back buttons Path pop-up menu View buttons Search field Sidebar File stack New Folder button Scale slider Show Collapsed Image Sequences button File Browser Sidebar: This area of the File Browser displays all the hard disks and removable media currently connected to your computer. You can also access networked volumes.
01112.book Page 160 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM File stack: Located beneath the File Browser Sidebar, the file stack displays all the files and folders within the currently selected disk in the Sidebar. Clicking a folder opens its contents into the file stack, replacing the previously displayed contents. You can navigate up and down the current folder hierarchy using the Back and Forward buttons and the Path pop-up menu. The file stack can be toggled between list view and icon view.
01112.book Page 161 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Folders in this list can be opened hierarchically, using the disclosure triangle to the left of each folder’s icon, or they can be double-clicked to replace the current contents of the file stack with the contents of that folder. Icon view List view Scale slider: When in icon view, this slider enlarges or reduces the size of all icons displayed in the file stack.
01112.book Page 162 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Different Methods of Browsing, Searching, and Previewing Files This section contains procedures you can use to look for and preview files using the controls in the File Browser. m m m m m To browse the contents of a disk, do one of the following: Click the disk’s icon in the File Browser Sidebar. Press the Up and Down Arrow keys to move up and down the Sidebar list.
01112.book Page 163 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m m To clear the search results: Click the Clear button at the far right of the Search field to restore the contents of the file stack to the previously selected file path. To preview a file: Select any supported media file in the file stack. The Preview area updates with a thumbnail and additional text information about that file.
01112.book Page 164 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM QuickTime Movies Motion supports QuickTime movies using any codec currently installed on your computer. Examples of QuickTime movies you can import include clips captured with Final Cut Express HD or Final Cut Pro, stock footage from a CD-ROM or DVD collection, or computer-generated animation from a 3D animation package.
01112.book Page 165 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using High Resolution Still Images A common and effective use of still images in motion graphics work is the animation of high resolution files. The DPI of image files as defined in programs like Photoshop does not apply to video, as the dimensions of each imported still image are defined simply by the number of pixels.
01112.book Page 166 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the following example, an 1146 x 756 image is imported into an NTSC D1 project (720 x 486) with Do Nothing selected in the Preferences. The image is much larger than the Canvas. Scale to Canvas Size: Imports and scales the image to fit the project size while maintaining its aspect ratio. In the following example, a 760 x 1150 JPEG image is imported into an NTSC D1 project with Scale to Canvas Size selected in the Preferences.
01112.book Page 167 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The image is scaled—the equivalent of using the Transform tool to scale down the image in the Canvas while pressing Shift. To observe that the image is merely transformed and has not changed resolution, select the image file in the Media tab of the Project pane, and then display the Media tab Inspector. The Fixed Width and Fixed Height parameters display the resolution of the original file. The original image resolution remains unchanged.
01112.book Page 168 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The Down-Res to Canvas Size option is the best choice for optimizing your process time. When you use Scale to Canvas Size, Motion must calculate the scale at each frame. In the following example, a 760 x 1141 JPEG image is imported into an NTSC D1 project with Down-Res to Canvas Size selected in the Preferences. The image looks identical to an image that is scaled on import.
01112.book Page 169 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Still Image Duration When you first import a still image into your project, it assumes a duration equal to the current duration of your project. Increasing the duration of your project does not automatically increase the duration of an image that’s already been imported. Still images have infinite duration in Motion, so you can stretch them out in the Timeline to be as long as you need.
01112.book Page 170 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can turn this feature off in case you have numbered image files that aren’t supposed to be used as an image sequence. For example, pictures taken with digital cameras often have numbered filenames that can be mistaken for an image sequence. Layered Photoshop Files You can also import layered Photoshop files.
01112.book Page 171 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The practical difference between bitmap files and PostScript-based files is that scaling a bitmap beyond 100 percent results in the image progressively softening the more you increase its size. PostScript-based illustrations remain sharp and clear no matter how large or how small you scale them. When importing a PDF file, its size is relative to the original page size of the file.
01112.book Page 172 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Mixed Content Within PDF Files Although PDF files can simultaneously contain PostScript-based art, PostScript text, and bitmapped graphics, all of these types of image data do not scale the same. PostScriptbased art and text scale smoothly, but bitmapped graphics that are embedded in a PDF file are subject to the same scaling issues as any other bitmapped graphics format. As a result, they may soften if scaled larger than their original size.
01112.book Page 173 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM More About Alpha Channels Ordinary video clips and image files have three channels of information, one each for the red, green, and blue channels. Many video and image file formats also support an alpha channel, which contains additional information that defines areas of transparency.
01112.book Page 174 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM From within Motion, you can select an audio file and open Soundtrack Pro to modify the audio file. Once saved in Soundtrack Pro, the file is automatically updated in Motion. For more information, see “Using Soundtrack Pro With Motion” on page 897. You can freely import audio clips with different sample rates and bit depths. When you do, Motion resamples any audio tracks that need it to the sample rate and bit depth currently in use by your computer.
01112.book Page 175 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Unlike applications such as iMovie HD, where sections you remove from clips are also deleted from disk, Motion is a nondestructive application. This means that any changes you make to media objects in a Motion project aren’t actually applied to the media files they’re linked to. Because of this link, whenever you add a file to your project, you need to make sure it remains available on your hard disk for as long as you’re working on that project.
01112.book Page 176 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • In list view, click to the left of any object’s thumbnail, then drag up or down to select multiple consecutive objects. • In list view, press Shift and use the Up and Down Arrow keys to add objects to the current selection. Adding Files to Your Project The following procedures apply to adding every file type compatible with Motion.
01112.book Page 177 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 To nest the selected files underneath an existing layer, do one of the following: • Drag the selected files on top of any layer in the Layers tab. The objects appear at the top of the group of objects nested within that layer. • Drag the selected files between any objects that are already nested in a layer. A position indicator shows the new position that the objects occupy when you release the mouse button.
01112.book Page 178 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Import Merged Layers: All layers of the Photoshop file are collapsed into a single object. Import All Layers: A new layer is created and nested within the currently selected layer. Each layer of the Photoshop file appears as an individual object nested within this layer. You can also import individual layers from the Photoshop file. Each layer in the selected Photoshop file appears as a separate item in the drop menu.
01112.book Page 179 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Do one of the following: • In the Preview area, click Apply. • Drag the audio file to the Canvas, Project pane, or audio area of the Timeline (not the Audio Editor). Note: Rights-protected AAC files cannot be imported into Motion and do not appear in the file stack. This includes all music purchased from the iTunes store. For more information on working with audio files, see “Working With Audio” on page 877.
01112.book Page 180 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You Only Need to Add Files From the File Browser Once If you need more copies of an object in your project, either duplicate them directly in the Canvas using the Duplicate command, or drag an object from the Media tab to the Canvas or Timeline to create a new corresponding instance of that object.
01112.book Page 181 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Online vs. Offline Media As mentioned earlier, adding an object to a Motion project creates a link between the object in your project and its corresponding media file on disk. When you delete, move, or rename files on disk that are linked to objects in Motion, those files go offline, meaning that they’re temporarily unavailable to your project.
01112.book Page 182 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To cancel an active search: 1 Click Cancel. The manual reconnection sheet is displayed. 2 In the sheet, navigate to the file’s location, then click Open. To reconnect the media files in this list using Reconnect: 1 Click Reconnect. 2 In the manual reconnection sheet, navigate to the file’s location, then click Open.
01112.book Page 183 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 Click the Replace Media File button that appears underneath the Linked Objects parameter. Motion attempts to automatically find the first missing file in the list. If it is found, a file sheet appears with the missing media file selected. 5 Click Open to reconnect it. Note: You can also use the File > Reconnect Media command. The offline object comes online, and the original graphic appears.
01112.book Page 184 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Exchanging Media in a Project You can exchange any object in your project with a different object in the File Browser or Library. This breaks that object’s original source file link and creates a new link to the file you’re exchanging.
01112.book Page 185 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To replace an object in the Media tab: 1 Select the object you want to replace in the Media tab. 2 In the Inspector, click the Media tab. 3 Click Replace Media File. 4 In the “Choose replacement for” dialog, navigate to the file you want to use to replace the current source media. 5 Click Open. The new object replaces the current object in the Media tab along with all instances of the object in your project.
01112.book Page 186 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Straight: Straight alpha channels are kept completely separate from the red, green, • • • • and blue channels of an image. Media files using straight alpha channels appear perfectly fine when used in a composition, but they may look odd when viewed in another application. Translucent effects such as volumetric lighting or lens flares in a computer-generated image may appear distorted until the clip is used in a composition.
01112.book Page 187 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Field Order: When importing interlaced video, choose the field order with which the clips were captured. This should match the field order of the device used for capture. The interlacing is either Upper (Odd) or Lower (Even). If you choose incorrectly, you’ll notice immediately upon playback that the video appears to “stutter,” because the order of fields is accidentally reversed.
01112.book Page 188 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: For information on creating a freeze frame, see “Creating a Freeze or Hold Frame” on page 300. Reverse: Reverses the playback of video objects. Crop: A multidimensional parameter that defines a number of pixels to be cropped from each of an object’s four sides, relative to the outer edge of the bounding box that surrounds that object. Cropping an object in the Media tab also crops all instances of that object that appear in your project.
01112.book Page 189 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Media in the Library Motion ships with a collection of media and effects objects that you can use in your projects. The Library shares many controls and window panes with the File Browser. Both tabs are designed for the navigation of media that you want to add to your project. In general, all the controls work identically to those found in the File Browser, but the organization of listed media is different.
01112.book Page 190 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Generators have all the property parameters belonging to other objects. Properties specific to each generator also appear in the Generator tab of the Inspector whenever a generator is selected. You can also save customized versions of generators in the Library for future use. For more information about the generators available in Motion, see “Working With Generators” on page 795.
01112.book Page 191 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can use the font categories to preview the fonts that are available on your computer. You can also drag fonts and LiveFonts onto text objects to change the typeface they use. For more information about using fonts with text objects, see “Using the Library Font Browser” on page 464. Text Styles Text styles are presets that can be applied to text objects in your project to instantly change their style parameters.
01112.book Page 192 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Favorites and the Favorites Menu It’s easy to customize the behaviors, filters, particle systems, gradients, and generators used in Motion to create your own effects. These customized objects are saved into their corresponding categories. The Favorites category provides a place to put objects—built-in or custom-made—that you frequently use. You can also place frequently used media files into the Favorites, such as PDF or TIFF files.
01112.book Page 193 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To add a media object to the Favorites category: Drag a media object from the Layers or Media tab, or from the File Browser, into the Favorites folder in the Library. When adding your own content, you can create additional folders to add subcategories that appear in the subcategory column. To create a new subcategory within any category: 1 Open the Library and select a category. 2 Click the New Folder button (+) at the bottom of the Library.
01112.book Page 194 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Organizing Layers and Objects in Motion Motion projects are made up of a hierarchy of layers and objects. Understanding how to manage this hierarchy is central to learning how to assemble a new project. Objects are the smallest unit of media in Motion. Each QuickTime file and graphics file you use in a Motion project is represented by an object in the Canvas, Layers and Media tabs, and Timeline. Objects are always nested inside layers.
01112.book Page 195 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Any layer can contain multiple objects nested inside it. A layer can also contain other layers nested inside it. In this way, you can construct complex hierarchies of nested layers and objects, with each nested group of objects subordinate to the layer that contains it, and that nested layer subordinate to the layer that contains it, up until the topmost layer.
01112.book Page 196 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Moving the selection in the Canvas moves all three objects simultaneously. Before moving layer After moving layer Regardless of how they’re nested, individual objects can always be animated independently. Subordinate layers can also be animated independently, although such animation and effects also affect all objects or layers that are nested underneath.
01112.book Page 197 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: In this example, each object’s anchor point has been moved to the appropriate axis of rotation for that object. For more information about changing an object’s anchor point, see “Changing an Object’s Anchor Point” on page 234. Both arms and both legs are also made up of a hierarchy of nested body parts. It then follows that these nested groups of objects, which connect to the torso, are themselves nested inside the Mannequin layer.
01112.book Page 198 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM With all of these objects organized this way, animating the figure becomes easy. For example, if you want to move the entire arm at once, you only need to select the Left Arm layer, regardless of how many objects are nested within it. Selecting the Left Arm layer selects all objects within it. Then, rotate the selection in the Canvas. Every object nested within that layer rotates as a single item.
01112.book Page 199 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Another example of how you might make use of the object/layer hierarchy can be seen through the application of filters and behaviors. If you apply a filter to a single object within a layer, it affects only that object. All other objects within the layer remain unaffected.
01112.book Page 200 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: If you intend to export your project with a premultiplied alpha channel, be aware that most alpha channels are rendered against either white or black. Background Opacity: A slider that adjusts the opacity of the background. Setting this value to 100 percent makes the background completely solid—no transparency appears in the resulting image when it is exported.
01112.book Page 201 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To move an object up or down within a layer: 1 In the Layers list, click anywhere on the object or layer row, and hold the mouse button down. 2 Drag the object or layer up or down in the list. A position indicator appears to show the new position the selection occupies when you release the mouse button. Note: You can also use the Bring and Send commands in the Object menu to move objects up and down in the nested hierarchy within any layer.
01112.book Page 202 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Nesting Layers Inside Other Layers In addition to nesting objects inside layers, you can also nest layers inside other layers. You might do this if you’re creating an object hierarchy to control the relationship of one group of objects to another, or if you’re grouping layers to which you want to apply a single set of behaviors and filters. Nesting a layer works the same as nesting an object.
01112.book Page 203 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To ungroup nested objects: 1 Select the layer containing the nested objects or layers you want to ungroup. 2 Choose Object > Ungroup (or press Option+Command+G). Note: You cannot ungroup layers that are already at the top of the Layers list hierarchy. Showing and Hiding Layers and Objects Objects and layers appearing in the Layers tab can be hidden in order to make them invisible in the Canvas without removing them from your composition.
01112.book Page 204 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: If you hide one or more objects within a layer, the enclosing layer’s Activation checkbox shows a dash, instead of a checkmark, to show that its objects are only partially visible. Dashed checkbox You can “solo” an object or layer in order to hide all other objects in the project. This can be useful when you want to isolate a single object in the Canvas to animate or manipulate without interfering with other objects in your composition.
01112.book Page 205 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The project shown in the following image contains a particle system. Notice that the animated particles, although not visible once they move off the Canvas, make the layer very large. Particle cells bounding box Default size of a layer containing particles When you want to apply filters to objects that are growing in size, it is recommended to apply those filters to the objects’ enclosing layer.
01112.book Page 206 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The Layer tab (that contains the Fixed Resolution parameter) is only accessible when a layer is selected in the project. When Fixed Resolution is turned on, objects that are in the layer but are outside of the Canvas are cropped to the size of the layer defined in the parameter. When enabled, the Fixed Resolution parameter crops the layer to the size specified in the Fixed Width and Fixed Height parameters around the anchor point of the layer.
01112.book Page 207 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Turn on the Fixed Resolution checkbox. Fixed Resolution enabled By default, the layer’s resolution is set to the project size. 4 To define a resolution other than the project, adjust the Fixed Width and Fixed Height parameters. Note: When an object within a fixed resolution layer is selected, the bounding box around the object appears at its original size, unaffected by the containing layer’s resolution.
01112.book Page 208 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The locked object’s bounding box in the Canvas turns red to indicate that it’s locked. Collapsing and Uncollapsing Layer Hierarchies Layers and objects in the Layers tab appear in a hierarchy that shows which objects are nested inside which layers. Nested objects and layers appear underneath and indented to the right of the layer they’re nested within.
01112.book Page 209 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To rename a layer or object: 1 Double-click the name of the layer or object you want to rename. 2 When the name is highlighted, type a new name. 3 When you’re finished, press Return to accept the new name. The new name is also automatically accepted when you click another object or layer. Note: Once you change an object’s name in Motion, there is no automatic way to change it back to what it was originally except for the undo command.
01112.book Page 210 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Sorting Layers and Objects in the Media Tab The Media tab contains 13 columns that provide information about each object in your project. Column Description Preview Displays a thumbnail of the media object. Name The filename of the source media on disk that the object is linked to. If you change the name of corresponding linked objects in the Layers tab, this name doesn’t change.
01112.book Page 211 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m m m To show or hide a column: Click the Show Columns button (>), then check or uncheck the columns you want to show or hide in the pop-up menu. To move a column to the right or left: Drag any column header to the right or left to move it. To increase or decrease the size of each object’s thumbnail, do one of the following: Use the scale slider at the bottom of the Media tab. Drag the separator between the rows of objects.
01112.book Page 212 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Exchanging Objects The easiest way to customize a template-based project is to exchange the objects used in the template with your own objects, either from the File Browser or the Library. When you exchange an object, the new object appears in your project with the same parameter values used by the previous object.
01112.book Page 213 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Creating New Templates In addition to using and customizing the templates that ship with Motion, you can also build your own templates from scratch. Template files contain everything that ordinary projects do, including media objects, text objects, shapes, generators, behaviors, and filters, in any combination. You can create custom templates for commonly used shots that you regularly create.
01112.book Page 214 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tip: If you plan to share custom templates with other users, it is recommended that you copy your custom templates folder to that computer’s Home/Library/Application Support/Motion/ folder. Note: In the General section of the Motion Preferences (press Command+,), you can direct Motion to the folder on your system or network that contains the content and templates. This also allows multiple users on a network to share a single, centralized folder.
01112.book Page 215 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To delete a category in the Template Browser: 1 Choose File > Open Template. 2 Select a category in the Collection column. 3 Press Delete. An alert message appears and prompts you to confirm the deletion. 4 Click Delete in the sheet. The directory on your disk corresponding to that category is placed in the Trash, but not deleted. Any template files in that category’s directory are also placed in the Trash.
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01112.book Page 217 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Basic Compositing 3 The most fundamental part of compositing involves arranging the visual elements in your composition by moving, rotating, scaling, and adjusting the transparency of each object in your project. Compositing is the process of combining at least two images to produce an integrated final result.
01112.book Page 218 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can use different transform modes, each of which allow you to perform basic compositing tasks such as moving, rotating, scaling, shearing, corner-pinning, cropping, changing an object’s anchor point, and editing drop shadows. When you switch among the transform modes, different handles appear over the selected objects in the Canvas. Drag these handles to perform the selected transform action.
01112.book Page 219 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When you begin to lay out a composition, it’s a good idea to start by creating a static layout of your project that represents how it looks at the beginning, end, or at a particular moment in time. In addition to manipulating the geometry of objects in your project, you can also alter their opacity. This gives you additional control over how overlapping elements of your layout merge together.
01112.book Page 220 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Bring to Front: Puts the selected object in front of all other objects within the same layer by moving it to the top of the nested group of objects in the Layers tab and Canvas. Before After using Bring to Front on lion Send to Back: Puts the selected object behind all other objects within the same layer by moving it to the bottom of the nested group of objects in the Layers tab and Canvas.
01112.book Page 221 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Bringing and Sending Nonconsecutive Selections If you select multiple nonconsecutive objects, both move up or down the object hierarchy together, relative to their original positions in the list. Before After Object and Layer Transforms in the Canvas Transforms are operations that you perform on objects, such as moving, resizing, or rotating.
01112.book Page 222 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To deselect one of multiple selected objects in the Canvas, do one of the following: Shift-click an object you want to deselect. All other selected objects remain selected. m m m m m Press Shift or Command, then drag a selection box over one or more objects you want to deselect. To select all objects in the Canvas, do one of the following: Choose Edit > Select All. Press Command+A.
01112.book Page 223 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Rules for Transforming Selected Objects and Layers The way you transform selected objects depends on how many objects are selected. Transforming a Single Object If you select a single object, the changes you make only affect that one object. All unselected objects remain unaffected. For example, if you select a single object, transform handles appear around that one object.
01112.book Page 224 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Transforming a Layer If you select an entire layer, all objects and layers that are nested within it are treated as a single object. One set of transform handles appears on a bounding box that encompasses every object within that layer. All object transforms occur around a single anchor point belonging to the layer. Before After scaling Using Transforms Transforms allow you to arrange and manipulate objects spatially within the Canvas.
01112.book Page 225 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Switching Among Canvas Transform Tools Before you transform an object, you should make sure that the pointer is set to the correct transform tool. These tools can be selected from the Toolbar.
01112.book Page 226 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Adjust Control Points tool is available when a shape or mask is selected, and is used to adjust a Bezier or B-Spline control point. The Adjust Item tool is available when the selected item has additional onscreen controls, such as a filter or a gradient generator. m m To switch among Canvas transform modes, do one of the following: Click the Select/Transform tool in the Toolbar, then choose a transform tool from the pop-up menu. Press Tab.
01112.book Page 227 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Canvas Compositional Aids When you’re arranging objects directly in the Canvas, take advantage of various compositional aids to help you. For example, if you are working on a piece for broadcast or film, turn on the safe zones in the Canvas to avoid putting objects past the title- or action-safe boundaries.
01112.book Page 228 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM One example of when it’s necessary to move an object past the edge of the frame is when you plan on animating an object so that it flies onscreen. Prior to animating it, you need to move it to a position offscreen to achieve this effect. To move one or more objects in the Canvas: 1 Select one or more objects. 2 Do one of the following: • Drag an object to another location.
01112.book Page 229 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Align Left Edges: Objects are moved horizontally so that their left edges line up with the leftmost object in the selection. Align Right Edges: Objects are moved horizontally so that their right edges line up with the rightmost object in the selection. Align Top Edges: Objects are moved vertically so that their tops line up with the topmost object in the selection.
01112.book Page 230 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Canvas Transform Controls The transform controls do double-duty, allowing you to both resize (scale) and rotate an object within a single mode. Scale handle Rotation handle Bounding box Anchor Scaling Eight handles appear around the edge of an object’s bounding box that allow you to resize it. By default, the width and height of an object are not locked together when using these scaling handles.
01112.book Page 231 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Do one of the following: • Drag any of the corners to resize the object’s width and height at the same time. By default, you can resize the width and height independently, by any amount. • Press Shift, then drag any of the corners to resize the object while locking its width and height together, maintaining the object’s current aspect ratio.
01112.book Page 232 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Drag the top or bottom scale handle to limit scale changes to the object’s height, or drag the left or right scale handle to limit scale changes to the object’s width. Limiting scale changes to the object’s width using the left scale handles • Press Option while you use any scale handle to resize an object around its anchor point, instead of by the opposing handle.
01112.book Page 233 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As you drag the scale handles, an info box appears and shows you the new width and height percentages and the amount by which the object is changing. This amount is represented by a delta symbol. While resizing an object, the scale handles snap to the original width and height of the image. Press Command to temporarily suspend snapping. Note: Scaling the width or height of an object by a negative value reverses the image, flipping its direction.
01112.book Page 234 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As you drag the rotation handle, the original angle of the object is indicated by a small circle that appears on a larger circle surrounding the object’s anchor point. Additionally, an info box appears showing you the new angle of rotation, and the delta of change between the object’s former angle and the angle you’ve dragged it to.
01112.book Page 235 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If you move an object’s anchor point, however, it no longer rotates around its own center, but instead rotates around the new anchor point. This not only affects the rotation of an object, but any moving and scaling operations performed upon that object as well. Changes made to an object’s anchor point are stored in the Anchor Point parameter of the Properties tab in the Inspector.
01112.book Page 236 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Shearing Objects The shear handles can be used to slant an object, either horizontally or vertically. This is an isometric operation, so it doesn’t necessarily provide a realistic perspective effect. When you shear an object, this change is stored in that object’s Shear parameter, which can be seen in the Properties tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 237 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adjusting the Drop Shadow of an Object Once an object’s drop shadow is enabled, the onscreen drop shadow control points can be used to change the blur, angle, and distance of an object’s drop shadow. Default drop shadow (before adjusting with Adjust Drop Shadow tool) After adjusting blur, angle, and distance To adjust the drop shadow of an object in the Canvas: 1 In the object’s Dashboard or Properties tab, make sure Drop Shadow is turned on.
01112.book Page 238 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Corner-Pinning Objects You can stretch an object into different polygonal shapes using the Four Corner controls. This allows you to create false perspective effects, as well as to simulate 3D effects and placement within your composition. Before corner-pinning After corner-pinning To corner-pin an object in the Canvas: 1 Click the Select/Transform tool, then choose the Adjust Four Corner tool from the popup menu.
01112.book Page 239 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Cropping Objects Cropping allows you to chop off each of the four edges of an object to eliminate parts you don’t want to see in your composition. Common examples of objects you’d want to crop are video clips with a black line along the right or left edge because of the video format, or with vignetting around the edges because of a wide-angle lens. You can use the crop operation to cut these undesirable artifacts out when using them in your composition.
01112.book Page 240 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Drag one of the four corner handles to crop both corresponding sides simultaneously. • Press Shift while you drag to constrain corner edge cropping to the aspect ratio of the object. Note: If an object is corner-pinned, you can no longer enable the Crop mode in the Canvas (onscreen controls). You can still crop a corner-pinned object by adjusting its Crop parameter settings in the Properties tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 241 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m If the parameter has a graphical control, such as a slider or dial, you can adjust it. m To reset a parameter to its default state, either click its reset button, or choose Reset Parameter from the parameter’s Animation menu. For more information on how to use the above controls, see “Types of Controls” on page 98.
01112.book Page 242 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Setting an object’s scale to a negative value flips the object. Shear: Defines the X and Y shear of the object. An object with no shear has X and Y shear values of 0. Positive values shear in one direction, while negative values shear in the other. Anchor Point: Defines the X and Y position of the anchor point relative to the center of the object. Coordinates of 0,0 center the anchor point in the bounding box defining the outer edge of the object.
01112.book Page 243 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Crop: Turns cropping on and off. If an object has been cropped and this checkbox is turned off, the object resumes its original size, although the cropping values are maintained. Turning the checkbox back on re-enables the cropping effect specified by the crop parameters. Click the disclosure triangle to display four crop parameters.
01112.book Page 244 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To change an object’s opacity, do one of the following: Adjust the Opacity slider or value slider in the Properties tab. Adjust the Opacity slider in the Dashboard. Blend Modes While the Opacity parameter simply defines a uniform level of transparency for an object, the blend modes allow you many more creative options to control how the overlapping images interact, based on the colors in each object.
01112.book Page 245 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each blend mode combines objects in different ways. For example, setting the top object’s blend mode to Multiply yields the opposite result, as the darker areas of the image remain solid, and the lighter areas become transparent. Blend modes only affect the combination of an object with the objects below it. Any objects appearing above have no effect on this interaction, even if the object is transparent.
01112.book Page 246 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In cases where a stack of overlapping objects appears, each with a different blend mode, the bottommost pair of objects is combined first, and that combination then interacts with the next object up, and so on until all overlapping objects have been combined for the final image.
01112.book Page 247 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Preserve Opacity Option The Preserve Opacity checkbox allows you to limit an object’s visibility to areas of the Canvas where it overlaps nontransparent regions of other objects.
01112.book Page 248 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Preserve Opacity is an easy way to selectively reveal part of an object. In this example, by setting the blend mode of the top color wash layer to Exclusion, you get the resulting image: By turning on Preserve Opacity for the color wash layer on top, only the overlapping parts are displayed, and the superimposed image only affects the Dolphin layer. m 248 To turn on Preserve Opacity: Turn on an object’s Preserve Opacity checkbox in the Properties tab.
01112.book Page 249 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Blend Modes Each of the available blend modes presents a different method for combining two or more images together. Blend modes work in addition to an object’s alpha channel and opacity parameter.
01112.book Page 250 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Combine When a layer is set to Combine, each object is individually blended with all objects and layers that appear underneath it in the Layers tab. In this example, the Swirls object is set to Stencil Luma, and the Fishes object is set to Add. With the enclosing layer set to Combine, the Swirls object stencils all other objects underneath it, including the Gradient object in the bottom layer.
01112.book Page 251 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Normal When a layer is set to Normal, the objects nested within can only be blended with one another. Objects nested within that layer do not blend with objects in other layers beneath it in the Layers list. In this example, the Fishes and Swirls objects in the topmost layer are only blended with themselves when the topmost layer is set to Normal.
01112.book Page 252 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Other Blend Modes When you set a layer to any of the other available blend modes, each object nested within that layer is blended according to its blend mode. The resulting image is then blended with the layers underneath, according to the selected blend mode for that layer. In this example, the topmost layer is set to Multiply.
01112.book Page 253 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Object Blend Modes The following section describes how blend modes affect individual objects. All blend modes are presented in the order in which they appear in the Blend Mode pop-up menu. About the Examples in This Section Most of the examples in this section are created using the following two reference images. The resulting “Mondrian Monkey” illustrates how differently the color values from each image interact when using each blend mode.
01112.book Page 254 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Overlapping midrange color values are darkened based on the color of the background image. In areas where the background is lighter than the foreground, the background image is darkened. In areas where the background is darker than the foreground, the colors are inverted. The order of two objects affected by the Subtract blend mode is important.
01112.book Page 255 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Suggested uses: The Darken blend mode is useful for using one image to texturize another selectively, based on its darker areas. You can also use Screen, Color Burn, and Linear Burn for variations on this effect. Multiply Like Darken, Multiply emphasizes the darkest parts of each overlapping image, except that midrange color values from both images are mixed together more evenly.
01112.book Page 256 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Color Burn Color Burn intensifies the dark areas in each image. Whites in the background image replace the foreground image, while whites in the foreground image become transparent. Midrange color values in the background image allow midrange color values in the foreground image to show through. Lighter midrange color values in the background image allow more of the foreground image to show through.
01112.book Page 257 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Add Add emphasizes the whites in each overlapping image, and lightens all other overlapping colors. The color values in every overlapping pixel are added together. The result is that all overlapping midrange color values are lightened. Blacks from either image are transparent, while whites in either image are preserved. The order of two objects affected by the Add blend mode does not matter.
01112.book Page 258 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Lighten Lighten emphasizes the lightest parts of each overlapping image. Every pixel in each image is compared, and the lightest pixel from either image is preserved, so that the final image consists of a dithered combination of the lightest pixels from each image. Whites in both images show through in the resulting image. The order of two objects affected by the Lighten blend mode does not matter.
01112.book Page 259 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Suggested uses: The Screen blend mode is especially useful for knocking out the blacks behind a foreground subject, instead of using a Luma Key. It’s mainly useful when you want the rest of the foreground subject to be mixed with the background image as well, based on its brightness. It’s good for glow and lighting effects, and for simulating reflections. You can also use the Add, Lighten, and Color Dodge blend modes to create variations of this effect.
01112.book Page 260 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Linear Dodge Similar to Screen, except that lighter midrange color values in overlapping regions become intensified. Blacks in either image allow the overlapping image to show through completely. Whites from both images show through in the resulting image. The order of two objects affected by the Linear Dodge blend mode does not matter.
01112.book Page 261 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Suggested uses: The Overlay blend mode is particularly useful for combining areas of vivid color in two images. Soft Light Soft Light is similar to the Overlay blend mode. Whites and blacks in the foreground image become translucent, but interact with the color values of the background image. Whites and blacks in the background image, on the other hand, replace the foreground image.
01112.book Page 262 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Hard Light Whites and blacks in the foreground image block the background image. Whites and blacks in the background image, on the other hand, interact with overlapping midrange color values in the foreground image. Overlapping midrange color values are mixed together differently depending on the brightness of the background color values. Lighter background midrange values are mixed by screening.
01112.book Page 263 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Reversing the two overlapping images results in subtle differences in how the overlapping midrange color values are mixed together. Boxes object on top Monkey object on top Linear Light Linear Light is similar to the Hard Light blend mode, except that overlapping midrange color values are mixed together with higher contrast. Whites and blacks in the foreground image block the background image.
01112.book Page 264 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Pin Light Pin Light is similar to the Hard Light blend mode, except that overlapping midrange color values are mixed together differently based on their color value. Whites and blacks in the foreground image block the background image. Whites and blacks in the background image, on the other hand, interact with overlapping midrange color values in the foreground image. The methods used by the Pin Light blend mode to mix two images are somewhat complex.
01112.book Page 265 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Hard Mix Hard Mix is similar to the Hard Light blend mode, except that the saturation of overlapping midrange color values is intensified, resulting in extremely high-contrast images. Whites and blacks are preserved. While the order of two objects doesn’t affect the overall look of two images blended using the Hard Mix blend mode, there may be subtle differences.
01112.book Page 266 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Exclusion Similar to the Difference blend mode, except that the resulting image is lighter overall. Overlapping areas with lighter color values are lightened, while darker overlapping color values become transparent. The order of two objects affected by the Exclusion blend mode does not matter.
01112.book Page 267 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Stencil Luma The Stencil Luma blend mode does the same thing as the Stencil Alpha blend mode, but uses the affected layer’s luma value to define transparency. Stencil Luma is useful if the object you want to use for cropping has no alpha channel of its own. Silhouette Alpha Silhouette Alpha is the reverse of the Stencil Alpha blend mode, and is useful for cutting holes in objects underneath.
01112.book Page 268 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Limiting the Effect of Stencil and Silhouette Blend Modes Whenever you use the Stencil or Silhouette blend modes in a layer that is set to the Combine blend mode, the resulting effect carries down through every object in every layer that lies underneath it in the Layers list. This is powerful, but not very useful, since it prevents you from placing a background layer to fill the transparent area.
01112.book Page 269 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Premultiplied Mix blend mode performs an unpremultiply composite—the foreground image is assumed to be premultiplied. Artifacts may appear as a result of unpremultiplying pixels whose RGB and alpha values are very small (resulting in pixels with values of 255). In some cases, the hardware performs bilinear filtering and then the blend mode unpremultiplies the alpha.
01112.book Page 270 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drop shadows also darken overlapping regions of background objects. A good example of when to use this is when you place text over a background that might obscure it. By adding a drop shadow, you can make a foreground text object easier to read. Without a drop shadow With a drop shadow It’s easy to add a drop shadow to any object, since each object has individual drop shadow parameters in the Inspector and Dashboard.
01112.book Page 271 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When you select a text object, these parameters are not displayed in the Dashboard. The Adjust Drop Shadow Transform Tool Selecting the Adjust Drop Shadow transform tool in the Toolbar provides additional onscreen controls for selected objects with drop shadows that are turned on. Drop shadow blur handles Drop shadow position bounding box Four handles at each corner allow you to increase or decrease the blur of the drop shadow.
01112.book Page 272 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Distance: Sets how close or far an object’s drop shadow is to the object. The farther away a drop shadow is, the more distance there appears to be between the object and anything behind it in the composition. Angle: Lets you change the direction the drop shadow falls along. Changing the Angle of the drop shadow changes the apparent direction of the light casting the shadow.
01112.book Page 273 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 4 Using the Timeline Arrange and edit the assets in your project with flexibility and ease in the Timeline. View your objects spread out over layers and tracks. The Timeline shows all the objects in your project and provides a “big picture” look at how your project is arranged over time. You can organize your objects to begin and end on the frames you choose. You can also align multiple effects so that they occur simultaneously.
01112.book Page 274 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Timeline is not displayed by default in the Standard Layout. It can be viewed by displaying the Timing pane. m To display the Timing pane, do one of the following: Click the Timing icon (in the upper-right corner of the Toolbar). m Drag the divider beneath the Play button in the transport controls upward. m Choose Window > Layouts > Cinema. m Press F6.
01112.book Page 275 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Item How it appears Description Layer A blue bar. When a layer contains multiple objects, it displays three lines and a value indicating the number of items for that section of the layer. Image Objects (video, stills, shapes, and text) A blue bar appears for image objects. Masks A gray bar appears for mask objects. Behaviors and Filters A thin purple bar appears for filters and behaviors.
01112.book Page 276 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Timeline Layer List The Timeline Layer list mirrors the Layers list in the Project pane and displays your project tracks and objects and their stacking order. Behaviors, filters, and masks applied to a layer or object can also be displayed. In the Timeline Layer list, you can reorder layers and objects. This change is immediately reflected in the Layers list in the Project pane.
01112.book Page 277 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Enabling Timeline Tracks To the left of each track in the Timeline Layer list is an activation checkbox that turns that track on and off. When a track is turned off (disabled), it is ignored in the Canvas. Not only can you turn video or audio objects on and off, but you can also disable or enable effects such as masks, filters, and behaviors. Activation checkbox is turned off.
01112.book Page 278 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding and Deleting Layers Motion allows you to add and delete layers directly in the Timeline Layer list. When a new layer is added, it always appears at the top of the list. m To add a layer: Click the New Layer button (+). Add New Layer button You can also add a layer by dragging a new item into your project. To delete a layer: 1 Select the layer you want to delete. 2 Click the Delete button (-).
01112.book Page 279 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Audio-Video Links Ordinarily, objects that contain both audio and video are linked together so that they always remain in sync. This link is represented by an icon in the Timeline Layer list. Objects that are linked are always edited together in the Timeline. Operations such as cut, copy, paste, and split also affect both audio and video.
01112.book Page 280 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Button Button name Function Show/Hide Layers Displays all video layers and objects. Show/Hide Audio Displays audio tracks. The waveforms appear on the audio tracks. Show/Hide Keyframes Displays keyframes for all tracks. Keyframes appear as blue diamonds (white when selected). Show/Hide Masks Displays mask tracks for objects that have masks applied. Show/Hide Behaviors Displays behavior tracks for objects that have behaviors applied.
01112.book Page 281 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To zoom in or out of the Timeline: Drag the thumb at either end of the Zoom scroll control. Drag toward the center of the Timeline to zoom in. Drag away from the center to zoom out. Normally, the center of the current view remains fixed as you zoom in or out. If you press Shift while dragging one end of the Zoom scroll control, the opposite end remains locked in position and allows you to zoom in or out on the edge of the current view.
01112.book Page 282 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When the Timebar Display is set to Filmstrip, your processing time is increased. When a filter is applied to an object, the result of the filter is displayed in the filmstrip. Working in the Timeline The Timeline is one of the most flexible and valuable elements of the Motion interface. This is where you can control all of the timing aspects of your project.
01112.book Page 283 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Depending on where in the Timeline you drop the object, you see different options. If you drag to a layer track, you can choose Composite, Insert, or Overwrite. If you drag to one of the objects within a layer, you get the additional choice of Exchange. The new object can appear above or below an existing object; where you release the mouse button determines placement of the new object.
01112.book Page 284 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Insert When you choose Insert, Motion leaves the existing object in the track, but pushes it forward in time to make room for the new item. For example, if you insert a five-frame movie into a layer containing an existing object, the new movie is added to the Timeline at whichever frame you drop it, pushing the remaining frames of the original movie out five frames.
01112.book Page 285 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Exchange Exchange is a variant of the Overwrite option, but instead of dropping the entire duration of the new object into the project, the duration of the existing object is used. For example, if you drag a 30-second clip over a 5-second clip, choosing Exchange swaps the existing 5 seconds with the first 5 seconds of the longer clip.
01112.book Page 286 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To overwrite an object: 1 Drag an object from the Library or Media tab into the Timeline tracks area. As you drag, a tooltip appears to tell you the frame number at which you are located. 2 When you reach the frame where you want to the new object to start, keep the mouse button pressed until the drop menu appears. 3 Choose Overwrite from the drop menu. The frames of the new object replace the frames of the original object.
01112.book Page 287 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The multiple clips are all edited into the project at the same point in time, each on its own track. Alternately, you can drop the multiple objects into the Timeline Layer list. This always performs a composite edit. Also, if you release the mouse button before the drop menu appears, a composite edit is applied.
01112.book Page 288 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding to the Timeline Layer List You can drag an image from the File Browser or Media tab into the Timeline Layer list, which lets you add the new object to an existing layer, replace an existing object, or create a new layer. To add an object to an existing layer: 1 Drag an object from the File Browser, Library, or Media tab, and position the pointer over the Layer list.
01112.book Page 289 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM A new layer is created on top of other existing layers in the hierarchy or “stack” of layers. To create a new layer below existing layers: 1 Drag an object from the File Browser, Library, or Media tab into the Timeline Layer list, below the lower edge of the bottom layer, and keep the mouse button pressed until a position indicator appears. 2 Release the mouse button.
01112.book Page 290 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To move an object from one layer to another existing layer: 1 Drag the object icon in the Timeline Layer list over another layer. A black border highlights the layer. 2 Release the mouse button. The object moves into the selected layer and is placed above any existing objects within that layer. You can also drag an object to a specific place in the new layer by dragging it in between existing tracks in the new layer.
01112.book Page 291 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Nesting Layers To help organize large groups of objects or to create certain kinds of special effects, you can place one layer inside of another. This gives you the flexibility to create a layer containing multiple objects, and then treat that entire layer as a single object within another layer. You could go further and take that “parent” layer, combine it with some other layers, and treat that group as a single element, and so on.
01112.book Page 292 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To delete a layer or object track: 1 Select the layer or object in the Layer list. 2 Press Delete. You can also Control-click an object, then choose Delete from the shortcut menu. All of the operations just described can also be performed with multiple tracks. For example, rather than just moving one object from Layer 1 to Layer 3, you can select two or three objects within Layer 1 and move them all at once.
01112.book Page 293 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing Objects in the Timeline During the process of designing and implementing a motion graphics project, you place objects in the Timeline and Canvas, move them forward or backward in time, and trim them to match the timing of other objects in your project. Motion has several features that help you modify the objects in the Timeline.
01112.book Page 294 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Moving Objects to the Playhead You can move an object to a new location in the Timeline by using the Move Selected In (or Out) Point. This command automatically shifts the position of the selected object to the current playhead position. This command can be used to move and align multiple objects in one operation. To move an object to the playhead: 1 Select the object you want to move. 2 Place the playhead where you want the object moved to.
01112.book Page 295 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: If you need to extend an object and the source material doesn’t have enough frames, one option is to alter the object’s End Condition to hold, loop, or ping pong. This extends the length of the object indefinitely. For more information on the End Condition parameter, see page 187. To trim a clip: 1 Move the pointer to one end of the clip you want to trim. The pointer changes to a Trim pointer.
01112.book Page 296 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To trim multiple objects at the same time: 1 Select the objects you want to trim. 2 Place the playhead at the In or Out position you want. 3 Choose Mark > Mark In (or press I) or Mark > Mark Out (or press O) to set a new In or Out point. All selected objects are trimmed to the new point. Note: If one of the objects doesn’t have enough media to complete the trim, it moves as far as it can toward the desired point.
01112.book Page 297 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Deleting Objects Removing objects from your project can be just as important as adding them. Motion provides three ways to remove an object. Delete: Removes the object and leaves a gap in the Timeline where it was. Before After Ripple Delete: Removes the object and closes up the gap left behind in one step. If the objects are within a layer, the layer is split into two layers.
01112.book Page 298 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To cut an object: 1 Select an object you want to delete. 2 Choose Edit > Cut from the menu bar (or press Command+X). You can also Control-click the object, then choose Cut from the shortcut menu. Copy and Paste Just like in other applications, in addition to cutting, you can also copy an object, which leaves the object in place, but copies it to the Clipboard for later pasting. When you paste an object, it is placed at the position of the playhead.
01112.book Page 299 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Paste Special In addition to ordinary pasting, Motion lets you paste as an insert, overwrite or exchange edit. These three commands appear in the Paste Special dialog. Paste special can also be used with regions to perform a special type of paste. For more information, see “Paste Into” on page 310. Insert: Pastes the Clipboard contents into the project, pushing existing objects farther down in time.
01112.book Page 300 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Creating a Freeze or Hold Frame Although there are no controls in the Timeline for holding or freezing a frame, you can create a freeze frame by using the Scrub filter. For information on using the Scrub filter to create a freeze frame, see “Scrub” on page 791. Displaying and Modifying Keyframes in the Timeline You can move or delete keyframes that are displayed in the Timeline.
01112.book Page 301 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To display an animation curve in the Keyframe Editor: Control-click a keyframe on the track, then choose Show in Keyframe Editor from the shortcut menu. The Keyframe Editor is displayed, the animation curve appears, and a new, untitled curve set is created. For more information on curve sets, see “Filtering Controls” on page 429.
01112.book Page 302 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Drag to the right or left to move the entire layer in time. Before After To move a single object within a layer: 1 Click the area of the layer track where the one clip is visible. That clip is highlighted in the layer track. 2 Drag the section left or right to move the object within the layer forward or backward in time.
01112.book Page 303 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To move an object to a specific frame: 1 In the Timeline, select the object you want to move, then type the number of the frame (or timecode) where you want to move the object. A value field appears that displays the number you typed. 2 Press Return. The object’s In point moves to the specified frame number.
01112.book Page 304 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To edit one item in an overlapping area of a layer: 1 Control-click the overlapping area of the layer, then choose the object you want to manipulate from the shortcut menu. The boundaries of that one object are highlighted in the layer track. 2 Move, trim, or slip the object independently from the other objects in the layer.
01112.book Page 305 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Disconnecting the Layer Track From its Contents You can modify the layer bar to be longer or shorter than the contents of the layer. For example, you might shorten a layer track to hide a section of the objects within it. Objects that extend beyond the boundaries of the layer bar (the thin blue bar at the top of the layer track) are not displayed in the Canvas.
01112.book Page 306 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To slip an object in the layer track: 1 Option-click an area of the layer where the object is located. 2 Drag to the right or left to use an earlier or later portion of the media without moving the position or duration of the object. You can only slip an object if there are unused frames in the source media associated with that clip. For more information on slipping, see “Slipping Objects” on page 296.
01112.book Page 307 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m m m m To move backward a specific number of frames: Type “–” (minus) and then the number of frames you want to move backward. To move ahead or back in seconds, minutes, or hours, type the following in the Current Frame field: To move forward in seconds, type a “+” (plus), then type the number of seconds you want to move forward, and then type a “.” (period). For example, to move 2 seconds ahead, type +2. in the field, then press Return.
01112.book Page 308 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To jump to the previous keyframe, do one of the following: With the animated object selected, press Option+K. Choose Mark > Go to > Previous Keyframe. For information on displaying keyframes in the Timeline, see “Timeline View Options” on page 279. In addition to simply moving to new positions in the ruler, you can navigate directly to objects within the Timeline, such as objects, markers, and keyframes.
01112.book Page 309 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To customize the playback Out point, do one of the following: In the ruler, drag the Out point marker from the right edge of the ruler to the frame where you want to set the Out point. m Choose Mark > Mark Play Range Out. m Press Command+Option+O. m m To reset playback In and Out points, do one of the following: Choose Mark > Reset Play Range. Press Option+X. The In and Out points reset themselves to the beginning and end of the project.
01112.book Page 310 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To move a region: Position the pointer over the region, then drag to move the region. To deselect tracks from a selection range: Command-click the track you want to deselect. Once you have defined your selection range, you can delete the section or ripple delete the section (to delete it and close the resulting gap). You can cut or copy the section to move it to the Clipboard so you can paste it somewhere else.
01112.book Page 311 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Command+Option-drag to select a region of the Timeline. 4 Choose Edit > Paste Special. The Paste Special dialog appears. 5 Select either Insert, Overwrite, or Exchange. 6 Click OK to close the dialog. The Clipboard contents are pasted into the region using the method you specified. For more information on the different editing types, see “Adding Objects to the Timeline” on page 282.
01112.book Page 312 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To change the project duration, do one of the following: Drag in the Project Duration field in the lower-right corner of the Canvas. Dragging to the right extends the length and dragging to the left shortens it. m Click the Project Duration field and type a number into the value field. m Choose Edit > Project Properties and change the value of the Project Duration field in the dialog.
01112.book Page 313 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Project markers are indicated in the mini-Timeline by a fine green line. For more information on the mini-Timeline, see “The Mini-Timeline” on page 48. Project marker Project marker To add a project marker: 1 Place the playhead on the exact frame where you want the marker to appear. 2 Check that no objects are selected, then do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Markers > Add Marker. • Press M.
01112.book Page 314 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To add an object marker: 1 Place the playhead on the exact frame where you want the marker to appear. 2 Select the object where you want to add the marker, then do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Markers > Add Marker. • Press M. A red marker is added to the object. In this way, you can add markers while playing your project. The markers appear at the frame where the playhead is at the time you press the M key.
01112.book Page 315 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To edit marker information: 1 Open the Edit Marker dialog by doing one of the following: • Double-click a marker to display the Edit Marker dialog. • Choose Edit > Markers > Edit. • Control-click the Marker, then choose Edit Markers from the shortcut menu. Notes added in the Comments field appear as tooltips when the pointer is over the marker. 2 Type a name in Name field. 3 Type a number in the Start field.
01112.book Page 316 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Navigating With Markers You can jump from your current playhead position to a nearby project marker either forward or backward. m To jump to the next marker: Control-click the gray marker bar above the ruler in the Timeline, then choose Next Marker from the shortcut menu. The playhead automatically jumps to the position of the next project marker. You can also choose Mark > Go To > Next Marker or press Option+Command+Up Arrow.
01112.book Page 317 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 Using Behaviors 5 You can use behaviors to animate objects using simple, graphical controls. With behaviors, you can create basic motion effects or complex simulated interactions between multiple objects quickly and easily. You can add behaviors to objects or properties in a project to create animated effects without needing to create or adjust keyframes.
01112.book Page 318 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Particles behaviors are specifically designed to be applied to an Emitter object or cells within particle systems. These behaviors affect how individual particles are animated over the duration of their life. For more information on using particle behaviors, see “The Particles Behavior Category” on page 611. • Replicator behaviors are specifically designed to be applied to a replicator object or cells within the replicator.
01112.book Page 319 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For an introduction to how to use behaviors, see “Applying and Removing Behaviors” on page 321. For more detailed information on how to manipulate behaviors in a project, see “Working With Behaviors” on page 331. For detailed information on all the behaviors available in Motion, see “Behavior Descriptions” on page 344. Behaviors vs.
01112.book Page 320 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Browsing for Behaviors All available behaviors appear in the Library tab. Selecting the Behaviors category in the category pane of the Sidebar reveals the seven behavior subcategories. Selecting a subcategory reveals all behaviors of that type in the Library stack pane.
01112.book Page 321 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying and Removing Behaviors The way you apply a behavior depends on what kind of behavior it is. Some behaviors are applied directly to objects in the Canvas, while others must be applied specifically to individual object parameters in the Inspector. Where Behaviors Appear When you apply a behavior to an object, it appears nested underneath that object in the Layers tab and the Timeline.
01112.book Page 322 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM New behaviors you apply to an object appear above other behaviors that were applied previously. Newly applied behaviors appear above those that have been previously applied. Behaviors appear with all of their editable parameters in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector. A Behaviors icon also appears to the right of the layer or object name in the Layers tab and Timeline.
01112.book Page 323 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Behavior Effects in the Keyframe Editor If you open the Keyframe Editor and look at a parameter that is affected by one or more behaviors, you see a non-editable curve that represents the behavior’s effect on that parameter. The non-editable curve appears in addition to that parameter’s editable curve, which can be used to keyframe that parameter.
01112.book Page 324 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To apply a behavior to an object, do one of the following: Drag a Basic Motion, Particles, Replicator, Simulation, or Text behavior from the Library to an appropriate object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline Layer list. m Select an object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline, then click the Add Behavior icon in the Toolbar and choose the behavior you want.
01112.book Page 325 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Do one of the following: • In the Toolbar, click the Add Behavior icon, then choose a behavior from one of the submenus. • Select a behavior in the Library, then click Apply in the Preview area. 3 Play the project to see the animated effect in action. Note: Not all behaviors automatically create motion on an object. Some behaviors, such as Throw, require you to set the throw velocity (in the Dashboard or in the Inspector) before the object is “thrown.
01112.book Page 326 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying Parameter Behaviors Parameter behaviors are applied differently than the other types of behaviors. While all other behaviors are applied directly to an object and affect specific parameters of that object, Parameter behaviors are applied to an object’s parameter. This also includes the parameters of filters, emitters and cells in particle systems, and other behaviors that have been applied to an object.
01112.book Page 327 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Where Parameter Behaviors Appear When any behavior is applied to an object in your project, a Behaviors icon (a gear) appears in the Animation menu to the right of the affected parameter in the Properties, Behaviors, or Filters tab where it’s applied. This shows you that a behavior is influencing that parameter. A Behaviors icon also appears in the Animation menu of each affected parameter in the Keyframe Editor.
01112.book Page 328 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Like other behaviors, Parameter behaviors appear nested underneath the objects to which they’re applied in the Layers tab and the Timeline, along with any other behaviors that have been applied to that object. Parameter behavior Parameter behavior Opening a parameter’s Animation menu in the Inspector displays the names of all the behaviors currently applied to that parameter. Choosing one automatically opens that object’s Behaviors tab.
01112.book Page 329 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Reassigning a Parameter Behavior to Another Parameter Once you apply a Parameter behavior, it remains assigned to that parameter unless you reassign it. This is possible using the Apply To pop-up menu, located at the bottom of the Parameter behavior controls in the Behaviors tab or in the Dashboard. The Apply To pop-up menu displays all of the properties available for the object to which the behavior is applied.
01112.book Page 330 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Customizing Parameters in the Dashboard In general, the parameters that appear in the Dashboard are the most essential ones for modifying that behavior’s effect. Frequently, the controls available in a behavior’s Dashboard are also more descriptive and easier to use than those in the Behaviors tab, although the Behaviors tab may contain more controls.
01112.book Page 331 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To display the Behaviors tab: 1 Select an object with a behavior applied to it. 2 Open the Inspector, then click the Behaviors tab. All of the behaviors applied to that object appear in the tab. Working With Behaviors This section describes how to enable, rename, lock, duplicate, move, and reorganize behaviors in your project. These procedures apply to every type of behavior.
01112.book Page 332 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Control-clicking this icon opens a shortcut menu that displays all the behaviors that are applied to that object. Choose a behavior from this menu to display it in the Inspector. Lock Activation checkbox Activation checkbox Enable/disable behaviors Name Lock Name Enable/disable behaviors Show Behaviors button: Appears at the bottom of the Layers tab and Timeline, and lets you show or hide all behaviors.
01112.book Page 333 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Cut (or press Command+X) to remove the behavior and place it on the Clipboard. • Choose Edit > Copy (or press Command+C) to leave the behavior there, and copy it to the Clipboard. To paste a behavior: 1 Select an object into which you want to paste the behavior. 2 Choose Edit > Paste (or press Command+V). The cut or copied behavior is applied to the selected object, with all its parameter settings intact.
01112.book Page 334 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also duplicate a behavior and apply the duplicate to another object in the Layers list or Timeline Layer list. To drag a duplicate of a behavior to another object: 1 Press Option, then click the behavior you want to duplicate. 2 Drag the behavior to the object you want to apply its duplicate to. 3 Release the mouse button. The duplicated behavior is applied to the second object.
01112.book Page 335 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To reorder a behavior: 1 In the Inspector, Timeline, or Layers tab, select the behavior you want to reorder. 2 Drag it up or down in the list of nested behaviors applied to the same object. A position indicator shows where the behavior appears when you release the mouse button. A position indicator appears whenever you drag a behavior within the list. 3 When the position indicator is in the correct position, release the mouse button.
01112.book Page 336 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For more information about applying Parameter behaviors, see “Applying Parameter Behaviors” on page 326. Trimming Behaviors When you apply a behavior to an object, the duration of the behavior in the Timeline defaults to the duration of the object to which it’s applied. The default duration of a behavior matches the duration of the object to which it is applied. A behavior’s duration can be modified to limit the duration of its effect.
01112.book Page 337 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Since behaviors do not add keyframes to the objects to which they’re applied, trimming the Out point of a behavior usually resets the object to its original state for times beyond the duration of the behavior. For many behaviors, using the Stop behavior to pause the object’s animation is a better method to use than trimming its Out point.
01112.book Page 338 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Combining Behaviors With Keyframes Any object can have both behaviors and keyframes applied to it simultaneously. When this happens, the values generated by the behavior and the keyframed values that are applied to the parameter itself are combined to yield the final value for that parameter. This lets you combine the automatic convenience of behaviors with the direct control of keyframing to achieve your final result.
01112.book Page 339 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can combine the two by turning the Random Motion behavior back on, with the end result being an animation path that follows the general direction you want, but that has enough random variation in it to make it interesting. Random animation path combined with the keyframed animation path While this example shows how you can combine behaviors and keyframes to create animation paths, you can combine behaviors and keyframes for any parameter.
01112.book Page 340 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can keyframe a parameter either before or after applying a behavior to the object that affects it. When you keyframe a parameter that is already affected by a behavior, the value of the keyframed curve is combined with the value generated by the behavior at each frame, which either raises or lowers the resulting value displayed by the background curve.
01112.book Page 341 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For more information on how to use keyframes in the Keyframe Editor, see Chapter 6, “Keyframes and Curves,” on page 401. Note: When you combine keyframes with multiple behaviors, the results can appear to be unpredictable, depending on the combination of behaviors that are applied. You can convert the behaviors that are applied to all parameters of an object into keyframes.
01112.book Page 342 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying Parameter Behaviors to a Behavior You can animate a behavior’s parameter by applying a parameter behavior. For example, you could apply the Oscillate parameter behavior to an Orbit Around behavior’s Drag parameter and adjust the Start and End values to increase from 0 to 8 over time. This results in the orbit of the object slowly decaying, causing the object to fall toward the center of the orbit.
01112.book Page 343 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For more information about keyframing parameters, see “Animating Behaviors” on page 412. Converting Behaviors to Keyframes If necessary, you can bake all the behaviors that have been applied to an object into keyframes using the Convert to Keyframes command in the Object menu. When you use the Convert to Keyframes command on an object in your project, all behaviors that are applied to that object are converted to keyframes.
01112.book Page 344 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Moving Behaviors Among Different Computers Each customized behavior you drag into the Library is saved as a separate file in the Motion folder of the Application Support directory. For example, if you saved a custom behavior named My Motion Path in the Favorites folder of the Library, it would appear in the Users/User Directory/Library/Application Support/Motion/Library/Favorites folder with the following icon.
01112.book Page 345 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Fade In/Fade Out behavior is useful for introducing and removing images you’re animating in the middle of a project. For example, you could apply the Fade In/Fade Out behavior to text objects moving slowly across the screen to make them fade into existence, and then fade away at the end of their duration.
01112.book Page 346 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Grow/Shrink Use the Grow/Shrink behavior to animate the scale of an object, enlarging or reducing its size over time at a speed defined by either the Scale Rate or Scale To parameter. The Grow/Shrink effect always begins at the object’s original size at the first frame of the behavior. Tip: To scale particles over their lifetime, use the Scale Over Life particle behavior. For more information, see “The Particles Behavior Category” on page 611.
01112.book Page 347 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Increment: This pop-up menu lets you choose how the behavior’s effect progresses over its duration in the Timeline. There are two options: • Continuous Rate: This command uses the Scale Rate parameter to grow or shrink the object by a steady number of pixels per second.
01112.book Page 348 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Motion Path The Motion Path behavior lets you create a motion path for an object to follow. When you first apply the Motion Path behavior to an object, it defaults to a straight line defined by two points at the beginning and end of the motion path. The first point on the path is the position of the object in the Canvas at the first frame of the behavior.
01112.book Page 349 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional onscreen controls The motion path you create in the Canvas can be adjusted by adding points to the default motion path and by using the Bezier controls attached to each point to adjust each curve. For more information about creating and adjusting Bezier curves, see “Editing Bezier Curve Control Points” on page 832. Parameters in the Inspector Speed: Lets you set how the object moves from the first to the last point in the motion path.
01112.book Page 350 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Move the playhead to the position you want to create a keyframe, then enter a value in the Custom Speed field. For example, a value of 90 moves the object 90 percent of the way through the motion path. 4 Continue moving the playhead and adding keyframes to obtain the result you want. End Offset: A slider that lets you offset the end of the behavior’s effect relative to the last frame of its position in the Timeline, in frames.
01112.book Page 351 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has a pop-up menu to control the axis used to adjust the object’s alignment, and a checkbox to let you invert the axis. Parameters in the Inspector Axis: A pop-up menu that lets you specify whether the object aligns itself on its horizontal or vertical axis. Invert Axis: If the object is aligning on the correct axis, but appears backwards, this checkbox flips the object so that it faces the proper direction.
01112.book Page 352 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can spin the arrow around the ring multiple times to rotate the object faster. Controls direction and speed of spin Parameters in the Inspector Affect Objects: This parameter appears when Spin is applied to a layer or object (such as a particle emitter or text) that contains multiple objects. When this checkbox is turned on (default), each object within the parent object rotates as an individual object.
01112.book Page 353 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Throw behavior is also useful when you’re moving an object through a simulation. For example, you might move the object past other objects that have Attractor or Repel behaviors applied to them. Since the Throw behavior only applies a single force to move the target object at the initial frame of the behavior, any other behaviors that interact with the target object have greater influence over its motion.
01112.book Page 354 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Affect Objects: This parameter appears when Throw is applied to a layer or object (such as a particle emitter or text) that contains multiple objects. When this checkbox is turned on (default), each object within the parent object moves as an individual object. When this checkbox is turned off, the entire layer or object moves.
01112.book Page 355 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tip: The Average behavior can be used to smooth out the sequence of values generated by a Randomize behavior. Affects Parameters affected Individual parameter Any Dashboard control The Dashboard lets you adjust the Window Size parameter and change the parameter assignment.
01112.book Page 356 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To add a parameter you want to animate in a Custom behavior: Choose a parameter you want to add to the Custom parameter list from the Add Parameter pop-up menu. This menu contains every animateable parameter. Afterwards, that parameter appears in the Behaviors tab, nested underneath the Custom behavior. The new parameter appears here.
01112.book Page 357 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you have animated all the parameters you added, you can save the Custom behavior into the Library for future use. For more information about saving Custom behaviors to the Library, see “Saving and Sharing Custom Behaviors” on page 343. When you apply a Custom behavior that you’ve saved in the Library to an object in a project, its keyframed animation is scaled to the duration of the object to which it’s applied.
01112.book Page 358 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard controls allow you to adjust the Control Type, ID, Value, Scale, and parameter assignment. Parameters in the Inspector Control Type: Specifies the mode of the MIDI controller. The three available control types are: • Note: This mode is displayed when the control is a keyboard key on the MIDI device. • Controller: This mode is displayed when the control is a knob, dial, key, slider, or foot pedal on the MIDI device.
01112.book Page 359 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To use the MIDI parameter behavior to adjust an object’s opacity: 1 Select an object, then select the Opacity parameter in the Properties tab of the Inspector. 2 Control-click the parameter, then choose MIDI from the shortcut menu. The MIDI parameters are displayed in the Behaviors tab. By default, Control Type is set to Learning. Like all other Parameter behaviors, the Apply To field displays the parameter to which the behavior is applied.
01112.book Page 360 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Negate Inverts the value of each keyframe and behavior effect in the parameter to which it’s applied by multiplying the parameter by –1. The Negate behavior basically flips each parameter value to its opposite. Animation paths are flipped, rotation is reversed, and any effect’s parameter is changed to its opposite.
01112.book Page 361 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying the Oscillate behavior to the X value of the Scale parameter instead causes the width of the object to cycle, and it repeatedly stretches and compresses for the duration of the behavior. The Oscillate behavior is additive, meaning that the value generated by this behavior is added to the original value of the parameter to which it’s applied.
01112.book Page 362 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Ramp The Ramp behavior lets you create a gradual transition in any parameter that can be animated, from the Start Value to the End Value. The speed of the transition is defined by the length of the Ramp behavior in the Timeline, and by the behavior’s end value. Additional parameters allow you to define how the transition occurs, whether it’s at a single continuous speed, or whether it accelerates over time. Ramp is a versatile behavior.
01112.book Page 363 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Start Value: The value that’s added to the parameter at the first frame of the Ramp behavior. End Value: The value the Ramp behavior reaches at the last frame of the behavior. Over the life of the behavior, the parameter the Ramp behavior is applied to makes a transition from the Start Value to the End Value plus the original value.
01112.book Page 364 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Apply Mode parameter determines how values generated by this behavior are combined with other behaviors and keyframes that affect the same parameter. This provides you with different ways of using a Randomize behavior to modify a parameter’s preexisting values.
01112.book Page 365 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Random Seed: A button that lets you pick a new random seed number. This number is used to randomly generate new sequences of values, based on the other parameters of this behavior. Start Offset: A slider that lets you delay the beginning of the behavior’s effect relative to the first frame of its position in the Timeline. Adjust this parameter to make the behavior start later. This parameter is in frames.
01112.book Page 366 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM End Offset: A slider that lets you offset the end of the behavior’s effect relative to the last frame of its position in the Timeline, in frames. Adjust this parameter to make the behavior stop before the actual end of the behavior in the Timeline. Using this slider to stop the effect, instead of trimming the end of the behavior in the Timeline, freezes the last random value generated by this behavior for the remaining duration of the object.
01112.book Page 367 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If the Stop behavior is shorter than the object to which it’s applied, all keyframes and behaviors affecting that channel immediately take effect after the last frame of the Stop behavior. For more information on using the Stop behavior, see “Using the Stop Behavior” on page 335. Affects Parameters affected Individual parameter Any Dashboard control The Dashboard control allows you to change the parameter assignment.
01112.book Page 368 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Noisiness: This slider adds an additional overlay of random variance to the Frequency you’ve set. Higher Noisiness values result in more erratic variations in the affected parameter. Link: This parameter appears when you apply this behavior to a two-dimensional parameter, such as Position or Scale, that consists of X and Y values. Turn this checkbox on to keep the behavior’s effect on each value proportional.
01112.book Page 369 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Simulation Behaviors These behaviors perform one of two tasks. Some Simulation behaviors, such as Gravity, animate the parameters of an object in a way that simulates a real-world phenomenon. Other Simulation behaviors, such as Attractor and Repel, affect the parameters of one or more objects surrounding the object to which they’re applied.
01112.book Page 370 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The Align to Motion behavior does not work on objects animated using the Motion Path behavior. Instead, use the Snap Alignment to Motion behavior (in the Basic Motion subcategory). Before using Align To Motion After using Align To Motion Unlike the Snap Alignment to Motion behavior, which produces absolute changes in rotation that precisely match changes in direction, Align To Motion has a springy reaction, and creates a more lively effect.
01112.book Page 371 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Invert Axis: A checkbox that flips the orientation with which the object aligns itself to the motion. Spring Tension: A slider that adjusts how quickly the object’s rotation changes to match a change in the object’s direction. Lower values create a delay between a change to an object’s position and its subsequent change in rotation. Higher values create more responsive changes in rotation.
01112.book Page 372 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can apply two or more Attracted To behaviors to a single object, each with a different object of attraction, to create tug-of-war situations where the object bounces among all the objects it’s attracted to. Affects Parameters affected Other objects Position Dashboard control The Dashboard has an object well you can use to assign an object of attraction, as well as controls for Strength, Falloff Type, Falloff Rate, Influence, and Drag.
01112.book Page 373 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Influence: A slider that defines the radius of the circle of influence, in pixels. Objects that fall within the area of influence move toward the object of attraction. Objects that are outside of the area of influence remain where they are. Drag: A slider that can be used to reduce the distance attracted objects overshoot the object of attraction.
01112.book Page 374 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has controls for Affect, Strength, Falloff Type, Falloff Rate, Influence, and Drag. Parameters in the Inspector Affect: A pop-up menu that limits which objects in your project are affected by the Attractor behavior. There are three options: • All Objects: All objects in the Canvas are affected by the Attractor behavior. • Related Objects: The default setting.
01112.book Page 375 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drag: A slider that can be used to reduce the distance attracted objects overshoot the object of attraction. Lower Drag values result in the object overshooting the object of attraction, moving past and then careening back around toward the target object again and again. Higher Drag values result in the object coming to rest sooner.
01112.book Page 376 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has an object well you can use to assign an object of attraction, as well as sliders for Strength and Drag. When applied to a layer or group (such as particles, text, or the replicator), the Affect Objects checkbox also appears in the Dashboard.
01112.book Page 377 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drift Attractor Similar to the Attractor behavior, but by default objects within the area of influence move toward the object of attraction and come to rest, rather than overshooting the object of attraction and bouncing around. Affects Parameters affected Other objects Position Dashboard control The Dashboard has controls for Affect, Strength, and Drag.
01112.book Page 378 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Influence: A slider that defines the radius of the circle of influence, in pixels. Objects that fall within the area of influence move toward the object of attraction. Objects that are outside of the area of influence remain where they are. Drag: A slider that can be used to reduce the distance attracted objects overshoot the object of attraction.
01112.book Page 379 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has controls for Bounce Strength and Active Edges. When applied to a layer or group (such as particles text, or the replicator), the Affect Objects checkbox also appears in the Dashboard. Parameters in the Inspector Affect Objects: This parameter appears when this behavior is applied to an object that contains multiple objects, such as a layer, particle emitter, replicator, or text object.
01112.book Page 380 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also set the Acceleration parameter to a negative value, effectively applying “anti-gravity” to the object and making it fly up. Affects Parameters affected Object Position Dashboard control The Dashboard lets you adjust the Acceleration parameter. When applied to a layer or group (such as particles text, or a replicator), the Affect Objects checkbox also appears in the Dashboard.
01112.book Page 381 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has an Object well you can use to assign an object of attraction, as well as controls for Strength, Falloff Type, Falloff Rate, Influence, Drag, and Direction. When applied to a layer or group (such as particles text, or the replicator), the Affect Objects checkbox also appears in the Dashboard. This image well defines the object of attraction.
01112.book Page 382 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Influence: A slider that defines the radius of the circle of influence, in pixels. Objects that fall within the area of influence move toward the object of attraction. Objects that are outside of the area of influence remain where they are. Drag: The default value for Orbit Around is 0, which results in a stable orbit. Any other value causes the orbit to decay and the object to spiral into the object of attraction.
01112.book Page 383 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also use the Random Motion behavior to add variation to the animation paths created by other behaviors affecting an object’s position. For example, adding Random Motion to an object with the Orbit Around behavior results in a more erratic animation path, although it still orbits as before.
01112.book Page 384 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Noisiness: A slider that determines an additional level of jaggedness along the animation path shape defined by the Amount parameter. Higher values result in a more jagged-looking animation path. Drag: A slider that controls the speed the object moves along the animation path. While the Amount parameter controls the length of the animation path, the Drag parameter shrinks or enlarges the animation path as a whole.
01112.book Page 385 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard control The Dashboard has controls for which objects are affected, Strength, Falloff Type, Falloff Rate, Influence, and Drag. Parameters in the Inspector Affect: A pop-up menu that limits which objects in your project are affected by the Repel behavior. There are three options: • All Objects: All objects in the Canvas are affected by the Repel behavior. • Related Objects: The default setting.
01112.book Page 386 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Repel From While the Repel behavior pushes other objects away, the Repel From behavior has the converse effect, making the object it’s applied to move away from a selected object in the Canvas. Affects Parameters affected Other objects Position Dashboard control The Dashboard has an image well you can use to assign an object to move away from, as well as controls for Strength, Falloff Type, Falloff Rate, Influence, and Drag.
01112.book Page 387 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drag: A slider that can be used to reduce the distance the object or objects travel away from the repelling object. Related behaviors “Repel” Rotational Drag Similar to the Drag behavior, except that it affects Rotation instead of position. Rotational Drag simulates friction affecting objects that are spinning due to keyframed or behavior-driven changes to the Rotation parameter.
01112.book Page 388 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If the Attract To object is at a stop, the resulting motion is fairly simple and the springing object moves back and forth in a straight line. If the Attract To object is in motion, the springing object’s motion will be much more complex, changing direction according to the velocity of the Attract To object. Affects Parameters affected Object Position Dashboard control An image well in the Dashboard lets you set the Attract To object.
01112.book Page 389 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Vortex The opposite of the Orbit Around behavior. While the Orbit Around behavior causes one object to orbit around another target object, the Vortex behavior exerts a force on all objects surrounding the object to which the Vortex behavior is applied.
01112.book Page 390 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Falloff Rate: This value determines how quickly the force of attraction between objects affected by this behavior falls off. When Falloff Type is set to Exponential, object attraction falls off with distance. When Falloff Type is set to Linear (default), the attraction falls off uniformly. A low Falloff Rate value results in objects quickly getting up to speed as they move toward the object of attraction.
01112.book Page 391 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The maximum speed you can define with the Dashboard is not the maximum speed possible. Higher values can be entered into the Velocity parameter in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 392 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Behavior Examples The following two examples illustrate different ways that groups of behaviors can be combined to create different effects. Example 1: Creating an Animated Title In this example, multiple behaviors are used to bring up four text objects to create a title. The first three text objects fly in from the sides, while the last text object zooms out from the center of the screen.
01112.book Page 393 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Select the top object. If necessary, choose the Motion Path behavior from the Dashboard pop-up menu to make its motion path editable. Move the start point of the motion path to the offscreen position where you want it to start, and move the end point to the onscreen position where you want it to stop. 4 Next, select the bottom object. Choose the Motion Path behavior from the Dashboard pop-up menu to make its motion path editable.
01112.book Page 394 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 6 For each object in the Layers tab, choose its Motion Path behavior from the pop-up menu in the Dashboard title bar, and choose Ease Out from the Speed pop-up menu. As a result, both objects slow down before gradually coming to a stop. 7 Now, create a text object. This is the object that will fade in and zoom up to fill the screen. Resize this object to the size you want it to be at the beginning of the sequence.
01112.book Page 395 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 10 Next, open the Inspector, and click the Behaviors tab. Choose Ramp to Final Value from the Grow/Shrink behavior’s Increment pop-up menu. This enables the Grow/Shrink Dashboard control to adjust the size of the affected object at the last frame of the behavior, so that it doesn’t grow indefinitely.
01112.book Page 396 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 14 Drag the left shaded ramp of the Fade In/Fade Out control in the Dashboard to the right to lengthen the fade in effect. 15 Drag the right shaded ramp all the way to the right, until it’s a non-shaded, vertical edge. This eliminates the fade out part of the effect, so that the center text object remains onscreen for the remainder of its duration.
01112.book Page 397 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM By default, the anchor point is located at the center of each object. Prior to adding behaviors to animate these objects, you need to move the anchor points so that the objects move the way they’re supposed to. In this example, the hands should spin about the center of the clock face, not the center of the hand itself, and the pendulum should swing from its top.
01112.book Page 398 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 Now, open the Behaviors tab, and set the Rate parameter to –49. This rotates the minute hand clockwise at a continuous rate. 5 Next, select the hour hand object, then open the Properties tab in the Inspector. Control-click its Rotation parameter, and choose Rate from the shortcut menu to apply the Rate parameter behavior to this object as well. 6 Again, open the Behaviors tab, but this time set the Rate parameter to –4.
01112.book Page 399 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 7 Now it’s time to make the pendulum swing. Select the pendulum object. You should have already adjusted its anchor point to be at the top. This way, the bottom pendulum object will swing properly. Open the Behaviors tab, Control-click the Rotation parameter, but this time choose Oscillate from the shortcut menu to add the Oscillate parameter behavior. 8 Open the Behaviors tab.
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01112.book Page 401 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 6 Keyframes and Curves 6 Whether you want to send clips flying around the screen or animate individual filter settings on the fly, keyframes allow you to modify any parameter over time with extreme precision. This chapter discusses how to create and edit keyframes in Motion. While behaviors are ideal for instantly adding complex motion or effects to an object, keyframes provide additional precision and flexibility.
01112.book Page 402 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animation in Motion There are several different places in Motion where you can create and edit keyframes and the values between them, which are represented by animation curves. For example, you can animate basic properties such as scale, rotation, and screen position by simply manipulating the object directly in the Canvas when the Record button is enabled. Record button When Record is enabled, a keyframe is created for any parameter that is adjusted.
01112.book Page 403 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also use the Dashboard and the Inspector to set and modify values for nearly every option in the application. Any time you adjust a slider or other control, you have the option of locking that change to the current frame, thereby setting a keyframe. From that point on, no matter what else you do, that parameter always finds its way to that specific value when playback reaches that frame.
01112.book Page 404 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also view and modify keyframes in the Timeline by clicking the Show/Hide Keyframes button. Keyframes appear as small blue (or white, when selected) diamonds beneath their parent object. Show/Hide Keyframes Button Selected keyframe In the Keyframe Editor, you can see and manipulate a graph for every parameter in the application.
01112.book Page 405 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animating in the Canvas The easiest way to perform basic keyframing is to modify objects directly in the Canvas. The most common effects that you can create with keyframes are changes to Scale, Rotation, and Position. Additional parameters that can be keyframed in the Canvas include Shear, Pivot, Drop Shadow, Crop, and Four Corner.
01112.book Page 406 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The object is scaled over the interval you set. In this same way, you can keyframe any of the transformation parameters for your object. You can also Control-click the object to display the Transform shortcut menu where you can choose to modify the Pivot, Shear, Drop Shadow, Four Corner, and Crop parameters. When set to Transform, you can scale the object by its corners and rotate it by using the center control.
01112.book Page 407 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: To view the animation paths of keyframed objects, ensure Animation Path is selected in the View pop-up menu. When the Record button is off, changes you make modify the entire animation globally. For example, if an object is keyframed to fly from the lower left to the center of the screen, dragging the object to the right when the Record button is off moves the entire path to the right.
01112.book Page 408 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Place the object in a starting position. 4 Move the playhead forward. 5 Drag the object to the ending position you want. 6 Click the Record button (or press A) to turn off keyframe recording. If you play back your project, the object flies from position one to position two over the interval you set. You can see the path the object travels by turning on the Animation Path setting in the View pop-up menu above the Canvas.
01112.book Page 409 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Manipulating Animation Paths When the path is displayed, you can directly manipulate the keyframes to reposition them and change the path that the object follows. To add keyframes to an animation path: 1 Option-click the path. A new point is added. 2 Drag it to the new position. You can convert a keyframe into a Bezier point to create a curved path. This can be done either as you create the keyframe, or after the keyframe has been created.
01112.book Page 410 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To animate a clip’s opacity: 1 Click the Record button to enable record (or press A). 2 Place the playhead at the frame where you want to begin the fade. 3 Click the Opacity slider handle in the Dashboard. Even if you don’t change the slider’s value, clicking it sets a keyframe at that point in time.
01112.book Page 411 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animating Filters In addition to making changes to a clip’s basic attributes, keyframing can be used to modify nearly every parameter in the application. When the Record button is activated, any parameter displayed on the Dashboard becomes keyframeable. For example, as you apply filters to objects, the most important parameters are displayed on the Dashboard. Using keyframes, you can animate those parameters.
01112.book Page 412 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 7 Set the slider to a new value. New playhead position 8 Click the Record button (or press A) to disable record. The filter now changes over time to reflect your settings. This same technique can be applied to any parameter in any filter that appears in the Dashboard. Animating Behaviors In addition to animating filter parameters, you can also animate behaviors.
01112.book Page 413 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 6 Move the playhead to a new time position. 7 Adjust the behavior settings again. 8 Click the Record button to disable record (or press A). Combining Behaviors and Keyframes Since it is possible to add keyframes to an object that may already have a behavior (or many behaviors) applied, it is possible that these two methods could conflict.
01112.book Page 414 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you get the hang of how it works, you can use this method to enhance and control the effects of behaviors. For example, you could apply a Gravity behavior which causes an object to fall toward the bottom of the frame, but keyframe the object’s position to move across the screen from left to right. In this way, you can create the effect of the object falling as it moves.
01112.book Page 415 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 Click the Inspector tab where the parameter you want to modify is located (filters in this example). 6 Set the parameter to the beginning value. 7 Move the playhead to a new position. 8 In the Inspector, change the parameter to a new value. 9 Click the Record button (or press A) again to disable record. The parameter now changes over time.
01112.book Page 416 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Enable Animation: This menu item remains unavailable until animation is applied to the channel either by using the Record button or by directly adding a keyframe. Once the channel has at least one keyframe set, the menu item is automatically renamed Disable Animation. Choosing Disable Animation at that point effectively hides the keyframes you have set, restoring the parameter to its default value. However, the keyframes are not thrown away.
01112.book Page 417 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 To set another keyframe for the same parameter, move the playhead to the next location and adjust the parameter. A keyframe is automatically added when you change the parameter. To navigate to a keyframe: 1 Click the Animation menu for the parameter containing the keyframe you seek.
01112.book Page 418 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animation Menu States Depending on whether or not a parameter is currently animated, and whether or not the playhead is positioned on a keyframe, the Animation menu displays a different icon. This provides the ability to determine the status of that parameter at a glance.
01112.book Page 419 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animating in the Timeline When keyframing, it is often very helpful to view your keyframes over time. This lets you line up keyframes with other important timing elements in your project such as edit points, sound cues, markers, and even other keyframes. These functions are available in the Timeline. Keyframes In order to view your keyframes in the Timeline, you must first turn on the Show Keyframes option.
01112.book Page 420 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can identify a keyframe’s value in the shortcut menu. Multiple keyframes on the same frame are all listed in the menu. m To find a keyframe’s value: Control-click the keyframe. A shortcut menu appears. The first items in the list are the keyframe values for any keyframes on that frame. Note: There is no way to add keyframes in the Timeline.
01112.book Page 421 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Control-clicking a keyframe displays a shortcut menu containing the parameter name and value for each keyframe. If more than one keyframe is at the same point in time, the shortcut menu lists all of them. 3 Drag the keyframe until it lines up with the edge of the object. If you press the Shift key while you drag, the keyframe snaps to the edges of other objects.
01112.book Page 422 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM One great way to do this is to use time markers. Simply identify the important frame with a marker and drag the keyframe until it lines up with the marker. Markers create snap points, so pressing Shift while you drag a keyframe makes it snap to markers. To learn more about setting markers, see “Adding Markers” on page 312. To align a keyframe with a marker: 1 Click the Show/Hide Keyframes button in the Timeline.
01112.book Page 423 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Trimming Keyframed Effects When the duration of an effect such as a filter or behavior in the Timeline is changed, keyframes applied to that object are scaled accordingly. This means that an effect keyframed to change over time speeds up or slows down if the object it is applied to is shortened or lengthened. Before After Changing the duration of an object does not modify keyframes applied to attributes in the Properties or Object tab in the Inspector.
01112.book Page 424 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can prevent this automatic resizing by pressing Command while resizing an effect object. This changes the overall duration of the effect, but does not alter the speed at which the effect changes as determined by the keyframes. Pressing Command while you resize an object with effects applied trims the object without trimming the effects. This works the same way as trimming a layer without modifying the durations of the component elements.
01112.book Page 425 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Viewing the curves for your animated parameters gives you another way to understand how your effect is changing over time. The curves are laid out over a graph where you can compare the curves of different parameters. As you get more familiar with “reading” the graphs, you will learn how and why certain effects feel organic or synthetic.
01112.book Page 426 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Check Your Selection The parameters that are available in the Keyframe Editor depend on which objects are selected in the other windows. If you select one item in the Layers tab, Canvas, or Timeline windows, only parameters for that object are accessible in the Keyframe Editor.
01112.book Page 427 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Current Frame Field This control lets you instantly jump to any frame in your project. Since it is also a value slider, you can drag it to move the playhead to a new frame. m To move to a frame, do one of the following: Double-click in the value field, type a frame number, then press Return. The playhead moves to the specified frame. m Drag the Current Frame value slider left or right. Dragging to the left moves the playhead earlier in time.
01112.book Page 428 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Reset Parameter: Removes all keyframes and settings for this parameter. The parameter value is reset to its default value. • Add Keyframe: Adds a keyframe at the current frame in the mini-Timeline. If the playhead is positioned on a frame where a keyframe has already been added, this command is unavailable. Note: As mentioned in the Animation menu section, you can use a keyboard shortcut to quickly add a keyframe by pressing Control+K.
01112.book Page 429 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Filtering Controls Effective use of the Keyframe Editor requires controlling the list of parameters currently on display in the graph area. While you may want quick access to all of the different parameters you may be animating, displaying too many parameters at once makes the graph difficult to read. Motion provides the ability to store sets of parameters to facilitate this management.
01112.book Page 430 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This option shows only the parameter(s) currently being modified. When this option is selected, nothing appears in the Keyframe Editor unless you are actively modifying an object (in the Canvas, Inspector, or Dashboard). For example, when Active is selected and you are moving an object around in the Canvas, the X and Y Position parameters and curves are displayed.
01112.book Page 431 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m Click the Animation menu for that parameter, then choose Show in Keyframe Editor. The parameter is added to the custom curve set. Note: If Animated is chosen from the Show pop-up menu when you use the Show in Keyframe Editor command from the Animation menu, a new untitled curve set is automatically created. m m To delete parameters from a custom set: Drag the parameter out of the list. It disappears with a “poof.
01112.book Page 432 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To delete a custom parameter set: 1 Choose Manage Curve Sets from the Show pop-up menu. The Manage Curve Sets dialog appears. 2 Select the name of the set you want to delete. 3 Click the Delete (–) button at the top of the dialog. The set is deleted. 4 Click Done to close the dialog. To duplicate a custom parameter set: 1 Choose Manage Curve Sets from the Show pop-up menu. The Manage Curve Sets dialog appears.
01112.book Page 433 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Curve Graph A graph appears to the right of the parameter list and displays the curves for your selected parameters. The graph has a time ruler at the top and a zoom/scroll control at the bottom that are identical to the corresponding controls in the Timeline. These allow you to identify at what time keyframes appear, as well as see project markers, playback In and Out points, and the playhead.
01112.book Page 434 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m Double-click the keyframe you want to modify, type the new value into the value field, then press Return. This changes the value of the keyframe along the Y axis (up and down). Note: To get out of an active value field without making any changes, press Esc. m Drag in the value slider in the parameter list. • • • • Drag to the right to increase the value of the keyframe along the Y axis.
01112.book Page 435 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Curves created when new keyframes are added are set to the linear interpolation method. For more information on interpolation methods, see “Modifying Curves” on page 437. m To delete a keyframe, do one of the following: Select the keyframe, then press Delete. Note: You can drag to select multiple keyframes. m Control-click the keyframe, then choose Delete from the shortcut menu.
01112.book Page 436 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To select keyframes, do one of the following: Drag a selection box around the keyframes you want to select. Shift-click the keyframes you want to select. If only the curve (and not the keyframes) appear white, the keyframes are not selected. Selected keyframes appear white. Once you have the keyframes selected, you can cut or copy them to move them to the Clipboard. m m To copy selected keyframes: Choose Edit > Copy (or press Command+C).
01112.book Page 437 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To paste keyframes: 1 Select the destination parameter in the parameter list. 2 Place the playhead at the point in time where you want the keyframes to begin. 3 Choose Edit > Paste (or press Command+V). Pasted keyframes may not make an identical-looking curve to the original if the parameter scales are different.
01112.book Page 438 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To set an interpolation method on a curve segment: Control-click the segment, then choose an interpolation method from the Interpolation submenu. You can set different interpolation methods for different segments of the same curve.
01112.book Page 439 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The different interpolation methods are described in the table below. Interpolation method Example Description Constant Holds the keyframe at its current value when applied to a segment or keyframe and then changes suddenly to the new value when the next keyframe occurs. Linear When applied to a keyframe, creates a uniform distribution of values through the keyframe from its two adjacent keyframes.
01112.book Page 440 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To change the interpolation method for an entire parameter: In the Keyframe Editor, click the Animation menu and choose an method from the Interpolation submenu. The selected interpolation method (Constant in this example) is applied to the entire curve. Convert to Bezier Bezier interpolation method is the most flexible, allowing manual modification of the curve. Motion lets you convert any keyframe into a Bezier keyframe quickly and easily.
01112.book Page 441 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Bezier handles appear and your mouse movement automatically controls one of the handles. Note: Command-clicking a Bezier point resets it to Linear interpolation. To simultaneously modify the handles for more than one control point, Shift-select the points and then adjust the tangents. If there are no tangents on the point, Commanddrag the point.
01112.book Page 442 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Choose a setting from the Before First Keyframe submenu. To set the After Last Keyframe setting for a parameter: 1 Click the Animation menu for the parameter you want to change. 2 Choose a setting from the After Last Keyframe submenu. The following table describes the extrapolation options.
01112.book Page 443 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Generate Keyframes Ordinarily the extrapolation occurs without actually creating any new keyframes. This lets you experiment with different methods. However, you can convert an extrapolation method into actual keyframes so you can further manipulate them. This is done using the Generate Keyframes command. You can choose how many of the extrapolation cycles you want converted into keyframes.
01112.book Page 444 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Generate Keyframes dialog appears. 2 Choose the number of cycles you want to be keyframed. 3 Click OK to confirm your selection. Control Buttons In the Keyframe Editor, three buttons provide additional control over the Keyframe Editor window: Snapping, “Show audio waveform,” and “Fit visible curves in window.” Snapping: When Snapping is enabled, keyframes snap to markers, other keyframes, and other snappable items.
01112.book Page 445 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM “Show audio waveform”: Turns on display of the audio waveforms for the selected item in the background of the graph. This lets you line up an effect to take place at the same time as an event that occurs in the audio. “Show audio waveform” enabled “Fit visible curves in window”: Automatically scales the graph vertically to include all of the keyframes of your active parameters.
01112.book Page 446 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The values of your keyframes are not changed. Auto-Scaling: Auto-Scaling mode continuously stretches the graph to fit all of the curves currently in view. m To turn on automatic scaling: Click the “Auto-scale vertically” button at the right edge of the ruler. “Auto-scale vertically” button When “Auto-scale vertically” is on, the range of the graph increases to accommodate your entire curve even as you change it.
01112.book Page 447 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For example, it is not until you see all of the various elements in your project in concert that you can know whether each part is behaving as it should. One object may be fading too slowly and making another element hard to see, or a text element might come and go so quickly that it cannot be read. With keyframing on the fly, you can make adjustments to any slider or parameter in the program while your project is playing.
01112.book Page 448 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Handmade Motion in the Canvas One of the most common uses for animating on the fly is to create handmade animation paths. Although you can choose from a variety of curve types, it is very difficult to get the semi-random movement except by sketching with your mouse or pen. To create a handmade animation path in the Canvas: 1 Enable Record (press A). 2 Click the Play button to begin playback.
01112.book Page 449 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In many cases, the curve created by your animation can be represented using fewer keyframes. Often, this will provide a smoother rate of change and will enable you to take advantage of the various interpolation methods such as Ease In and Ease Out. You can simplify your keyframes in two ways, either while you are recording them, or afterwards, by simplifying an existing channel.
01112.book Page 450 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Off: No thinning is applied. Keyframes are applied at every frame where the parameter is changed. Reduced: Motion eliminates keyframes that can easily be replaced with a simple curve. Peaks Only: Only keyframes with dramatic value changes are recorded. Disabling Animation While Playing If you leave the Record button on, keyframes are added whenever you make adjustments.
01112.book Page 451 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To disable animation recording while playing: 1 Choose Mark > Recording Options. The Recording Options dialog appears. 2 Turn on “Don’t Record keyframes during playback.” 3 Click OK. Recording Keyframes on Animated Parameters Only When “Record keyframes on animated parameters only” is turned on, keyframes are added only to parameters that are already animated.
01112.book Page 452 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 Choose Mark > Recording Options, and turn on “Record keyframes on animated parameters only” in the Recording Options dialog, then click OK. 6 Go to a frame in between the two position keyframes, and move the shape in the Canvas. A third position keyframe is added. 7 At frame 1 (Home), click the Fill color well in the shape’s Dashboard, then change the color of the object.
01112.book Page 453 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 7 Using Text 7 Text, one of the most essential motion graphics elements and sometime savage beast, has just been taught to “behave” in Motion. In motion graphics, type has become more than words that provide basic information.
01112.book Page 454 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Text in Motion Text is added to your project directly in the Canvas—select the Text tool, click in the Canvas, then start typing. Once a text object is created, you can add and edit text in the Canvas or in the Text Editor in the Format pane of the Text Inspector. Once a text object is created, you can put the text on a line or elliptical path, which can be animated. When text is created, it becomes a text object.
01112.book Page 455 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you create the perfect text treatment—a customized text behavior or a text object with the perfect gradient colors and glow—you can save the behavior or the text style in the Library for use on another text object or in a future project.
01112.book Page 456 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Setting Object Duration Preferences Before you start any project, it is recommended that you set up Motion Preferences according to your project requirements. When working with text, you can specify that a text object is created at the current frame (the frame where the playhead is at the time you add the text object), or at the start of the project. By default, objects are created at the current frame.
01112.book Page 457 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • To create objects at the start of the project, select “Start of project.” This means that all objects are created at the beginning of the project by default, regardless of where the playhead is when the object is created. Create Objects At options Working With Text In Motion, you create text directly in the Canvas using the Text tool.
01112.book Page 458 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To add text in the Canvas: 1 In the Layers list, select the layer to which you want to add text. Note: If no layer is selected, a new layer is created to contain the text object. 2 In the Toolbar, click the Text tool (or press T). Text tool 3 Click in the Canvas. The cursor flashes in the Canvas at the insertion point. Before you enter any text, a “blank” text object is added to the Layers tab and Timeline Layer list, and the Text Dashboard appears.
01112.book Page 459 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Important: Once you have finished typing your text, be sure to press Esc or select another tool on the Toolbar—do not use a keyboard shortcut. When the Text tool is selected, you are in text-entry mode, so if you press S to select the Select/Transform tool, an “S” is added to your text rather than the tool being changed. Text as an Object Once created, text becomes an object.
01112.book Page 460 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Text Dashboard The Text Dashboard contains some of the most commonly-adjusted text parameters, such as opacity, type family, and color. Note: If no Dashboard is present, press D to display the text object Dashboard. Typeface pop-up menu Family Opacity: By default, the opacity of a text object is set to 100 percent. Use the slider to change the opacity value.
01112.book Page 461 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Family: By default, a text object’s font family is set to Geneva (if installed on your system). To change the font of the selected text object, choose a font from the pop-up menu. Typeface: Choose the type style, such as Bold, Italic, and so on from the Typeface popup menu. The available typefaces are specific to the selected font family. Color: A text object’s color is white by default.
01112.book Page 462 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The text Size sliders (in the Dashboard and in the Inspector) are limited to 288 points. To set the text to a larger point size, type a number in the Size field in the Format pane of the Text Inspector. Text Size field Tracking: Tracking applies a uniform value between each character. Tracking is set to 0 by default.
01112.book Page 463 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To display the Inspector: 1 Select the text object. 2 Do one of the following: • Choose Window > Inspector. • Click the “i” button on the Dashboard. • Press Command+3. The Inspector contains all text parameters divided into three tabs: Format, Style, and Paragraph. For more information, see “Editing Text in the Inspector” on page 473.
01112.book Page 464 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Dashboards You can display a Dashboard for any object in Motion. To display a Dashboard, select the object, then press D (or F7). The Dashboard that is displayed represents the currently selected object. The parameters contained in a Dashboard depend on the type of object selected. For example, a text object Dashboard displays text-specific parameters, such as Typeface and Line Spacing.
01112.book Page 465 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Previewing Fonts You can use the Fonts category in the Library to browse and preview fonts. When a typeface is selected in the Library stack, a preview of the font is displayed in the Preview area of the Library. To preview a font in the Library: 1 In the Library, click the Fonts category. 2 Click the font subcategory you want to preview. Note: The first subcategory, All Fonts, contains all fonts from the other subcategories.
01112.book Page 466 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Preview area Font subcategory Stack Changing Fonts There are two ways to use the Library font browser to change the typeface of a text object. The first method is to drag a font to a text object in the Canvas. The second method is to select a text object, select a typeface in the Library, then click the Apply button in the Preview area.
01112.book Page 467 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Drag the font onto the text object in the Canvas. As you drag the font over the text object, a transparent thumbnail of the font appears and the pointer includes the green add pointer (+). When you release the mouse button, the text object is changed to the selected font. To change the typeface of a text object with the Apply button: 1 Select the text object to which you want to apply a new font.
01112.book Page 468 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 In the Preview area, click Apply. Apply button The text object is changed to the selected font. Navigating the Font Browser Lists To quickly locate a font by its name in the font stack, you can type the first letter of the font name in the browser. For particularly unruly font lists (admit it, you have one), you can quickly type the first few letters of the font name to select the font.
01112.book Page 469 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This section discusses the tools that can be used to create and modify text objects. The following interface tools are used to edit text in Motion: • Toolbar • Text Dashboards • Text Inspector Note: When a text object is selected, you can use the standard onscreen controls to move and animate the text object in the Canvas. Text Tool and the Toolbar The Text tool is located in the Toolbar above the Canvas in the Create group.
01112.book Page 470 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding Text With the Text Tool Text is added to a project with the Text tool. m m To add text to your project, do one of the following: Click the Text tool (or press T), click in the Canvas, then begin typing. Click the Text tool, then drag in the Canvas to draw a custom margin. Once the margin is drawn, release the mouse button and begin typing.
01112.book Page 471 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m In the Text Inspector, click the Layout pane and adjust the Left, Right, Top, or Bottom Margin values. Margin controls m To select text characters of a text object, do one of the following: Select the Text tool, then drag the text you want to select.
01112.book Page 472 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Click in the Text Editor and begin typing. Text Editor Note: Since the default text Layout Method is set to Type, when text is entered in the Text Editor, there are no set margins, and the text continues in one line unless you manually enter a line break. For more information on text layout, see “Editing Text Layout” on page 513. You can also edit existing text objects in the Text Editor, including using the Mac OS X spelling feature.
01112.book Page 473 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To use the spelling feature in the Text Editor, do one of the following: Click in the Text Editor, then choose an option from the Edit > Spelling submenu. Control-click in the Text Editor, then choose a command from the pop-up menu. Note: The spelling feature is not available when working with text in the Canvas. Editing Text in the Inspector All text controls are located in the Text tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 474 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To reset a group of parameters, such as the text Face controls or the Sequence controls of a text behavior, click the Reset button in the Inspector. To reset a single parameter within a group, click the Animation menu, then choose Reset Parameter. Reset button Editing Text Format The Text Format pane contains the controls for text basics such as font, typeface, size, kerning, and character rotation.
01112.book Page 475 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Text Format Controls This section describes the text Format parameters. Of the following Format parameters, Family, Typeface, Size, and Tracking also appear in the Text Dashboard. Font Type: This parameter provides two methods for font filtering and selection: • Make a choice from the pop-up menu (set to System Fonts by default) to filter which fonts appear in the Collection and Family lists (see below).
01112.book Page 476 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The font family list appears. Font Family list arrow 3 Drag the pointer in the font list, and scrub up or down to select your font. As you drag through the font family list, the text changes in the Canvas to the currently selected font. 4 Once you have chosen a font, release the mouse button. Note: You can also use the scroll bar to move up and down the font list, or the wheel of a three-button mouse.
01112.book Page 477 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tracking: Determines the spacing between the characters of a text object. Tracking applies a uniform value between each character. Kerning: Adjusts the spacing between individual characters of a text object. To kern the individual characters in a text object: 1 Click the Text tool (or press T).
01112.book Page 478 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Slant: Simulates italics by adding a slant value to the characters of a text object. Scale: Scales the characters of the text object either proportionately in X or in Y. To scale in only X or Y, click the disclosure triangle to enter separate X and Y scale values. In the following image, the text object’s X Scale is set to 50 percent, and the Y Scale is set to 100 percent.
01112.book Page 479 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Text Face Controls Use the text Face controls to specify whether the text is a solid color, a color gradient, or a texture. The following section describes the Face parameters. Nearly all of the Face parameters can be animated. Face: Enables and disables the face (fill) of the text object. Face is enabled by default. Fill with: Click the “Fill with” pop-up menu to set the fill for the text object to Color, Gradient, or Texture.
01112.book Page 480 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Click the color well, then use the Colors window to set the text color. The text object is dynamically updated as you select your color. Note: To select a color from the Canvas (or anything on the desktop), click the color picker in the Colors window, position the picker over the color you want to select, then click. The Colors window is the Mac OS X Colors window. Color picker To set the text object color in the Inspector: 1 Select the text object.
01112.book Page 481 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can also Control-click a color well and drag in the pop-up color palette to select a color. Drag to lighten or darken the selected color. Displays original color Displays new color To adjust the individual color channels: 1 In the Inspector, click the Color disclosure triangle to show the channel parameters. Expanded disclosure triangle displaying color channels 2 Use the sliders or value sliders to adjust the value of each color channel.
01112.book Page 482 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The gradient controls for a text object are nearly equivalent to the gradient controls for shapes and particles, with a few parameter exceptions. For example, the text gradient controls include a dial to specify the direction of a linear gradient. The shape gradient controls include a start and end setting to specify the direction of a linear gradient.
01112.book Page 483 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying a Preset Gradient to a Text Object There are two ways to apply a preset (or saved) gradient from the Library to a text object. The first method is by using the Gradient Preset pop-up menu in the Text Inspector. The second method is to drag a gradient from the Library to a text object. To apply a preset gradient in the Text Inspector: 1 Make sure a gradient is applied to the text object to which you want to apply a preset gradient.
01112.book Page 484 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To apply a preset gradient from the Library: 1 In the Library, click the Gradients category. 2 In the stack, select a gradient. A preview of the selected gradient appears in the Preview area. 3 Do one of the following: • Drag the gradient to the text object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline. • Make sure the text object is selected, then click Apply in the Preview area.
01112.book Page 485 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Gradient Editor Use the Gradient Editor to change the color, color position, number of colors, opacity, and direction of a gradient. The color and opacity of a gradient can be animated. Important: The following sections assume that a text object is selected, and Gradient is chosen from the “Fill with” pop-up menu in the Face parameter group.
01112.book Page 486 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The color controls for the selected color tag are enabled. In the Color controls, you can either click the color well to show the Colors window, or use the individual color channel controls to set a new color for the tag. Red gradient color tag is selected Note: Like the color wells, you can Control-click a gradient color tag and drag in the pop-up color palette to select a color.
01112.book Page 487 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To change the spread of a gradient color: Drag the small triangle between the color tags to change the location of the spread. The closer the triangle is to a color tag, the sharper the spread between the gradient colors. The Location parameter is also updated as you move the spread control, indicating its position on the gradient.
01112.book Page 488 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM A new opacity tag is added to the gradient. New opacity tag Opacity bar Until the value is adjusted, the gradient opacity is 100 percent. To change the opacity of a gradient color: 1 In the opacity bar of the Gradient Editor, click an opacity tag. The Opacity controls are enabled. Selected opacity tag Opacity controls 2 Use the slider or value slider to change the value of the opacity.
01112.book Page 489 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing color and opacity direction and distribution You can quickly reverse the direction or evenly distribute the gradient color and opacity tags. m To reverse the gradient color or opacity direction: Click the Reverse Tags icon next to the opacity or lower gradient bars. Reverse Tags icon (opacity) Reverse Tags icon (color) Once the color Reverse Tags icon is clicked, the color tags are reversed.
01112.book Page 490 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the Save Preset To Library dialog, type the name of the gradient. 4 Click Save. The custom gradient appears in the Gradients category in the Library. Custom presets can be identified in the Library by the small user icon that appears in the lower-right corner of the larger gradient icon. The new gradient also appears in the Gradient Preset pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 491 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Like the preset gradients, a preview of the gradient appears in the Preview area when the gradient is selected in the stack. Applying Parameter Behaviors to Gradients To create unique gradient effects, you can apply Parameter behaviors to gradient parameters such as Opacity, Location, Start and End points, and Color. This is accomplished in the same manner as applying a Parameter behavior to any other parameter in Motion.
01112.book Page 492 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: The Parameter behavior can be applied to any parameter that appears in the Apply To pop-up menu. 5 Click the Play button (or press the Space bar). 6 In the Randomize parameters, do the following: • Increase the Amount slider to approximately .5. • Decrease the Frequency to approximately 5 so the color changes occur less often. • Set Noise to 0 so the color changes are smoother.
01112.book Page 493 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Color controls are replaced with the Texture controls. 5 Click the Texture disclosure triangle. Image well By default, no texture is applied to the text object. 6 In the Layers or Media tab (of the Project pane), drag the image you want to use for the texture to the Image well. The image appears in the well and is applied to the text object. Important: When selecting an image to put into the Image well, be sure to click and drag in one movement.
01112.book Page 494 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To replace a texture: 1 Select the text object and display the expanded Texture controls. 2 In the Layers or Media tab, drag the image you want to use to replace the existing texture to the Image well. The new image appears in the well and is applied to the text object. Note: When footage is replaced in the Layers tab or Media tab, and that footage is used as a texture source, the texture is replaced for the text object with the new footage.
01112.book Page 495 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing a Texture If you are using an image sequence or movie as the texture source of a text object, you can specify the start frame for the texture, or choose to hold a single frame for the texture. You can also adjust the position of a texture that is applied to a text object so that it is offset in the text object, but not repositioned in your project.
01112.book Page 496 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Mirror: Beyond the edge of the source image, the texture source is reflected like in a mirror—duplicated, tiled, and alternately reversed to encompass the full width and height of the text object. Animating a Texture You can set keyframes for the offset values of the texture source to create a moving element within your text object. In the following example, an image of a leopard lying in the grass is used as the texture source for the text “leopard.
01112.book Page 497 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Press Command, then drag in the Image well. • Use the Offset sliders or value sliders to enter an offset value. The image within the text moves, and a keyframe is created in the Offset parameters. Text object with texture applied 5 Go to the next frame where you want to set a keyframe.
01112.book Page 498 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 6 Move the texture to the new position. Repositioned text object texture 7 Go to frame 1 (or the start frame of your animation) and play the clip. The texture offset is animated. 8 Disable Record. Note: You can also use the Animation menu in the Inspector to manually set keyframes without enabling Record. For more information, see “Keyframes and Curves” on page 401.
01112.book Page 499 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using an Object With Behaviors and Filters as a Texture Source You can use an object (image, movie, image sequence, shape, or layer) that has applied behaviors and filters as the texture source for a text object. If the object has active filters, the result of the filters is respected in the texture source. In other words, you can see the result of the filters in the texture.
01112.book Page 500 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To use a text object to mask an image: 1 In the Layers tab or Canvas, select the object or layer you want to use as the texture. Selected image to be masked by text object Artwork provided courtesy of Adam Cetorelli, ©2004 2 Choose Object > Add Image Mask (or press Shift+Command+M). A blank image mask object is added to the image.
01112.book Page 501 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • The Mask Source well in the Image Mask Dashboard • The Image Mask object in the Layers tab (drop the text object on the Image Mask object in the Layers tab) • The Image well in the Image Mask tab of the Inspector The text object masks the image. For more information, see “Using Shapes and Masks” on page 819. Changing Text Opacity Use the Opacity slider or value field in the Dashboard or in the Inspector to adjust the opacity of a text object.
01112.book Page 502 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The text object opacity is dynamically updated as you drag the slider. To set the opacity in the Inspector: 1 Select the text object. 2 In the Inspector (press Command+3), click the Text tab. 3 Click Style. 4 In the Face controls, drag the Opacity slider or enter an opacity value in the field. Note: Because a text object is like other objects in Motion, you can also adjust its opacity in the Properties tab.
01112.book Page 503 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Changing Text Softness Use the Blur parameter in the Style pane of the Text Inspector to adjust the softness of the text object. To adjust the softness in the Inspector: 1 Select the text object. 2 In the Inspector (press Command+3), click the Text tab. 3 Click Style. 4 In the Face controls, drag the Blur slider, or enter a blur amount in the value slider. Blur parameter The text object softness is dynamically updated as you drag the slider.
01112.book Page 504 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Width: Sets the thickness of the outline. Layer Order: Specifies whether the outline is drawn over or under the text object face. Adding a Text Outline To create a text outline, turn on Outline in the Style pane of the Text Inspector. To create an outline for a text object: 1 Select the text object. 2 In the Inspector (press Command+3), click the Text tab. 3 Click Style. 4 In the Outline controls, turn on Outline.
01112.book Page 505 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To set the layer order of a text outline: Make a choice from the Layer Order pop-up menu. • Choose Under Face to place the outline behind the text face. • Choose Over Face to place the outline in front of the text face. Note: The Outline fill controls—Color, Gradient, and Texture—are equivalent to the controls for the Face parameters. For information on using these controls, see “Text Face Controls” on page 479.
01112.book Page 506 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding a Text Glow To create a text glow, enable the Glow parameter in the Style pane of the Text Inspector. To create a glow for a text object: 1 Select the text object. 2 In the Inspector (press Command+3), then click the Text tab. 3 Click Style. 4 Turn on Glow. The default glow is yellow, with Scale and Opacity set to 100 percent, and a Radius set to 1.
01112.book Page 507 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To adjust the position of the glow: Use the Offset value sliders to change the position of the glow. The left value slider is X, and the right value slider is Y. To display the individual X or Y offset fields, click the Offset disclosure triangle. To set the layer order of the glow: Make a choice from the Layer Order pop-up menu. • Choose Under Face to place the glow behind the text face.
01112.book Page 508 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding a Drop Shadow To create a text drop shadow, enable the Drop Shadow parameter in the Style pane of the Text Inspector. To add a drop shadow: 1 Select the text object. 2 In the Inspector (press Command+3), click the Text tab. 3 Click Style. 4 In the Drop Shadow parameters, turn on Drop Shadow. The default black drop shadow is applied to the text object.
01112.book Page 509 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To change the angle of the shadow from the text object: Drag the Angle dial in a circular motion or use the value slider. Note: The Shadow fill controls—Color, Gradient, and Texture—are equivalent to the controls for the Face parameters. Using and Creating Text Styles The Motion Library contains a set of preset text styles that you can easily apply to text objects in your project.
01112.book Page 510 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To apply a text style from the Library: 1 In the Library (press Command+2), select the Text Styles category. 2 Select a style from the stack. A preview of the style is displayed in the Preview area. 3 Do one of the following: • Select the text object to which you want to apply the style, then click the Apply button in the Preview area. • Drag the style from the stack to the text object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline.
01112.book Page 511 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The text style is applied to the text object. To apply a text style from the Text Inspector: 1 Select the text object to which you want to apply a style. 2 In the Style pane of the Text Inspector, click the Style Preset pop-up menu, then choose a style. Style Preset pop-up menu The text style is applied to the text object.
01112.book Page 512 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Saving a Custom Text Style Once you have modified parameters in the Style pane (such as Gradient or Glow) or Format pane (such as Tracking or Slant), you can save the style that you have created to the Text Styles category in the Library. These custom styles can then be used and applied just like the preset styles. Note: Any custom presets that you save to the Library are stored in /Home/Library/ Application Support/Motion/Library/Text Styles.
01112.book Page 513 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The custom preset is saved to the Text Styles category in the Library. Custom presets can be identified in the Library by the small user icon that appears in the lower-right corner of the larger text style icon. Customized text style saved in Library Editing Text Layout The Text Layout pane contains controls for type layout, such as setting margins, alignment, justification, and line spacing.
01112.book Page 514 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To show the Text Layout pane: In the Inspector, click the Text tab, then click Layout. Text Layout Controls Use the Text Layout controls to specify general “layout” of your text. These controls allow you to make text flow in a single line, in a paragraph with set margins, or on a path. Layout Method Alignment Justification Line Spacing Layout Method: Specifies whether the text layout is set to Type, Paragraph, or Path.
01112.book Page 515 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Type On: This group of controls allows you to create a type on effect, similar to a typewriter. You can keyframe the type on effect to occur forward, backward, or move in both directions. Note: There is also a Text Animation behavior called Type On which creates a forward type on effect without setting any keyframes.
01112.book Page 516 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Example: Creating a Type On Effect In this example, a text object is set to type on from right to left. To create a type on effect: 1 Select the text object. 2 Go to the frame where you want the animation to begin. 3 Enable Record. Record button 4 In the Layout pane, set the End value of the Type On parameters to 0. The text disappears (is “typed off”). Note: You can also use the Animation menu rather then enabling Record in the transport controls.
01112.book Page 517 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The text object is typed on. To create a type on effect in which the text characters “pop” on, turn off Fade In. Note: You can use the Type On parameter when the text Layout Method is set to Type, Paragraph (multiline text object), or Path. Tip: Remember that you can apply Parameter behaviors to nearly any parameter in Motion.
01112.book Page 518 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Path Shape: Sets the shape of the path to Line or Loop. Path Offset: Determines where the text begins on the path. Animate this value to move text along a path. At 0 percent, the first character of the text object is at the left end of the path; at 100 percent, the first character is at the right end of the path. Inside Path: When the Inside Path checkbox is on, the baseline of text on a loop path is shifted so the text appears inside of the loop.
01112.book Page 519 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying the Path Shape Keep in mind that the Text tool must be selected to view and edit the text path. Use the following guidelines to modify the shape of the path: • Drag a control point to change the shape of the path. Note: Text path control points are modified in the same way as shape control points. For more information, see “Using Shapes and Masks” on page 819. • To make the text path a circle, choose Loop from the Path Shape pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 520 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Option-click or double-click the path to add a control point. • To remove a control point, select the point, then press Delete. Editing Text on a Path Text on a path can still be edited. This includes changing the Format parameters, such as font, tracking, and kerning, as well as modifying the Style parameters, such as changing the color and opacity (including applying styles or gradients).
01112.book Page 521 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When dragging, press Shift to constrain the path to a straight line. Once a path has been extended, you can add control points for extra control over the shape of the path. Animating Text on a Path Text can be animated to move across the text path. To animate text on a path: 1 Create the path for the text to travel along. 2 Go to the frame where you want to begin the animation, and enable Record.
01112.book Page 522 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM A positive value moves the text toward the right and a negative value moves the text toward the left. You can enter values greater than 100 percent or less than 0 percent in the value slider. A value greater than 100 percent moves the text completely off the path to the right; a value less than 0 percent moves the text off the path to the left.
01112.book Page 523 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Margin Options This group of controls, which becomes available when the Layout Method is set to Paragraph, sets the size and location of the text margins. Layout Method must be set to Paragraph to show the Margin controls. Margin controls Left, Right, Top, and Bottom Margins: Set the margins for the text layout in the Canvas. The Layout Method must be set to Paragraph to enable the margin parameters.
01112.book Page 524 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you release the mouse button, the insertion point flashes in the text box and you can enter text in the Canvas or the Text Editor in the Format pane. The Layout Method is automatically set to Paragraph. 2 To resize the text margins, ensure the Text tool is selected, then drag a control point on the text box.
01112.book Page 525 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Sequence Text behavior in the Text Animation group, you can create a custom animation that sequences through the characters of a text object using the text Format and Style parameters. For example, you can choose to animate the Scale, Blur, and Opacity parameters of a text object in a given sequence.
01112.book Page 526 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To apply a Text Animation behavior from the Library: 1 In the Library, select the Behaviors category and then select Text Animation from the Behaviors subcategories. Text Animation behavior subcategory Stack 2 Select a text behavior in the stack. Like other behaviors in Motion, a preview of the animation plays in the Preview area. Keep in mind that the preview merely represents the default animation of the behavior, which can be modified.
01112.book Page 527 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To apply a Text Animation behavior from the Add Behavior icon: 1 Select the text object (or objects) to which you want to apply the behavior. 2 In the Toolbar, click the Add Behavior icon, then choose a Text Animation behavior from the pop-up menu. Example: Using a Text Animation Behavior In this section, the Crawl Left behavior is used to illustrate working with the Text Animation behaviors.
01112.book Page 528 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying the Crawl Left Behavior Use the Crawl Left parameters to modify the speed, start offset, and end offset of the crawl. With the exception of parameters added to the Sequence Text behavior, all Text Animation behavior parameters appear in the Dashboard and in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector. Rate: Increases or decreases the rate of the crawl. By default, Rate is set to 10 (pixels per second).
01112.book Page 529 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the following image, the Crawl Left Rate is set to 200, and the Position Offset set to 80. Since the Rate is increased, the animation path reflects the distance the text object travels over time. Since the Position Offset is set to 80, the position of the text object is shifted by 80 pixels. End Offset: By default, the text object crawls to the end of the duration of the text object.
01112.book Page 530 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To change the In point of the Crawl Left behavior: 1 Select the Crawl Left behavior. The Crawl Left behavior is selected in the mini-Timeline. 2 Do one of the following: • In the mini-Timeline, click the left end (start) of the Crawl Left bar and drag toward the right to the frame where you want the animation to begin. As you drag, the new In point, the duration of the object (Crawl Left behavior), and the delta (amount of change) are displayed.
01112.book Page 531 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The text stops crawling when the playhead reaches the end of the Crawl Left behavior bar. Sequence Text The Sequence Text behavior allows you to select and apply text Format and Style parameters, such as Position, Color, Scale, or Opacity, and animate those parameters in sequence through the characters of a text object. For example, you can create a sequence in which the text characters fall vertically into place as they scale down, fade in, and rotate.
01112.book Page 532 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the Canvas, the text object bounding box is replaced with the sequence bounding box. Sequence bounding box Artwork provided courtesy of Adam Cetorelli ©2004 The Sequence Text Dashboard (press D) also appears and the behavior is added to the text object in the Layers tab and Timeline. Important: Before any animation can occur, you must explicitly add at least one parameter to the behavior from within the Inspector.
01112.book Page 533 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The upper area of the Sequence Text controls contains the Add and Remove pop-up menus, which are used to select parameters to add to the behavior, or to remove parameters. The second group of parameters are the Sequence controls, which include options for setting the direction of the animation, whether the animation is applied per character, per word, or per text object, and so on.
01112.book Page 534 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Often, you can enter values larger than a parameter’s slider allows by typing in the value slider. 5 Click the Play button (or press the Space bar). The first character begins at 100 percent, scales up to 350 percent, and then scales back down to 100 percent. The animation sequence moves through the text object. Small white lines represent selection. As the animation sequences through the text object, small white lines travel with the animation.
01112.book Page 535 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 7 Set Rotation to the largest (or smallest) value you want the text to rotate in your animation. In this example, Rotation is set to 90 degrees. The first character begins at 0 degrees, rotates to 90 degrees, and then rotates back to 0 degrees.
01112.book Page 536 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM All of the text characters begin at 350 percent scale and 90 degrees rotation simultaneously. Note: Make sure that the Map Animation parameter is set to To Entire Object. 9 In the Parameter row, click the Add pop-up menu, choose Face, then choose Opacity. Set the Opacity to the lowest value you want to use in your animation. In this example, Opacity is set to 0 percent so that the text characters begin completely transparent and fade in to become opaque.
01112.book Page 537 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying the Sequence Text Behavior Use the Sequence controls to repeat the animation over the duration of the text object, to randomize the order in which the effect is applied to the text characters, to change the direction of the animation, to “soften” the effect between characters, and so on. Parameter: Use the Add and Remove pop-up menus to add and remove text format and style parameters to the sequence.
01112.book Page 538 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Loops: Use the slider or value slider to set the number of times the animation sequences through the text object over its duration. Note: Loops is not available when the Traversal parameter is set to Custom. Random: Turn on this checkbox to randomize the selection of the text sequence. For example, a text sequence (using the Scale parameter) set to Ramp scales the text characters from one end of the text object to the other.
01112.book Page 539 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Word: Selects the separate words of a text object to be affected by the values set in the applied parameters. • Line: Selects the separate line of a text object to be affected by the values set in the applied parameters. • All: Selects all characters of a text object to be affected by the values set in the applied parameters. • Custom: Allows you to offset the start and end points of the selection (based on the location of the selection).
01112.book Page 540 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Map Animation: The Map Animation parameter sets the timing of the animation to either “To Entire Object” or “To Selection.” In a basic example, the Scale parameter is added to the Sequence Text behavior. Next, the Scale parameter is keyframed to animate from 100 percent to 250 percent over 10 seconds. With the given example, use the following guidelines to understand the difference between the two Map Animation options.
01112.book Page 541 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Important: You do not need to create an animation (keyframes) to use the “To Entire Object” option. • To Selection: Changes the timing of the original animation to “fit” within the selection. Each selection (by character, word, line, and so on) goes through the entire source animation as the selection moves across the text object.
01112.book Page 542 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Sequence Text Custom Behavior Option When Behavior is set to Custom, you can create location keyframes to specify where the effect of the sequence is at any given time. To use the Custom Traversal parameter: 1 Once the Sequence Text behavior is applied to the text object, add the format or style parameters that you want to include in the sequence.
01112.book Page 543 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the Canvas, the first few characters are selected by default, and are affected by the Scale value. In the Behaviors Inspector, the the Location parameter becomes available. When Traversal is set to Custom, the Location parameter becomes avai lable. Use the Location slider to keyframe how the sequence moves through the text object. 4 Enable Record (press A).
01112.book Page 544 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the Inspector, a keyframe is added to the Location parameter. The keyframe icon indicates the parameter is animated. 6 Go to the next frame where you want to set a keyframe, and move the Location slider. 7 Repeat step 6 until you have created all of your keyframes. 8 Play the project (press the Space bar). The selection moves through the text object based on its keyframed locations.
01112.book Page 545 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To use the Text Tracking behavior: Apply the Text Tracking behavior (from the Text Animation subcategory) to the text object. By default, a Tracking value of 2 is applied to the text object. Once the Text Tracking behavior is applied to a text object, the Behaviors icon appears in the Tracking parameter (in the Format pane of the Text Inspector). As the project plays, the change in tracking value over time is displayed in the Tracking parameter field.
01112.book Page 546 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying the Tracking Behavior Use the Tracking parameters to modify the rate and end offset of the character tracking. The identical Tracking behavior parameters appear in the Dashboard and in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector. Rate: Controls the rate of the change in tracking values. The higher the rate, the greater the tracking values. End Offset: Use the End Offset parameter to offset the end of the effect of the Tracking behavior.
01112.book Page 547 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Since the Type On behavior is applied to the duration of the text object to which it is applied, it takes the duration of the object to complete the type on. You can modify the time it takes the text object to type on in the mini-Timeline or Timeline. Modifying the Type On Behavior Use the following guidelines to modify the default Type On behavior. The Type On controls include only a single parameter: Fade In.
01112.book Page 548 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can also slow the type on effect by extending the behavior beyond the duration of the text object. Text Sequence Behaviors The Motion Library includes more than 100 preset Text Sequence behaviors. All of the sequence behaviors are variations on the Sequence Text behavior in the Text Animation subcategory.
01112.book Page 549 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Since the sequence behaviors are preset variations of the Sequence Text behavior (in the Text Animation subcategory), the guidelines for modifying the Sequence Text behavior also apply to the Text Sequence behaviors. Drop In From Left The Drop In From Left behavior creates an animation in which the text characters fade and drop in vertically from left to right to land in their original position.
01112.book Page 550 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once applied, the Drop In From Left behavior appears in the Layers tab and Timeline. The Dashboard also appears (press F7). Remember that because the sequence behaviors are all preset variations on the Sequence Text behavior, the Drop In From Left Dashboard parameters are identical to the parameters in the Sequence Text behavior (in the Text Animation subcategory).
01112.book Page 551 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Also, because you can apply sequence behaviors to text with applied styles (such as Glow or a Library text style), all of the Style parameters also appear in the Text Sequence behavior parameters. Using the Drop In From Left behavior as an example, if the Glow and Outline are enabled for the text object to which the behavior is applied, the Glow and Outline are also affected by the Opacity preset.
01112.book Page 552 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying Text Sequence Behaviors Use the following guidelines to modify the default Drop In From Left behavior. The difference between the parameters that are displayed in the Dashboard and those displayed in the Inspector is the same as with the Sequence Text behavior (in the Text Animation subcategory): The group of Sequence controls is displayed in the Dashboard; the affected parameters and group of Sequence controls are displayed in the Inspector.
01112.book Page 553 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can set different Opacity values for the different text style parameters (Outline, Glow, and Drop Shadow). Sequence Controls: These controls, Behavior, Repeat, Random, and so on, are identical to the Sequence behavior controls. For more information, see “Sequence Text” on page 531.
01112.book Page 554 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding or Removing Text Sequence Behavior Parameters Although the Text Sequence behaviors include predetermined parameters, you can add and remove parameters. Parameters are removed and added in the same manner as adding parameters to the Sequence Text (Text Animation) behavior—using the Parameter Add and Remove pop-up menus. The following example continues with the Drop In From Left behavior to illustrate adding parameters to a Text Sequence behavior.
01112.book Page 555 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The chosen parameter is added to the sequence behavior. Scale parameter added to the Drop In From Left behavior 3 Set a value in the new parameter (Scale). In this example, the Scale value is set to 150 percent. In addition to the text dropping and fading in, the text Scale value begins at 150 percent scale and changes to 100 percent as the characters land in place. 4 To remove a parameter, choose a parameter from the Remove pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 556 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To save a modified behavior to the Library: 1 Select the behavior you want to save. Note: Although not required, it is recommended that you rename the behavior to a more descriptive name for organizational purposes. 2 In the Library (press Command+2), select the location in which you want to store the behavior, such as the Text Sequence subcategory or Jellies category. 3 From the Layers tab or Timeline, drag the behavior to the Library stack.
01112.book Page 557 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Behaviors are applied to text objects in the same manner as all other objects—by using the Library or the Add Behavior icon in the Toolbar. As mentioned earlier, the Library allows you to see a preview of the behavior before it is applied to a text object. The Add Behavior icon allows you to quickly apply a behavior to a single or multiple text objects.
01112.book Page 558 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The text characters are swept around the screen in a vortex pattern. If the text characters start to move off the screen, they collide with the edge of the screen. By default, Related Objects is selected in the Vortex Affect parameter, which means that all objects that share the same layer with the behavior are affected. You can change this to Specific Objects to select which objects are affected, or change it to All Objects.
01112.book Page 559 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animating Text With Keyframes You can create keyframes for most of the text parameters. As with all objects in Motion, there are two ways to create keyframes: the Record button in the transport controls or the Animation menu in the Inspector. The following example uses both methods to animate text Tracking and Opacity. Note: Most text behaviors automatically animate the text parameters without creating keyframes.
01112.book Page 560 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When enabled, the Record button pulses red and a keyframe is automatically created whenever you change the value of a parameter. 4 In the Format pane of the Text Inspector, enter the first Tracking value. Since keyframing is enabled, a Tracking keyframe is created. The lower the Tracking value, the closer the text characters are to each other. 5 Go to the frame where you want to end the tracking animation. 6 Enter the end tracking value.
01112.book Page 561 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The following image shows the original text object prior to the application of the LiveFont. m To apply a LiveFont to a text object, do one of the following: Drag the LiveFont from the Library to the text object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline.
01112.book Page 562 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Depending on the frame where you apply the font, the font may not appear, may appear partially drawn, or may appear complete. m Select the text object, select the LiveFont in the Library, then click the Apply button in the Preview area. m Select the text object, select LiveFonts from the Font Type pop-up menu in the Format pane of the Text Inspector, then choose the specific LiveFont from the Family pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 563 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Since LiveFonts are movies, they are applied with default timing settings. You can modify the timing settings, such as randomness, play direction, start time and so on, using the LiveFont Timing parameters. Random: Drag the slider or use the value slider to apply the LiveFont movie to each character in the text object in a different order. For example, the Freehand font movie draws the characters from the first character to the last.
01112.book Page 564 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Play: Sets the LiveFont movie to play Forward, Backward, or Ping Pong. This is not the same as the Direction parameter. Using the Freehand font as an example, when Play is set to Backward, the text object begins completely drawn and erases (in the direction specified in the Direction parameter). Loop: Sets the number of times the LiveFont movie plays through. The default setting is 1, meaning that the LiveFont plays one time.
01112.book Page 565 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 8 Working With Particles 8 Using particle systems, you can simulate real-world effects such as smoke and sparks, or you can bend the rules and create sophisticated abstract textures. Particle systems allow you to quickly and easily create sophisticated animated effects involving large numbers of automatically animated objects.
01112.book Page 566 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Particle systems use objects, referred to as cells, as the “mold” for the particles that are generated by the emitter. You can use nearly any object in Motion as a source for a particle cell, including images, shapes, text, movies, and image sequences. Each particle that is created is essentially a duplicate of the original cell, and is animated according to the parameters for that particle system (a particle cell and emitter) over its lifetime.
01112.book Page 567 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Anatomy of a Particle System Every particle system is made up of an emitter and one or more cells. Each cell appears inside of the emitter in the Project pane and the Timeline. Emitter Cells Behaviors applied to one particle cell Original objects (now disabled) The emitter and cells have separate sets of parameters that control the particle system’s behavior.
01112.book Page 568 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As with any effect in Motion, particle system parameters can be keyframed in order to change a particle effect’s dynamics over time. For example, you can create a path of bubbles that follow an object onscreen by keyframing the emitter’s Position property in the Keyframe Editor. In addition, you can add behaviors to each cell or to the emitter itself to create even more varied effects (simulation behaviors can be especially effective).
01112.book Page 569 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Particle Systems Despite their sophistication, particle systems are easy to set up and simple to use. This section describes how to use pre-made particle systems from the particle library. Afterward, it explains how to create a simple particle system of your own. Particle Systems and Layer Sizes Particle systems often create particles that grow or move off the Canvas before they die.
01112.book Page 570 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To add a particle system from the Library: 1 In the Library, click the Particle Emitters category. 2 Click one of the particle subcategories, such as Nature, Pyro, SciFi, and so on. 3 Select a particle preset in the Library stack. An animated preview of the selected particle emitter plays in the Preview area. While it is playing, you can drag the pointer around in the Preview area to see how the particle looks while in motion.
01112.book Page 571 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 When you find a particle preset you want to use, do one of the following: • Click Apply to add the selected particle system to your project at the center of the Canvas. It is added to the current layer. Note: If Create Objects At is set to “Start of project” in the Project pane of Motion Preferences, the particle system is added at the first frame. • Drag the particle system into the Canvas at the position you want it to appear.
01112.book Page 572 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In any particle system, the emitter is the source of all particles that are created. Particle systems in Motion are very flexible, and you can use any object in your project as a source for a cell in an emitter, including still graphics, animation or video clips, or shape objects created in Motion. The object you select when you create an emitter becomes the first cell in that particle system.
01112.book Page 573 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Select the object, then do one of the following: • In the Toolbar, click the Make Particles icon. • Press E. Once an emitter is added to the project, the following occurs: • The Emitter object appears in the Layers tab and is selected. • The object becomes an emitter source for the new particle cell. • The original reference object is disabled.
01112.book Page 574 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM By default, new cells emit one particle per frame in all directions (for 30 fps projects), and each particle moves 100 pixels per second away from the emitter over a lifetime of 5 seconds (150 frames in a 30-frames-per-second project).
01112.book Page 575 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional cells can be created by either selecting multiple source objects when initially creating the emitter, or by dragging source objects onto the emitter in the Layers tab. Note: When multiple source objects are used to create a particle system, the resulting emitter is positioned at the average of the source objects’ position.
01112.book Page 576 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For particle systems containing multiple cells, the Emitter Dashboard parameters simultaneously modify the effect of each cell’s parameters relative to one another. This means that for a particle system consisting of two cells with different scale values, changing the scale in the Dashboard resizes both cells simultaneously. For example, increasing the scale in the Dashboard by 200 percent does not change the scale of both cells to 200 percent.
01112.book Page 577 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Emission Range: Two points on the outer ring of the graphical Emission control let you define the range of angles at which particles are generated. In other words, it defines the size of the “slice” of the pie graph that the particles fill when they are generated. Emission Angle: Drag the inside of this section to change the direction in which particles are emitted, inside the area defined by the Emission Range.
01112.book Page 578 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 The first thing you may notice in this example is that the size of each particle is so big that it’s hard to make out any texture in the particle system. With the Emitter Dashboard open, drag the Scale slider to the left to reduce every particle’s size so that the individual particles are more textured.
01112.book Page 579 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 To make the particles drift upward, click in the middle of the Emission Range segment and drag to rotate the emission angle up and slightly to the right of the center control. 5 As you drag the middle of the Emission Range segment, you can drag toward, or away from, the center of the Emission control to adjust the speed of the particles flying away from the emitter.
01112.book Page 580 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As you increase the birth rate, more particles are created and a nearly unified column of particles is created, with the particles moving farther apart as they drift away from the emitter. As you can see, a single object can be used to create a credible column of smoke rising gently into the sky. While the Dashboard controls are quite powerful, the Emitter and Particle Cell tabs in the Inspector have many more parameters you can customize.
01112.book Page 581 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Transform Controls As a particle system plays, the cells in the system are duplicated, according to the parameters for that system, to create each individual particle. Since all particles emerge relative to the position of the emitter (since the emitter can be a point, a circle, geometry, and so on), changing the emitter’s position in the Canvas also changes the position of every particle in that system.
01112.book Page 582 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying an emitter’s other transformation parameters (Rotation, Scale, Shear, and Anchor Point) changes the distribution of particles from that emitter and transforms each individual particle. For example, if you create an emitter, then modify its Shear parameter, the distribution of the emitted particles changes to reflect the new plane of the emitter, and the particles are sheared along the same plane.
01112.book Page 583 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As shown in the following images, you can apply masks to the cell source object of a particle emitter. Original source object Bezier mask applied to source object Masked object used as particle cell source object You can also apply masks to the emitter object itself. Rectangle mask (inverted) applied to the emitter object For more information on working with masks, see “Masking an Object” on page 851.
01112.book Page 584 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The duration of the cell actually controls the duration over which new particles are generated. You can change a cell’s duration by dragging either its position or its In and Out points in the Timeline. In this way, you can adjust the timing that defines when each cell’s particles emerge. For example, you can create a particle system that simulates an explosion by offsetting the appearance of three different types of particles.
01112.book Page 585 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For more information on adjusting the timing of layers in the Timeline, see “Using the Timeline” on page 273. Creating Graphics and Animations for Particle Systems Creating a new particle system from scratch begins with designing the particles you want it to emit. You can use any image, shape, text, or movie supported by Motion as a source for a cell. This section presents things to keep in mind when you create particle imagery.
01112.book Page 586 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Create Clips That Loop Particles created from QuickTime clips loop over and over for the duration of each individual particle’s life. If the clip you use doesn’t loop well, there will be a jump cut at every loop point. Another option is to use very short movies to introduce randomness into the appearance of the particle system.
01112.book Page 587 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Emitter Parameters Several parameters in the Emitter tab are identical to those found in the Emitter Dashboard, with one difference. While the Emission control in the Emitter Dashboard allows you to manipulate the Range, Angle, and Speed parameters using a single, graphical control, the Emitter tab lists individual controls for each parameter. Note: There is no way to directly control the animation of individual particles.
01112.book Page 588 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To open a particle system’s Emitter tab: 1 Select an emitter object. 2 In the Inspector, click the Emitter tab. The Emitter parameters appear. The contents of the Emitter tab are dynamic, and different parameters appear depending on the number of cells in the particle system as well as the emitter shape that’s used. Single Cell vs.
01112.book Page 589 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Emitter tab for particle system with single cell Emitter tab for particle system with multiple cells If a particle system has two or more cells, the Emitter tab looks much different. The list of parameters is much shorter, and the majority of the cell parameters are replaced with a smaller group of master controls.
01112.book Page 590 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Changes made using the master controls modify the effect of each cell’s parameters relative to the other cells in the system. This means that for a particle system with three cells that have different Scale values, increasing the Scale parameter in the Emitter tab multiplies the Scale value of all three cells by the same percentage.
01112.book Page 591 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Line: Particles emerge from a line. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool) or the Inspector, you can specify the length and location of the line. In the Inspector, you can set a specific number of points from which particles emerge. This emitter shape is good for creating sheets of particles that cascade over a wide area. The Line shape displays additional Start Point, End Point, Emit at Points, and Offset parameters.
01112.book Page 592 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Circle: Particles emerge from a circle-shaped emitter. Particles can be emitted in an Outline, Tile Fill, or Random Fill pattern. This emitter shape is good for surrounding an element in a composition with particles that emerge from its edge. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool), you can specify the size and location of the circle. Depending on the selected Pattern, the Circle emitter shape displays additional parameters.
01112.book Page 593 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Spiral: Particles emerge from a spiral pattern. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool), you can specify the size and location of the spiral. The Spiral shape displays additional Radius, Twists, Number of Arms, Emit At Points, and Offset parameters. Wave: Particles emerge from a waveform. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool) or the Inspector, you can specify the length and location of the wave.
01112.book Page 594 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Geometry: Particles emerge from the edge of a shape, defined by a spline object used as the shape source. The Geometry shape displays additional Shape Source, Offset, and Emit at Points parameters. Image: Particles emerge from within an area defined by an image. The image may or may not have an alpha channel. If it does, the shape of the alpha channel can also be used to define the emitter shape.
01112.book Page 595 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Pattern (Rectangle, Circle, Image): Specifies how the particles are generated from the selected pattern. The pattern options are: • Outline: Emits particles along the edge of the shape. • Tile Fill: Emits particles from a tiled pattern of rows and columns within the circle, rectangle, or image. You can specify the number of columns and rows, as well as the Tile Offset. • Random Fill: Emits particles randomly from within the circle, rectangle, or image.
01112.book Page 596 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Number of Arms (Burst or Spiral): Defines the number of branches from which particles are emitted. The default value is 3. Twists (Spiral): Defines the number of turns in the spiral. The default value is 0.25. Spiral emitter Shape set to default Number of Arms and Twists. Spiral emitter Shape with Twists set to .70. Amplitude (Wave): Defines half the distance from the highest point to the lowest point in the wave.
01112.book Page 597 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When using an emitter shape other than a point, such as a line, circle, rectangle, spiral, burst, or wave, setting the Emission Angle parameter to 0 degrees restricts the emission of particles to the outside of the shape. Setting the Emission Angle to 180 degrees restricts the emission of particles to the inside of the shape.
01112.book Page 598 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Birth Rate: A slider that defines the birth rate of the cell. In other words, this parameter defines how many particles of this cell emerge from the emitter every second. Higher values create denser particle effects. Low birth rate particle system High birth rate particle system Birth Rate Range: A slider that defines an amount of variance in the Birth Rate of generated particles.
01112.book Page 599 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Life: A slider that defines the duration of every particle, in seconds. This specifies how long each particle lasts before vanishing from existence. This is similar to how sparks disappear after flying away from a sparkler. Unless the Color Over Life or Opacity Over Life parameters are used to fade each particle out over its life, particles immediately vanish at the end of their lifetimes.
01112.book Page 600 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Spin: A dial that animates particles in a system by initially spinning each individual particle around its center. Adjustments to this control are in degrees per second. This parameter is not available if the emitter contains more than one particle cell. Spin Range: A dial that defines an amount of variance in the spin of generated particles. A value of 0 results in no variance—all particles from the selected cell spin at the same rate.
01112.book Page 601 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Original: Particles are generated using their original colors. When Original is chosen, the Opacity Over Life parameter appears. This parameter is a gradient control that allows you to animate changes to the opacity of particles over their lifetime. • Colorize: Particles are tinted using the color specified in the Color parameter. Additional Color and Opacity Over Life parameters appear. • Over Life: Particles are tinted based on their age.
01112.book Page 602 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Pick From Range: Particles are tinted at random, with the range of possible colors defined by the Gradient Editor. A point on the gradient is randomly chosen, so the relative sizes of each color region determine the frequency of the color being used. • Take Image Color: When you choose this mode, each new particle’s color is based on the color of the image at the position where the particle was generated.
01112.book Page 603 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Scale Range: A slider that defines an amount of variance in the scale of generated particles. A value of 0 results in no variance—all particles from the selected cell emerge with the same size. A value greater than 0 introduces a variance defined by the Scale parameter, plus or minus a random value falling within the Scale Range.
01112.book Page 604 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Points: Each particle is represented by a single point. This is the fastest preview mode and is useful for displaying the type and speed of particle motion in a system. When selected, the Point Size parameter is revealed. • Lines: Each particle is represented by a line. This is a good preview mode to use to analyze the vector of each particle’s motion.
01112.book Page 605 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Wireframe: Each particle is represented by a bounding box. Since the bounding boxes are good indicators of each particle’s orientation in the system, this preview mode is useful for evaluating the movements of individual particles. For example, it’s easy to see the angle of rotation for particles that are spinning or following a complex motion path. • Image: The final particle system effect, as it appears in your final render.
01112.book Page 606 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional Cell Parameters for QuickTime Movies If you create a particle system using a QuickTime object as a cell, additional parameters appear. These four parameters are: Animate Image: A checkbox that controls playback. If it’s turned on, it loops the playback of the animation or movie clip used to generate each particle.
01112.book Page 607 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional Cell Parameters Based on the Selected Color Mode Each of the options in the Color Mode pop-up menu displays a different set of parameters. Color: A color well available when the Color Mode is set to Colorize. Use it to specify a color to use to tint the particles. You can also modify each particle’s alpha channel, altering its opacity. This parameter is unique to the cell object.
01112.book Page 608 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Color Gradient control: A gradient control that allows you to tint particles based on their age. • Color control: When a color tag is selected in the Color Gradient control, you can change its color by either clicking the color well and choosing a color using the Colors window, or Option-clicking the well and using the pop-up color palette.
01112.book Page 609 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Particle Cell parameters appear.
01112.book Page 610 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Animating Objects in Particle Systems You can animate any emitter or cell parameter in a particle system by using Parameter behaviors or by keyframing them. If you animate emitter-specific parameters such as Emission Angle or Emission Range, the position and distribution of new particles generated by that emitter are animated. All animation occurs relative to the duration of the emitter. This works the same way for cell parameters and emitter parameters.
01112.book Page 611 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Not all behaviors instantly activate an object when applied. For example, when a Throw behavior is applied to an object, the Throw Velocity parameter must be adjusted before the object moves. Applying Behaviors to Cells Simulation behaviors that are applied directly to cells are in turn applied to each individual particle generated from that cell.
01112.book Page 612 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Birth and Death Values: Specify starting and ending scale percentages that are used to animate each particle’s size over its lifetime. Two parameters appear in the Inspector (and become available in the Dashboard) when this option is selected. Scale At Birth determines the initial size of particles when they are first created. Scale At Death determines the size of each particle at the end of its lifetime.
01112.book Page 613 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Particle System Examples This section presents two examples of how to use particle systems to create very different effects. Example 1: Creating an Animated Background This first example describes how to create an animated background using a single still image. By using the parameters available in the Emitter tab, a single image can be turned into a complex animated texture.
01112.book Page 614 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 Set the Initial Number parameter to 12. This creates a distributed group of particles that partially fills the Canvas. 6 To turn the particles into a uniform abstract mass, adjust the following parameters: • • • • • • • • • Set Life to 4. Set Speed to 140. Turn the Spin dial to 60. Turn the Spin Range dial to 15. Turn on Additive Blend. Set Color Mode to Pick From Range. Set Scale to 65 percent. Set Scale Range to 150. Set Random Seed to 10000.
01112.book Page 615 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 7 An additional step might be to apply a filter to the emitter. In this example, adding the Crystallize filter creates an even more abstract effect. You might also consider adjusting the color gradient, or applying color correction to make the background fit more appropriately with your foreground elements.
01112.book Page 616 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The original object is replaced with an emitter, but nothing happens yet because the playhead is at the first frame of the project, and only one particle has been created. Move the playhead forward a few seconds to view the particle system at a frame where more particles have been generated. This allows you to see the particle system in action without having to play it.
01112.book Page 617 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 To make the particles generated by each different cell mingle together, select the emitter, open the Inspector, and turn on the Interleave Particles parameter. 5 Now, select the Flare01 cell in the Layers tab to adjust its parameters, which automatically appear in the Inspector. 6 Adjust the Scale slider to 10 to reduce the size of the particles generated by this cell.
01112.book Page 618 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 8 Next, change the color of the particles generated by the Spark12 cell by doing the following: a b c d Choose Colorize from the Color Mode pop-up menu. Click the color well in the Color parameter that appears. Choose a light red color in the Colors window. Close the Colors window. All particles generated by that cell are now red. 9 Use the Opacity Over Life gradient to make this cell’s particles fade out over their life.
01112.book Page 619 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 13 To make the particles generated from this cell spin in the opposite direction, turn the dial in the Spin parameter clockwise, to -60. 14 To create a trail of particles, the emitter needs to be animated to follow the required motion path. Follow the following steps to create a motion path for the particle system. a b c d e f Place the playhead at frame 1. Click the Record button (or press A) to turn on animation recording.
01112.book Page 620 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To save a particle system to the particle Library: 1 Open the Library and select either the Particles, Favorites, or Favorites Menu category. 2 Drag the emitter object you want to save into the stack at the bottom of the Library. Note: For organizational purposes, you may find it useful to create a new folder of your own in the Favorites or Favorites Menu category to store your particle systems.
01112.book Page 621 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 9 Using the Replicator 9 The Replicator allows you to easily create patterns of repeating elements that can be quickly animated in mechanical or organic ways. Patterns of repeating elements are prevalent in various types of motion graphics projects, including television title sequences, news graphics, bumpers, and commercials.
01112.book Page 622 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you have replicated an object, you can quickly change the shape of the pattern and animate its elements by animating the replicator parameters. You can also use behaviors to animate many of the replicator parameters. In addition, the replicator has a special behavior that allows you to animate the pattern’s elements in sequence over the pattern.
01112.book Page 623 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can replicate nearly any object in Motion, including images, shapes, text, movies, and image sequences. You cannot replicate a particle emitter or replicator objects. Each element that is created is essentially a duplicate of the source object. Unlike the particles of a particle system, however, the elements are not animated over time by default.
01112.book Page 624 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each cell appears under of the Replicator object in the Layers tab and Timeline Layer list. Once replicated, the source object remains in its original position in the Layers tab. If you clicked Replicate in the Toolbar (or chose Objects > Replicate), the source object is disabled by default. If you dragged the source object to an existing replicator object, the source object remains enabled.
01112.book Page 625 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The replicator parameters are dynamic—different parameters appear depending on what shape is selected. For example, when Rectangle is the selected shape, parameters appear that allow you to define the size of the rectangle, the number of rows and columns in the rectangle, as well as the origin of the elements in the rectangle (if the elements are arranged from the center outward, from right to left, and so on).
01112.book Page 626 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Further, different parameters are also available depending on the selected arrangement for the shape. In the following image, notice that the Columns, Rows, and Tile Offset parameters are replaced with the Points and Offset parameters when the rectangle arrangement is changed from Tile Fill to Outline. Very different looks can be achieved by changing only a few parameters.
01112.book Page 627 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In addition, you can add behaviors to the replicator or its cells to create even more varied effects (simulation behaviors can be especially effective). Behaviors applied to a replicator or a cell can be applied to each element of the pattern. This lets you achieve almost limitless variation and complexity that would take hours to animate using keyframes.
01112.book Page 628 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Replicator Library Presets The easiest way to add a replicator to your project is to use a replicator preset from the Library. Since the Library replicators are pre-made using Motion content, they are for more generalized usage. If you find one that is close to what you need, you can easily customize its parameters after you add it to your project. Library replicators are added to a project exactly like any other object.
01112.book Page 629 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you have added a replicator preset from the Library, it acts exactly as it appeared in the Preview area. If necessary, you can edit the replicator parameters in the Dashboard or in the Replicator tab of the Inspector to suit your project. You can also replace the preset source object with one of your own images, clips, shapes, or text objects as the source object for the pattern cells.
01112.book Page 630 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As mentioned above, the rest of the controls are dynamic—they appear depending what is selected from the Shape and Arrangement pop-up menus. Select a replicator cell in the Layers tab or Timeline to edit its parameters in the Dashboard. The angle and scale parameters always appear in the Dashboard.
01112.book Page 631 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Select the object, then do one of the following: • In the Toolbar, click the Replicate icon. • Choose Object > Replicate. • Press L. Once an object is replicated, the following occurs: • The Replicator object appears in the Layers tab and is selected. • The original object (the star shape) becomes the replicator cell. • The original source object (the star shape) is disabled.
01112.book Page 632 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • In the Canvas, the replicator bounding box appears, which can be transformed using the onscreen controls. • In the Canvas, the default rectangle pattern appears, in the same location as the source object. The pattern’s elements are created from the replicator cell. • In the Toolbar, the Adjust Item tool is selected so that you can immediately begin using the replicator’s onscreen controls.
01112.book Page 633 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Multiple Source Objects for the Replicator When you create a replicator pattern from scratch, you don’t have to restrict yourself to using just one cell object. You can create a pattern that includes different elements by placing multiple cells inside of a single replicator. You can add as many source objects as you want to a single replicator. Each source object becomes a cell in the replicator, and each cell has its own set of parameters.
01112.book Page 634 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Do one of the following: • In the Toolbar, click the Replicate icon. • Choose Object > Replicate (or press L). The cells of the default rectangle pattern are created from the source objects. When multiple cells create a replicator pattern, the elements appear at the same points (the location in which the elements appear) on the pattern. The replicator is positioned at the average of the source’s positions.
01112.book Page 635 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The elements in the pattern are stacked according to the order they appear in the Layers tab and Timeline Layer list. To change the stacking order of the objects, move the lower cell above the upper cell. Elliptical shape moved above white circle in Layers tab Once the cells are reordered in the Layers tab, the red ellipse element appears above the white circle element in the pattern.
01112.book Page 636 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Customizing a Replicator Using the Dashboard When a replicator is created from a source object, the pattern is built using the default parameters in the Replicator tab of the Inspector. You can also use the Replicator Dashboard to easily change the most important of these parameters to suit your needs. m To display the Replicator Dashboard: In the Layers tab or Timeline Layer list, select the replicator you want to display the Dashboard.
01112.book Page 637 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For replicators containing multiple cells, the Replicator Dashboard parameters simultaneously modify the cell’s parameters. Default replicator containing two cell objects (red star and white arc) Replicator set to Burst in the Replicator Dashboard Important: The Opacity, Blend Mode, and Shape parameters always appear in the Replicator Dashboard.
01112.book Page 638 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Shape: A pop-up menu that defines the shape of the replicator. The default shape is Rectangle. The shape options include Line, Rectangle, Circle, Burst, Spiral, Wave, Geometry, and Image. Replicator Shape set to Rectangle (default) Replicator Shape set to Circle (Arrangement set to Outline) Replicator Shape set to Spiral Note: Different parameters are available depending on what is selected from the Shape pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 639 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Columns: Defines the number of vertical columns in the pattern. Pattern elements are distributed at points along the columns. This parameter is only available when the selected shape is closed, such as a rectangle, circle, or image, and when the arrangement is set to Tile Fill. Note: The default Columns value limit is 20. You can set a higher number in the value field in the Replicator tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 640 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: To transform the replicator pattern in the Canvas, you can also use transform tools available in the Toolbar. Once a replicator is selected, you can also press Tab to cycle through the tool modes. The last tool mode is the Adjust Item tool, which can be used to change the size of the replicator shape. For more information on the onscreen transform tools, see the table on page 28.
01112.book Page 641 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Scale Using the Scale parameter resizes the replicator object, affecting the size of the pattern elements. To modify the size of the pattern without changing the size of its elements, use the parameters in the Replicator tab.
01112.book Page 642 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drop Shadow Drop shadows can be applied to replicators. The drop shadow of the replicator affects objects composited behind the replicator—if the pattern contains overlapping elements, the shadow does not appear on the individual elements. When the Drop Shadow parameter is enabled for the source object (in the Properties tab in the Inspector), overlapping pattern elements appear with a drop shadow.
01112.book Page 643 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM While the duration of the source objects has no affect on the replicator, the duration of each cell affects how long the elements created from that cell are visible in the project. You can change a cell’s duration by dragging either its position or its In and Out points in the Timeline. In this way, you can adjust the timing that defines when each cell type appears.
01112.book Page 644 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying Masks to the Replicator As shown in the following images, you can apply masks to the source object of a replicator. Mask applied to the replicator cell source object When the masked object is used as the source for a replicator cell, the mask is respected in the pattern cells. Original source object Circle mask applied to source object Masked object used as replicator source object You can also apply masks to the replicator object itself.
01112.book Page 645 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When a mask is applied to a replicator, the entire pattern is masked. Circle mask applied to the replicator object For more information on working with masks, see “Masking an Object” on page 851. Advanced Replicator Controls When a replicator is created from a source object, the default replicator parameters are used, creating a rectangular pattern consisting of five rows and five columns of elements.
01112.book Page 646 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For a replicator with only one cell (one source object), the replicator and replicator cell controls appear in the same Replicator tab. In this case, you can control every aspect of the replicator directly from this single tab, which saves you from having to go back and forth between the Replicator and Replicator Cell tabs.
01112.book Page 647 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each cell has its own Replicator Cell tab that contains all parameters for that cell. To access the cell parameters, you must select a cell object in the Layers tab or Timeline Layer list (located under the replicator object). Cell object selected in Layers tab Replicator Cell tab Replicator Parameters The parameters in the Replicator tab give you complete control over every aspect of the pattern created by the selected replicator object.
01112.book Page 648 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The following options are available in the Shape pop-up menu: • Line: Elements are positioned on a line. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool) or the Inspector, you can specify the length and location of the line. In the Inspector, you can set a specific number of points on the line—one element is positioned at every point (including the end points of the line).
01112.book Page 649 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Use the following modifier keys to more precisely manipulate the corners of the Rectangle onscreen controls: • Option: Adjustments to size are scaled uniformly, with the anchor point remaining fixed. • Shift: Adjustments to size are made proportionally. • Circle: Elements are positioned in a circle along its outline, or in a tile or random fill pattern.
01112.book Page 650 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Burst: Elements are positioned in a flare pattern. Using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool), you can specify the radius and location of the burst. The Burst shape displays additional Radius, Number of Arms, Points Per Arm, Offset, and Origin parameters in the Replicator tab. • Spiral: Elements are positioned in a spiral pattern.
01112.book Page 651 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Wave: Elements are positioned on a waveform. Using the onscreen control (with the Adjust Item tool) or the Inspector, you can specify the length and location of the wave. The Wave shape displays additional Start and End Point, Amplitude, Frequency, Phase, Points, and Offset parameters in the Replicator tab. • Geometry: Elements are positioned along the edge of a shape, defined by a spline object used as the shape source.
01112.book Page 652 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM For information on using an image as a replicator shape, see “Using an Image for a Replicator Shape” on page 653. Shape-Specific Parameters The following parameters appear depending on what is selected in the replicator Shape pop-up menu. They apply only to the replicator shapes, and affect the overall pattern created by the replicator. Many parameters are shared between all shapes.
01112.book Page 653 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using an Image for a Replicator Shape The following section describes how to use an image as the source for a replicator pattern. To use an image for a replicator shape: 1 Import the image you want to use as the pattern source into your project. 2 In the Replicator tab, choose Image from the Shape pop-up menu. The Image Source well appears in the Inspector and Dashboard. Image Source well 3 From the Layers tab, drag the image to the Image Source well.
01112.book Page 654 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Emission Alpha Cutoff (Image): When the Image Source object contains an alpha channel, this slider defines the minimum opacity value that is necessary to create an element at that point on the source image. For example, when set to 25 percent, elements only appear at points where the alpha value of the image is equal to or greater than 25 percent opacity. The lower the Emission Alpha Cutoff value, the more cells appear.
01112.book Page 655 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The following images show the difference between the Clockwise and Counter Clockwise parameters, using a replicator that applies a gradient over its pattern elements. Note: When the cell Color Mode is set to Over Pattern, a gradient is applied to the elements over the replicator pattern. In this example, the gradient begins yellow, becomes orange in the middle, and becomes red at its end. Gradient applied to replicator cells.
01112.book Page 656 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tile Offset: Specifies the amount (in percentage points) that the elements are offset from the pattern. Values from 0 to 100 percent offset the rows toward the right, and values from 0 to –100 percent offset the rows toward the left. A value of 50 or –50 percent creates a “brickwork” pattern. This parameter is available when the Arrangement parameter is set to Tile Fill.
01112.book Page 657 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Lower Left: The elements originate in the lower-left corner of the pattern and end in • • • • • • the upper-right corner. Lower Right: The elements originate in the lower-right corner of the pattern and end in the upper-left corner. Center: The elements originate in the center of the pattern and move outward. This is the default Origin option. Left: The elements originate at the left side of the pattern and end at the right side.
01112.book Page 658 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Line and Wave Shape Parameters When the selected shape is a Line or Wave, the following parameters become available: Start Point: Two sliders that define, in X and Y coordinates, the first point of the line or wave on which the elements are positioned. You can adjust these values in the Canvas using the onscreen controls (with the Adjust Item tool).
01112.book Page 659 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Points Per Arm: Defines the number of element points on each branch of the burst or spiral. When the Adjust Item tool is selected, the points are visible in the Canvas. Additional Spiral Parameters Twists: Defines the number of turns in the spiral. The default value is 0.25. When Number of Arms is set to one, a single spiral is created.
01112.book Page 660 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Shape Source well appears in the Inspector and Dashboard. Shape Source well 3 From the Layers tab, drag the shape to the Shape Source well. 4 When the pointer becomes a curved arrow, release the mouse button. A thumbnail of the shape appears in the well and the shape is used as the source shape for the replicator. Note: You may want to disable the source shape object in the Layers tab so it is not visible in your project.
01112.book Page 661 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Other Persistent Parameters In addition to the Shape parameter, the Shuffle Order and Reverse Stacking parameters also remain available regardless of what is selected in another parameter. Shuffle Order: When enabled, rearranges the order in which the elements appear. When Shuffle Order is turned on, the Replicate Seed parameter becomes available.
01112.book Page 662 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: In general, the Cell Controls in the Replicator tab and the Replicator Cell tab are persistent. For more information on the Cell Controls, see “Replicator Cell Parameters” on page 662. Animating Replicator Parameters Any parameter that contains an Animation menu can be animated. The Animation menu is represented by a small dash at the end of the parameter row.
01112.book Page 663 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The cell parameters appear in the Cell Controls group.
01112.book Page 664 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To display the Cell Controls for a multi-cell replicator: 1 In the Layers tab or Timeline Layer list select a cell object (located under a replicator object). Align Angle: When enabled, the replicator elements automatically rotate to match the shape on which they are positioned. This parameter is available in all cases but the following: Rectangle, Circle, or Image shapes with Tile Fill or Random Fill.
01112.book Page 665 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Angle End: Specifies (in degrees) the rotation of the replicator elements at the end of the pattern. The angle value of the elements at the end of the pattern equals the Angle value (start) plus the Angle End value. For example, if Angle is set to 0 degrees and Angle End set to 90 degrees, the elements are not rotated at all at their origin, and are rotated by 90 degrees at the end of the pattern.
01112.book Page 666 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Original: Elements are created using the original colors from the source object. When Original is chosen, the Opacity Gradient appears. This parameter is a gradient control that allows you to change the opacity of the replicator elements over the pattern.
01112.book Page 667 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Over Pattern: Elements are tinted based on how they are ordered in the pattern. The Gradient Editor defines the range of color of the pattern, beginning with the leftmost color in the gradient, and progressing through the range of colors until reaching the rightmost color at the end of the pattern. Gradual color changes do not appear in each element, only across the pattern as a whole. An Opacity control also appears above the color gradient.
01112.book Page 668 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tip: When using images larger than the Canvas as a replicator shape image source, it is recommended that you enable Down-Res to Canvas Size in Motion Preferences (in the Still Images & Objects section of the Project pane) before importing the images. Scale: Defines the scale of the replicator elements.
01112.book Page 669 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Point Size: This parameter appears when Points is selected from the Show Objects As pop-up menu. This allows you to increase the size of the points for easier viewing. In the following image, the Point Size is set to 8. • Lines: This parameter is effective only when the elements of the replicator are animated using Simulation behaviors or the Throw (Basic Motion) behavior.
01112.book Page 670 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Wireframe: Each pattern element is represented by a bounding box. Since the bounding boxes are good indicators of each element’s orientation in the pattern, this preview mode is useful for evaluating the movements of individual elements. For example, it’s easy to see the angle of rotation for elements that are spinning or following a complex motion path. • Image: Displays the elements as they are supposed to appear in your final render.
01112.book Page 671 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Random Seed: Although the result of adjusting the Angle Randomness, Scale Randomness, Pick From Range, Random Start Frame, or Hold Frame Randomness parameters seems random, it’s actually deterministic. This means that the random variation in the pattern is created based on the number shown here. Unless this seed number is changed, a replicator with the same parameter settings always appears the same.
01112.book Page 672 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Color Gradient: This gradient control appears when the Color Mode is set to Over Pattern. Use it to change the color of the replicator elements over the pattern. At their origin, elements are tinted with the leftmost color in the gradient. The elements progress through the range of colors until reaching the rightmost color at the end of the pattern. Gradual color changes do not appear in each element, only across the pattern as a whole.
01112.book Page 673 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Random Start Frame: A checkbox that introduces variation into elements using QuickTime objects as their source objects. If it’s turned on, each element in the pattern begins at a different frame of the animation. Stills are chosen randomly if Play Frames is turned off. Source Start Frame: Chooses the frame to begin animation, if Play Frames is turned on, or the still frame to display if Play Frames is turned off.
01112.book Page 674 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Keyframing the replicator parameters (or using Parameter behaviors) animates all elements in the replicator symmetrically. To animate the individual elements in sequence over time—without having to create keyframes—use the Sequence Behavior, described in “Using the Sequence Replicator Behavior” on page 681. To animate the replicator using Basic Motion or Simulation behaviors, see “Using Behaviors With Replicators” on page 696.
01112.book Page 675 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When a shape that contains a gradient is selected in Adjust Control Points-mode, the onscreen gradient controls also appear in the Canvas (the small “+” controls above and below the shape). 2 In the Layers tab, select the object and click the Replicate icon in the Toolbar (or press L). The default replicator object (rectangle shape with the tile fill arrangement) appears in the Layers tab and in the Canvas. The original source object is disabled.
01112.book Page 676 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Increase the Points value until the elements overlap. An element is created at every point on the shape. In this example, Points is set to 30. • In the Cell Controls group, turn on Align Angle. Based on the location of the anchor point of the source object, the replicator elements automatically rotate to match the curve of the circle.
01112.book Page 677 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Turn on Additive Blend.
01112.book Page 678 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The color values in every overlapping pixel are added together, and all overlapping midrange color values are lightened. 4 Go frame 1 (press Home), and enable Record (press A). When Record is enabled, the Record button in the transport controls is red. Keyframes are created for any changes made to an object. 5 In the Replicator tab, click in the Angle value field, type 0, and press Enter to create a keyframe.
01112.book Page 679 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 8 Set the Angle value to 240 degrees and the Scale value to 80 percent. 9 Deselect the object (click in a gray area of the Canvas) and play the project (press the Space bar). The replicator elements rotate and increase in size over time to create a pinwheel. Tip: A simple way to create a new look for a replicator is to move the position of the source object’s anchor point.
01112.book Page 680 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the Canvas, move the source object’s anchor point. The alignment of the elements to the replicator shape (the circle) changes based on the position of the anchor point. To animate a replicator parameter using a Parameter behavior: 1 Continuing with the above example, select the Replicator object in the Layers tab. Note: Remember, you can continue to play back a project while making parameter adjustments.
01112.book Page 681 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Select the cell object to display animated parameters in the Cell Controls section of the Replicator tab or the Replicator Cell tab, such as Angle or Scale. Note: To manually send any animated parameter to the Keyframe Editor, click the keyframe icon in the Animation menu, and choose Show in Keyframe Editor. The parameter is displayed in the Keyframe Editor in a new, untitled curve set.
01112.book Page 682 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To apply a Sequence behavior to a replicator, do one of the following: In the Layers tab or Timeline Layer list, select the replicator to which you want to apply the Sequence behavior. In the Toolbar, click the Add Behavior icon and choose Replicator > Sequence Replicator. In the Library, select the Behaviors category, and then the Replicator subcategory.
01112.book Page 683 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding Parameters to the Sequence Replicator Behavior In the following example, the Rotation, Opacity, and Scale parameters are added to the Sequence Replicator behavior. The behavior is applied to a replicator with its Shape set to Burst, and its Origin set to Center. This example uses the source object from the “Example: Creating an Animated Replicator” on page 674.
01112.book Page 684 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each element rotates from 0 degrees to 160 degrees over the pattern over the duration of the Sequence Replicator behavior. Note: If the elements are already rotated (in the Cell Controls), the elements are rotated 160 degrees from their original rotation value. Each element rotates and pops into place before the next element begins its animation. To soften this effect, increase the Spread value. 4 Increase the Spread value.
01112.book Page 685 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Each element fades from 100 percent opacity to 0 percent opacity over the pattern over the duration of the Sequence Replicator behavior. Note: If the elements already contain some transparency, they fade from their original opacity value to 0 percent. 6 Increase the Scale value. In this example, Scale is set to 190 percent.
01112.book Page 686 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adjusting the Sequence Control Parameters Once you have created a sequence animation, you can use the Sequence Control parameters to change the manner in which the sequence moves through the replicator pattern. The following section continues with the project used in the previous examples. To change the way the sequence moves through the pattern: 1 With the Sequence Replicator behavior selected, display the Behaviors tab in the Inspector.
01112.book Page 687 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The sequence goes through a full animation cycle starting at the original value of the cells, moving to the value set in the Sequence Replicator, then returning to the original value of the cells. This is similar to combining the To and From Sequencing options. 5 Choose All from the Unit Size pop-up menu. The sequence animation affects all replicator elements simultaneously.
01112.book Page 688 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Modifying the Sequence Replicator Behavior Use the Sequence Replicator controls to define how the change in cell value animates through the replicator pattern and how many times the animation repeats over the duration of the replicator. You can also use the Sequence Replicator controls to “soften” the effect between pattern elements. Once you have created and modified a Sequence Replicator behavior, you can save the behavior to the Library.
01112.book Page 689 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Sequence Control The Sequence Control section of the Sequence Replicator behavior parameters contains controls that allow you to modify the way the animation moves through the replicator pattern, such as changing the direction of the animation. Sequencing: Specifies how the sequence animation—the value change from the original parameter value to the value set in the Sequence Replicator parameters— moves through the elements of the pattern.
01112.book Page 690 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Custom: Allows you to use animation originally created in the source object’s parameters (except alpha parameters), or to keyframe how the animation moves through the values set in the Sequence Replicator parameters over an individual element. Each element undergoes the same value sequence. When Custom is chosen from the Sequencing pop-up menu, the Source parameter becomes available. Source parameter becomes available when Sequencing is set to Custom.
01112.book Page 691 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Object: Applies the sequence animation over each element as its own entity. Object is the default setting. When Unit Size is set to Object, each replicator pattern cell is affected individually. • All: Applies the sequence animation to all replicator elements simultaneously. When Unit Size is set to All, every replicator pattern cell is affected simultaneously.
01112.book Page 692 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Custom: Allows you to specify the percentage of elements in the pattern that are affected by the sequence animation at once. Although you can create keyframes for the Custom option, it is not required in order to affect the sequence. As shown in the following images, the Object and All options allow you to sequence the animation only through the origin or build style of the pattern, or through all pattern elements simultaneously.
01112.book Page 693 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • End: Specifies the end of the range of elements affected by the sequence animation as it moves over the replicator pattern. By default, End is set to 10 percent. In the above image, End is set to 30 percent. Note: If the Sequencing pop-up menu is set to Custom, the Custom option in the Unit Size parameter has no affect. Traversal: Sets the action of the sequence behavior to Constant Speed, Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In/Out, or Custom.
01112.book Page 694 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using the Sequence Replicator Custom Traversal Option When Traversal is set to Custom, you can create location keyframes to specify where the effect of the sequence is at any given time. This allows you to create a sequence animation that travels through a replicator pattern in a unique way. In this example, use the Custom Traversal option to scale the elements around a circle replicator shape by creating keyframes.
01112.book Page 695 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Location parameter becomes available. When Traversal is set to Custom, the Location parameter becomes available. Use the Location slider to keyframe how the sequence moves through the replicator pattern. 4 Enable Record (press A). 5 At the frame where you want to begin the animation, drag the Location slider (or use the value slider) to set where the sequence begins. As you drag the slider, the sequence moves through the pattern elements.
01112.book Page 696 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To apply a Parameter behavior to a Sequence Replicator behavior: 1 In the Layers tab or Timeline Layer list, select the Sequence Replicator behavior. 2 Control-click the parameter to which you want to add a Parameter behavior, then choose a Parameter behavior from the shortcut menu. 3 The Parameter behavior is added, and appears above the Sequence Replicator behavior in the Behaviors tab.
01112.book Page 697 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As previously noted, the replicator also has a special behavior called Sequence Replicator, which allows you to animate the individual cells in sequence over time. For more information on the Sequence Replicator behavior, see “Using the Sequence Replicator Behavior” on page 681. For more information on applying Parameter behaviors to the Sequence Replicator behavior, see “Using Parameter Behaviors With the Sequence Replicator Behavior” on page 695.
01112.book Page 698 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Remember that behaviors often contain parameters that control how objects are affected. These controls greatly affect the result of a behavior when it is applied to a replicator object. For example, if you apply a Spin behavior to a replicator object, all pattern elements rotate individually (rather than the replicator object as a whole).
01112.book Page 699 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Saving Custom Replicators to the Library Once you have created a replicator that makes you particularly happy, you can save it as a replicator preset in the Replicator or Favorites category of the Library for future use. Once you place a custom replicator in the Library, it can be used just like any other replicator preset.
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01112.book Page 701 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 10 Using Filters 10 Filters are an exciting way to spice up any motion graphics project. With the magic of Motion, you can preview and tweak images faster than ever before. About Filters The best way to think about filters is as visual fonts. Fonts can help to determine mood or style. Much the same way, the filters you select can shape the character of your project. A sepia tone color correction on an object can make the viewer think of days gone by.
01112.book Page 702 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Filter Types There are 12 types of filters in Motion, organized alphabetically in the Library. Filter types An Introduction to Filters In this section, you’ll learn how to quickly add, modify, and delete filters in a project. Browsing For and Previewing Filters All installed filters appear in the Library. Select the Filters category to display the 12 filter subcategories. Select a subcategory to show all filters of that type in the stack.
01112.book Page 703 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Library To browse for a filter: 1 In the Library, click the Filters category. A list of subcategories appears on the right side of the library. 2 Click a filter subcategory. A list of filters in that subcategory appears in the stack. 3 Click a filter in the stack to select it. A preview and short description of the selected filter appear in the Preview area at the top of the Library.
01112.book Page 704 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To apply a filter, do one of the following: Drag a filter to an object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or the Timeline. Select an object in the Canvas, Layers tab, or Timeline, then select a filter from the Library stack and click Apply in the Preview area. To remove a filter from an object: 1 Select a filter that’s been applied to an object in the Layers tab, Timeline, or Behaviors tab of the Inspector. 2 Do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Delete.
01112.book Page 705 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Improving Performance With Filters When applying filters to several different objects in Motion, it is recommended to apply the filters to the objects’ parent layer. Also, when applying filters to very large layers (such as a layer containing a growing particle system), it is recommended to turn on the Fixed Resolution parameter in the Layer tab of the Inspector.
01112.book Page 706 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adjusting Filters Filters can be tailored to your specific needs by adjusting their parameters. The parameters can be adjusted in a number of different ways, such as using sliders in the Dashboards, the controls in the Inspector, the onscreen controls, by adding keyframes, or by applying parameter behaviors. Using the Dashboard Each filter has a subset of parameters that appear in its Dashboard.
01112.book Page 707 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In most cases, you interact manually with the parameters of a filter. The following image shows the Filters tab in the Inspector for the Hatched Screen filter. The Hatched Screen filter has six controls: Center, Angle, Scale, Skew, Stretch, and Contrast. The Hatched Screen filter in the Inspector Use the dial, slider, the value slider, or value field to set and enter values for each parameter as you see fit.
01112.book Page 708 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To animate filter parameters using the Animation menu: 1 Select the filter you want to animate. 2 Go to the frame where you want to add a keyframe. 3 In the Inspector, click the Animation menu for the parameter you want to animate, then choose Add Keyframe from the menu. Adding a keyframe in the Inspector 4 Change the value of the parameter to the desired value. 5 Go to the next frame where you want a keyframe.
01112.book Page 709 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 Control-click Amount, then choose Randomize from the shortcut menu. Randomize Amount in the Inspector The Behaviors icon appears in the Animation menu, and the Behaviors tab opens in the Inspector. Behaviors icon Adjusting the Amount parameter in Randomize changes the amount of variance between the random values. A small number causes small variations in the random values, and a larger number means larger variations in the values.
01112.book Page 710 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Enabling, Renaming, and Locking Filters While the Filters tab in the Inspector contains all of the editable parameters for any filter that has been applied to an object, the Layers tab and Timeline have three primary controls for each filter that appears. Activation checkbox Lock icon Name The following filter controls appear in the Layers tab and Timeline: Activation checkbox: Turns each individual filter on or off.
01112.book Page 711 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Pasting a filter does not paste it at the current playhead location. To quickly move the filter to the playhead location, press the Shift key while you drag the pasted object. As you approach the current playhead location, it snaps into place. Moving Filters You can move filters from one object to another. m To move a filter: Drag the filter from its current location to the new object to which you want to apply the filter.
01112.book Page 712 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Duplicating Filters You can also duplicate a filter and apply the duplicate to another object. m To duplicate a filter: Option-drag the filter from its current location to the new object to which you want to apply the filter. The pointer changes to indicate copying the filter. Note: You can also choose Edit > Duplicate (or press Command+D) to duplicate the filter.
01112.book Page 713 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Release the mouse button when the position indicator is in the new location. The Circle Blur moves above the Highpass filter. Changing Filter Timing Filters appear as a bar in the Timeline and like other duration bars, can be trimmed or moved in time. Changing a Filter’s Duration When you apply a filter to an object, the duration of the filter defaults to the length of the object to which it is applied. This can be seen in the Timeline.
01112.book Page 714 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 When the pointer changes to the Trim pointer, drag the In or Out point to change the duration of the filter. Changing a filter’s Out point As you drag, the new In or Out points are displayed. Also displayed is the delta value, which represents the amount of change for the duration. Slipping Filters in Time In addition to changing a filter’s duration, you can also slip its position in the Timeline relative to the object it’s nested under.
01112.book Page 715 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Channel Blur Gives you control over blurring each color channel of an object. The Channel blur can be applied selectively to each of the different color channels of the object: red, green, blue, and alpha. Blurring individual channels allows you to create customized glow effects by retaining sharpness in selected channels while softening others.
01112.book Page 716 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This filter is useful for quickly blurring a limited area within an image. For more sophisticated control of the image region to be blurred, try the Compound Blur filter. Original image Center of circle on the right side of crab Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the blur effect. Amount: Sets the amount of the blur. Values range from 0 to 100. Radius: Sets the radius of the circle defining the blurred area.
01112.book Page 717 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 In the Filters tab of the Inspector, select the Compound Blur filter. 5 Drag the desired object from the Media tab into the Blur Map image well of the filter. Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the radius of the blur. Values range from 0 (no blur) to 32. Blur Map: An image well that displays a thumbnail of the map chosen. Map Channel: Selects the channel to be blurred. The blur is applied to the red, green, blue, alpha, or luminance channel.
01112.book Page 718 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Sides: Sets the number of sides of the lens aperture, if Circle is set to Off. Values range from 3 to 12. Rotation: Sets the angle of rotation of the polygonal lens aperture, if Shape is set to Polygon. Aspect Ratio: Sets the aspect ratio of the lens aperture. Values range from 0 to 2. Crop: Toggles whether or not the blur will be cropped at the object’s original border.
01112.book Page 719 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector, with the exception of the Crop checkbox. Gaussian Blur The Gaussian blur is the softest blur effect you can apply, and is one of the most frequently used blur effects. By default, it affects the entire image uniformly, although you can control the amount of horizontal and vertical blur independently.
01112.book Page 720 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Point 1: Sets the position of the first point of the gradient. Point 2: Sets the position of the second point of the gradient. Amount: Sets the radius of the blur. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Amount control. Prism Blurs and refracts the image as if seen through a prism, creating a rainbow effect. Original image Prism applied Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the radius of the blur.
01112.book Page 721 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Radial Blur This filter creates a rotational blur centered on a point. The effect is similar to the motion blur you would see if an image was spinning quickly. Original image Radial Blur applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the radial blur. Angle: Sets the angle of rotation of the blur. Subsampling: Sets the number of samples. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Angle and Subsampling controls.
01112.book Page 722 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Amount and Strength controls. Variable Blur A blur which can either include or exclude a circular region, to create a sort of tunnel focus effect. If the inner radius of the circle is larger than the outer radius of the circle, the blur is applied outside of the circle. Otherwise, the blur is applied to the area within the circle.
01112.book Page 723 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Zoom Blur This filter creates a blur that simulates a fast camera zoom in to a point. Original image Zoom Blur applied Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the radius of the blur, ranging from 0 (no blur) to 32. Center: Sets the position of the center of the blur. Crop: Toggles whether the object is cropped at its original boundaries. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Amount control.
01112.book Page 724 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Simple Border Creates a solid color border of variable width around the edges of an object. Parameters in the Inspector Size: Sets the thickness of the border. Values can range from 0 (no border) to 100 pixels. Color: Picks the color of the border. The color picker can be expanded with the disclosure triangle to include Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha sliders to more precisely select the color of the border.
01112.book Page 725 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Color Correction Filters Color correction filters can be used in a number of ways. You can change a mood by making an object sepia colored, or to make your object stand out by oversaturating it. In addition, they can be used to “fix” a problem with contrast, color, or brightness. Brightness Boosts or lowers the uniform brightness of an image by the specified amount.
01112.book Page 726 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Red from: The numerical value of red is replaced by the numerical value of color of the selected channel. Values can be selected from Red (unchanged), Green, Blue, Alpha, Inverse Red, Inverse Green, Inverse Blue, and Inverse Alpha. Green from: Sets the value of green to the value of the selected channel. Values can be selected from Red, Green (unchanged), Blue, Alpha, Inverse Red, Inverse Green, Inverse Blue, and Inverse Alpha.
01112.book Page 727 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Shadow Red: Picks the color gain applied to the shadow range of the red color channel. Values range from –1.0 (no color) to 0 (unaltered color) to 1.0 (maximum color). Shadow Green: Picks the color gain applied to the shadow range of the green color channel. Shadow Blue: Picks the color gain applied to the shadow range of the blue color channel.
01112.book Page 728 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If two colors are selected, all color information in the object is reduced to the selected two colors; if three, they are reduced to three; and so on. Original image Color Reduce defaults applied Parameters in the Inspector Smoothness: Sets the smoothness of the transitions between the reduced areas. Values range from 0 (hard edges) to 1 (smooth blending). Reduce To: Selects the number of colors in the reduced object.
01112.book Page 729 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Colorize Substitutes the blacks and whites in an image with different colors you select. All other colors in the image are remapped to a duochrome range that falls between these two colors. Interesting colorized “negative” effects can be achieved by remapping the blacks in an image to a lighter color than the whites. Original image Colorize with defaults Parameters in the Inspector Remap Black: Sets the color that is mapped to black.
01112.book Page 730 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Contrast Adjusts the contrast of an object. Parameters in the Inspector Contrast: Sets the amount of contrast to be applied to the object. Values range from 0 (no contrast) to 1 (default contrast) to 2.00. Pivot: Sets the center point of the contrast curve. Values range from 0 to 1.00. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector. Desaturate Reduces the amount of color in an image by a specified amount.
01112.book Page 731 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Equalize Remaps the black and white points in an image, resulting in individual adjustments to the contrast in the dark and light parts of an image. The Equalize filter can be used to adjust the overall contrast range of an image, crushing the whites and blacks, or it can be used to create selective washed out or darkened effects. Original image Equalize applied Parameters in the Inspector Input Black: Sets the relative color value used for black.
01112.book Page 732 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gradient Colorize Colorizes an image, using color values instead of position to determine the application of the colors in the gradient. Original image Gradient Colorize with Rainbow gradient Parameters in the Inspector Gradient: Selects a gradient preset to be applied to the object, or is used to edit a custom gradient. Offset: Sets an amount, in degrees, that the color wheel is offset to determine color application. Values start at 0 degrees.
01112.book Page 733 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM HSV Adjust An alternate method of performing color correction based on the HSV color model. HSV is often used in color picking interfaces, and is employed by the default color wheel method of the Apple Color Picker. This filter provides controls to adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Value levels in an image, independently. The Hue control is an angular representation of the color values in an image.
01112.book Page 734 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls There are no controls for this filter in the Dashboard. Levels This filter provides controls to remap the white and black points of an image, along with a Gamma control to adjust the midtones, all at once. A histogram provides an analysis of the image that you can use to help you judge the adjustments you want to make.
01112.book Page 735 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls There are no controls for this filter in the Dashboard. Saturate Increases or decreases the amount of color in an image by a specified amount. This filter can be used to mute the color in an image, making brighter colors less saturated. It can also be used to completely eliminate the color from an image, turning a color image to a grayscale one.
01112.book Page 736 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Threshold Reduces all colors in an image to a duotone, with the additional ability to limit the range of midtones that are preserved in the image. The result is an extremely highcontrast image that defaults to black and white, although you can reduce the image to any two colors. Original image Dark color: black. Light color: white Parameters in the Inspector Threshold: Sets the threshold of selection for color substitution. Values range from 0 to 1.00.
01112.book Page 737 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector. Distortion Filters Distortion filters are used to change the basic shapes of your objects, warping, twisting, and pulling them in all directions. Basic 3D Allows you to rotate an object on the X, Y, and Z axes, and set its position and perspective.
01112.book Page 738 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector. Black Hole This filter appears to suck an image into a center point as the value of the Amount parameter increases. The top, bottom, and sides bow in as if being pulled inward. Original image Black Hole applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the black hole. Amount: Sets the amount of force pulling on your object.
01112.book Page 739 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the bulge. Amount: Sets the amount of the bulge. Values range from 0 (no bulge) to 1000. Scale: Sets the direction and scale of the bulge. Values range from –10 (the maximum bulge inwards) to 10 (the maximum bulge outwards). Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Amount and Scale controls.
01112.book Page 740 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Disc Warp Stretches the image outward around a circular region. As the radius of the warping region increases, the image is warped outward with a greater amount of distortion. The color of the resulting disk is determined by the color value of the pixel where the center is placed. Original image Disc Warp applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the disc. Radius: Sets the size of the disc. Values range from 0.
01112.book Page 741 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To learn how to add an object to the Map Image well, see “Compound Blur” on page 716. Original image Displace applied (see the jellyfish?) Parameters in the Inspector Map Image: An image well that displays a thumbnail of the map chosen. Horizontal Scale: Sets the horizontal scaling of the object, ranging from –2.00 to 2.00. Vertical Scale: Sets the vertical scaling of the object, ranging from –2.00 to 2.00.
01112.book Page 742 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the droplet effect. Radius: Sets the radius of the droplet effect. Values range from –50 to 950. Height: Sets the height of the droplet ripples. Values range from –50 to 50. Width: Sets the width of the rippling waves from the droplet. Values range from 0 to 100. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Radius, Height, and Width controls.
01112.book Page 743 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Fisheye Distorts an object as if it were seen through the view of a fisheye lens. The result is an extremely wide-angle warping effect which is also known as barrel distortion. You can try using the Fisheye filter with a negative Amount value as an imprecise way to correct for certain types of barrel distortion in images that were shot using a wideangle lens.
01112.book Page 744 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Fun House Simulates the distortion caused by an imperfectly shaped mirror, similar to those in a carnival fun house. Original image Fun House applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the fun house mirror. Width: Sets the width of the fun house mirror. Values range from 1 to 1000. Amount: Sets the amount of distortion of the fun house mirror. Values range from 1 to 100.
01112.book Page 745 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the origin of the glass block effect. Scale: Sets the scale of the portions of the duplicated parts. Values range from 0.10 to 10.00. Angle: Sets the angle of offset used to sample the duplicated parts. Tile Size: Sets the size of the glass blocks. Values range from 1 to 1000. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Scale, Angle, and Tile Size controls.
01112.book Page 746 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Insect Eye Maps a repeating hexagonal distortion pattern to an image, mimicking the POV of an insect. Original image Insect Eye applied Parameters in the Inspector Size: Sets the size of the hexagons. Values range from 8 to 128. Refraction: Sets the amount of refraction applied by each hex. Values range from 0 to 4. Border: Sets the width, in pixels, of the border of each hex. Values range from 0 to 8.
01112.book Page 747 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Poke Pushes the object into the Canvas at a specified point, as if it were poked. This filter is a subtler version of the Black Hole filter, described on page 738. Original image Poke applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the poke. Radius: Sets the radius of the poke effect. Values range from 0 (a point) to 1000. Scale: Sets the scale of the distortion. Values range from 0 (no pinching) to 1.
01112.book Page 748 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Refraction: Sets the amount that the image is refracted. Values range from 0 to 200. Height Map: An image well that displays a thumbnail of the height map chosen. The height map is used to determine the edges along which the image is refracted. Map Channel: Sets the channel which is used to determine how the image is refracted.
01112.book Page 749 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Ring Warp Similar to the Ring Lens, but the image is distorted with multiple concentric rings. The number of rings can be increased or decreased using the Radius and Refraction parameters. Original image Ring Warp applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the rings. Radius: Sets the radius of the rings. Values range from 0.01 to 200. Refraction: Sets the amount of refraction. Values range from 0 to 20.
01112.book Page 750 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Scrape Smears an image along an angle defined by the Rotation parameter. The Scrape effect starts at the center point, and continues to the edge of the object. Original image Scrape applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the scrape. Rotation: Sets the angle of rotation of the scrape. Amount: Sets the ramping of the number of pixels spread across the range of the scrape.
01112.book Page 751 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Starburst Radiates solid-colored rays out from the center of your object. The colors are derived from pixel values around the selected center point, with the number of colors used determined by the Radius parameter. Original image Starburst applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the starburst. Radius: Sets the radius of pixel sampling for ray color determination. Values range from 0.01 to 200.
01112.book Page 752 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the stripe effect. Angle: Sets the angle of the stripes. Offset: Sets the angle of pixel sampling used for sampling pixel color values. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Angle and Offset controls. Target Similar to the Stripes filter, but draws bands of concentric circles outward from the center point value.
01112.book Page 753 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Twirl: Sets the angle of twirl. Center: Sets the position of the center of the twirl. Crop: Toggles whether the object is cropped at its original boundaries. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Amount and Twirl controls. Wave Distorts the object to simulate waves oscillating across it. The wave filter is not automatically animated, but you can animate the Offset parameter to animate the effect of waves causing the image to undulate.
01112.book Page 754 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Aura This is a highly stylized filter that adds light or dark halos around well-defined areas of an image. The resulting glow appears solarized, and the underlying image creates outlines that show through the glow effect. Original image Aura applied Parameters in the Inspector Inner Radius: Sets the amount the aura is offset from the object. Values range from 0 to 32. Outer Radius: Sets the amount the aura extends from where it starts.
01112.book Page 755 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Bloom This filter simulates the effect of extremely overexposed highlights on film. Highlights above a certain threshold are blurred, brightened, and recomposited with the original. All unaffected regions of the image interact with the glow effect, but otherwise retain their detail. Original image Bloom applied Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the amount of the bloom. Values range from 0 (no bloom) to 32.
01112.book Page 756 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dazzle This filter adds glowing star-shaped accents to the highlights in an image. This filter can be customized to create anything from subtle highlights to outrageous, colorful flashes of color. Original image Dazzle applied Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the radius of the spikes from the glow of Dazzle. Values range from 0 to 60. Angle: Sets the angle of rotation of the spikes from Dazzle.
01112.book Page 757 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gloom This filter creates a muted, darker glow. The image is darkened, and areas of fine detail are evened out into larger regions of color. It’s spooky. Original image Gloom applied Parameters in the Inspector Radius: Sets the radius of the gloom. Values range from 0 to 100. Amount: Sets the amount of gloom. Values range from 0 (no gloom) to 2 (maximum gloominess). Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Radius and Amount controls.
01112.book Page 758 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Light Rays A glow filter that uses the zoom blur to distribute the resulting glow, instead of a gaussian blur. The effect is that of light rays shining through an object from a specified point. Original image Light Rays applied Parameters in the Inspector Amount: Sets the amount of the light ray effect. Values range from 0 to 200. Center: Sets the position of the center point of the light source. Glow: Sets the brightness multiplier of the light rays.
01112.book Page 759 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Horizontal: Sets the amount of horizontal offset for the glow. Values range from 0 to 100. Vertical: Sets the amount of vertical offset for the glow. Values range from 0 to 100. Crop: Toggles whether or not the object is cropped at its original boundaries. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Radius, Brightness, Inner Color, Outer Color, and Range controls.
01112.book Page 760 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Keying Filters Keying filters are used to isolate a subject that is surrounded by an area of fairly uniform color or brightness, by generating an alpha channel based on the shape of that area. Keying is most commonly performed on subjects that were shot against a blue- or green-colored background, but keys can also be based on brightness values. A common example of color keying is the meteorologist on TV.
01112.book Page 761 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Color: Picks the color for your key. Use the disclosure triangle to display Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha sliders for more precise color selection. Tolerance: Sets the color tolerance for your key. Values range from 0 to 1. Invert Matte: Toggles whether or not the alpha channel of your color key is inverted. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector.
01112.book Page 762 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Backing Color: Pick the backing color for the matte. Use the disclosure triangle to display Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha sliders for more precise color selection. In addition, clicking the color well opens the Colors window, which allows you use the color picker to select a color from the object. Auto Sample: Automatically samples the dominant color type in the image to be used for the key. Select Red, Green, or Blue.
01112.book Page 763 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Import the foreground image for which a matte needs to be generated. 3 Select the foreground object, and turn off the background to directly observe the filter’s effects. 4 Apply the Primatte RT filter to the object. The Primatte RT filter makes a guess as to the non-subject color you are trying to remove. It makes a guess based on the dominant color present in the image, which may or may not be the color of the background.
01112.book Page 764 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Tweaking the Noise Removal parameter can help for blue or greenscreens that have some variance in their color value. Additionally, the darker areas of your object can fool the keyer’s defaults, so in order to get a clean matte you may have to adjust Matte Density so the background doesn’t show through these dark areas. Lastly, Spill Suppression can be used to reduce bluescreen reflections or interactions with the foreground object.
01112.book Page 765 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Matte Filters Matte filters are used to modify mattes. Matte Choker This filter increases or decreases the semi-transparent area of an object’s alpha channel by performing a gamma correction (similar to the Gamma color correction filter) to all regions of the alpha channel falling between solid black and solid white.
01112.book Page 766 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Sharpen Filters These filters sharpen images by creating a high contrast overlay that emphasizes edges within the image. Sharpen Sharpens an image by enhancing the color contrast around edges within the image. Parameters in the Inspector Intensity: Sets the intensity of the sharpening. Values range from 0 to 2. Amount: Sets the amount of the sharpening. Values range from 0 to 100.
01112.book Page 767 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Stylize Filters Unlike distortion filters, which warp and deform an image, filters in the stylize subcategory make an image appear as if it was created with a different medium. Circle Screen This filter reduces an image to a high-contrast grayscale version of itself. It then screens it using a pattern of concentric circles, simulating a sort of etched screening technique. The image is represented by varying thicknesses in the circular pattern.
01112.book Page 768 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Crystallize This mosaic filter simulates the effect of viewing an image through a pane of glass with irregular facets patterned into it. These facets give an image a crystallized appearance. This filter is automatically animated, and the facets appear to shift and turn according to the value in the Speed parameter. To prevent the facets from moving, set the Speed to zero.
01112.book Page 769 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Edge Work This filter reduces an image to a high-contrast, grayscale version of itself. The detail in this grayscale image can then be reduced and smoothed using various parameters to create an image that resembles something hand-drawn. Depending on the amount of smoothing you apply, many different effects are possible with this filter.
01112.book Page 770 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Edges An edge detection filter that examines the luminance of an image to derive the high contrast borders between different regions of brightness. These edges are then traced, and all other detail is replaced by black. The amount of eliminated detail depends on the value of the Intensity parameter. The colors of the resulting highlights are intensified variants of the colors from the original image.
01112.book Page 771 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Front: Sets the position of the center point of the front face of the object. Values are coordinates. Front Size: Sets the size of the front object, as a proportion of its original size. Values range from 0 to 2. Back: Sets the position of the center point of the back face of the object. Values are coordinates. Back Size: Sets the size of the back object, as a proportion of its original size. Values range from 0 to 2.
01112.book Page 772 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Halftone This filter reduces an image to a black and white version of itself, simulating the halftone screening method for print, in which the shadows and highlights of an image are recreated using patterns of small and large dots. Original image Halftone applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the halftone dots. Angle: Sets the angle of the alignment of the dots. Scale: Sets the scale of the halftone dots.
01112.book Page 773 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Contrast: Sets the relative amount of contrast between light and dark areas. Values range from 0 to 0.99. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Angle, Scale, Skew, Stretch, and Contrast controls. Highpass This filter emphasizes areas of detail in an image, and stylizes the colors in the resulting image to create a psychedelic display.
01112.book Page 774 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Softness: Sets the softness of the transition between the flat and raised areas. Values range from 0 to 1. Brightness: Sets the level of brightness of the object. Values range from 0 to 10. Ambient: Sets the amount of ambient light hitting the object. Values range from 0 to 1. Highlight Brightness: Sets the amount of brightness applied to the highlights of the object. Values range between 0 and 100.
01112.book Page 775 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This filter can be used to simulate a bright light source in the picture. Original image Lens Flare applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the lens flare. Size: Sets the radius of the ring of the lens flare. Values range from 0 to 400. Intensity: Sets the intensity of the lens flare. Values range from 0 to 4. Falloff: Sets how fast the lens flare falls off. Values range from 0 to 10.
01112.book Page 776 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Streak Map: An image well that displays a thumbnail of the map chosen for the streaks of the lens flare. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector, except Center. Line Art Performs an edge detection of the high-contrast borders between regions of differing brightness in an object, tracing the edges and reducing all other detail in the image to the color specified by the Paper Color parameter.
01112.book Page 777 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Line Screen This filter reduces an image to a high-contrast grayscale version of itself. It then screens it using a pattern of straight lines, simulating a sort of etched screening technique. The image is represented by varying thicknesses in the pattern of the parallel lines. Original image Line Screen applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the hatched screen. Angle: Sets the angle of the hatched screen.
01112.book Page 778 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM MinMax This filter softly patterns an image by averaging pixels within the specified radius together by the minimum or maximum color values present in the image. The result is to erode or dilate the light or dark areas of your object into soft, blocky regions. Original image MinMax dilating dark areas Parameters in the Inspector Mode: Sets the mode of the minmax. The following modes are available: minimum and maximum.
01112.book Page 779 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Dissolve Amount: Sets the percentage of pixels dissolved by noise. Random Seed: Sets a number to be used as a seed for noise placement. Values range from 0 to 1000. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Dissolve Amount and Random Seed controls. Noise Dither Adds a small amount of noise to the pixels of an object, used to soften the banding seen on 8-bit images with subtle gradients.
01112.book Page 780 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Posterize This filter reduces the number of colors in your object to a set number per color channel, adjustable using the Levels parameter. Parameters in the Inspector Levels: Sets the number of levels of posterization. Values range from 2 to 255. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Level control. Relief Uses the color values of an object or height map to calculate height vertices, creating a 3D height map.
01112.book Page 781 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Map Channel: Sets the channel used to calculate the height vertices. If a height map is present, the channel is selected from the height map, otherwise the channel is selected from the source object. Values can be selected from the following: Luminance (default), Red, Green, Blue, or Alpha. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Front Size, Back Size, Fuzziness, Height Map, and Map Channel controls.
01112.book Page 782 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Slit Tunnel Simulates a circular version of the slit scan process used to create “warp tunnel” images in science fiction films. This filter is automatically animated to create a fly-through effect. Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the tunnel. Rotation: Sets the angle of rotation of the object during movement. Speed: Sets the speed of the simulation. Values range from 0 to 400.
01112.book Page 783 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Image Contrast: Sets the amount of contrast applied to the image by the screen. Values range from 0 to 20. Threshold: Sets the threshold of brightness of the background image used to determine the brightness of the luminance map. Values range from –2 to 2. Noise Contrast: Sets the amount of contrast added to the noise. Values range from 0 to 20. Noisiness: Sets the amount of noise. Values range from 0 to 20.
01112.book Page 784 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Third Color: Picks the third color that is substituted. Fourth Color: Picks the fourth color that is substituted. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the same controls as the Inspector. Vignette Simulates the light fall-off and blurring that can be seen in the corners of images as seen through some camera lenses. Original image Vignette applied Parameters in the Inspector Size: Sets the size of the vignette.
01112.book Page 785 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Wavy Screen This filter reduces an image to a high-contrast grayscale version of itself. It then screens it using a pattern of angled lines, simulating a sort of etched screening technique. The image is represented by varying thicknesses in the pattern of the zig-zagging lines. Original image Wavy Screen applied Parameters in the Inspector Amplitude: Sets the amplitude of the waves. Values range from 0 to 100. Scale: Sets the scale of the waves.
01112.book Page 786 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Kaleidoscope This filter simulates the effect of looking at an image through a kaleidoscope. It is not automatically animated, but by animating the Offset Angle parameter you can simulate the effect of twisting the kaleidoscope’s knob to rotate the image pattern. Original image Kaleidoscope applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the center of the kaleidoscope. Segment Angle: Sets the width of the tiles.
01112.book Page 787 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Kaleidotile Simulates looking through a kaleidoscope with rectangular facets. It is not automatically animated, but by animating the Angle parameter you can simulate the effect of twisting the kaleidoscope to rotate the image pattern. Original image Kaleidotile applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the origin of the kaleidotile. Width: Sets the width of the panels of the kaleidotile. The panels range in size from 8 to 256.
01112.book Page 788 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parallelogram Tile Simulates looking through a kaleidoscope with facets made of parallelograms. It is not automatically animated, but by animating the Angle parameter you can simulate the effect of twisting the kaleidoscope to rotate the image pattern. Original image Parallelogram Tile applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the origin of the parallelogram tiles.
01112.book Page 789 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Random Tile Tiles your object in an irregular pattern with circular panels. Original image Random Tile applied Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the center point on the object from which the tiles are generated. Values are coordinates. Radius: Sets the radius of each tile. Values range from 4 to 32. Feathering: Sets the amount of feathering applied to the edges of each tile. Values range from 0 to 1.
01112.book Page 790 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Parameters in the Inspector Center: Sets the position of the origin of the tiles. Skew: Sets the amount of skew applied to the tiles. Values range from –3 to 3. Scale: Sets how much the tiles are scaled. Values range from 0.05 to 20. Stretch: Sets the amount tiles are stretched in Y. Values range from 0.1 to 10. Angle: Sets the angle of rotation of the tiles. Dashboard controls The Dashboard contains the Skew, Scale, Stretch, and Angle controls.
01112.book Page 791 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Echo Echoes an object’s motion by repeating frames. The result is that moving areas of an image leave a streaking trail behind as they move. Parameters in the Inspector Delay: Sets the amount of delay in frames between echoes. Values range from 0 to 1. Number: Sets the number of echoes. Decay: Sets the amount of time it takes for an echo to decay. Amount: Sets the relative opacity of each echo. Values range from 0 to 1.
01112.book Page 792 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Trails Draws light or dark trails following an object’s movement. This filter is only effective with moving images. Original image Decay is turned on, and Trail On is set to Light. Parameters in the Inspector Duration: Sets the duration of the trails. Values range from 0 to 1.00. Echoes: Sets the number of echoes trailing behind. Values range from 1 to 30. Decay: Toggles whether the trails decay over time or disappear at the end of the duration.
01112.book Page 793 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Video Filters Video filters are more utilitarian in nature, and can be used to help prepare a project for broadcast output. Broadcast Safe This filter limits the range of luminance or chrominance in an image to the broadcast legal limit. Parameters in the Inspector Video Type: Sets the rule set to be used for filtering image data. Value can be NTSC or PAL. Fix Method: Sets the type of fix to be made to the image.
01112.book Page 794 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the “3rd Party Plug-ins” group, click Choose (next to Search Path). 4 In the sheet, navigate to the folder that contains your third-party plug-ins, then click Choose. A dialog appears informing you that the path has changed and the change will take effect the next time you open Motion. 5 Quit and reopen Motion. The third-party plug-ins appear in the “3rd Party Filters” category and are applied in the same manner as all other filters.
01112.book Page 795 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 11 Working With Generators 11 Use the generators in the Motion Library to quickly add life to your project. About Generators Generators are objects in the Library that you add to your project to instantly create solids or patterns such as colors, bars, stripes, noise, or gradients. Some generators create animated patterns, while most create static, patterned images.
01112.book Page 796 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Like all other objects in Motion, generators can be moved, rotated, duplicated, copied and pasted, and animated. Generators can be reordered and set to different blend modes. Also, like other objects, you can apply behaviors to generators and apply Parameter behaviors to the parameters of a generator. You can also apply filters to generators, or use a generator as the source for a particle cell.
01112.book Page 797 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Generator Types There are two types of generators in the Library: animated and static. Both types of generators create images on the fly, but an animated generator creates a moving pattern by default. Although a static generator is not animated by default, you can keyframe its parameters to create an animated pattern. You can use a generator as is or modify its settings to create different effects. The following section briefly describes each generator.
01112.book Page 798 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Cellular The Cellular generator creates an animated pattern that looks like cells moving under a microscope. You can change the color, size, and speed of the cells. Default Cellular generator Modified Cellular generator Checkerboard The Checkerboard generator creates a static checkerboard pattern. The contrast, color, size, and position of the checkerboard squares can be edited and keyframed.
01112.book Page 799 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Clouds The Clouds generator creates an animated cloud pattern. You can modify or animate the color, scale, speed, and strength of the cloud layers. Normal Clouds Turbulent Clouds Parameters in the Inspector The following section describes the Clouds generator controls, which are located in the Generator tab of the Inspector. Width: Sets the width of the Clouds generator, in pixels. Values range from 1 to the width of your project.
01112.book Page 800 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Method: Sets the algorithm used to generate the clouds. Values can be set to Normal (default) or Turbulent. Offset: Sets the coordinates of the center of the clouds. Coordinates are calculated from the center of your object, which is the coordinate origin. First Layer Strength: Sets the strength of the first layer of clouds. Values range from 0 to 1. Second Layer Strength: Sets the strength of the second layer of clouds. Values range from 0 to 1.
01112.book Page 801 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gradient The Gradient generator initially creates a non-animated blue-and-red linear gradient. You can change the gradient from linear to radial, add and remove colors in the gradient, and change the gradient start and end points. You can save a modified gradient to the Gradient category in the Library and later apply it to shapes, text objects, or particle cells. The gradient controls can be keyframed to create a moving, color-changing gradient.
01112.book Page 802 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Noise Where would motion graphics artists be without a noise filter or generator? To make animated noise, you can keyframe the Random Seed parameter in the Noise Dashboard or Inspector. When filters are applied to an animated Noise generator, you can create some unique textures. In the second image below, the Scrape distortion filter is applied to an animated Noise generator to create a vibrant, electric-light type texture.
01112.book Page 803 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Soft Gradient The Soft Gradient generator creates a soft-edged, radial gradient. The gradient contains an alpha channel so that you can place the generator over another image in the project. You can change and keyframe the color, size, and position of the Soft Gradient.
01112.book Page 804 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Stripes The Stripes generator creates a default image with vertical bands of two alternating colors. You can change and keyframe the position, colors, size, and contrast of the stripes. By animating the Center parameter, you can create an animation in which the stripes continuously move across the screen without the need to resize and pan the object across the Canvas. In the second image, the generator object is rotated so the stripes are horizontal.
01112.book Page 805 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Editing Generators In this section, the Checkerboard generator parameters are edited to modify the appearance of the default generator. To edit the Checkerboard generator: 1 Add the Checkerboard generator to your project. Note: For information on adding a generator to your project, see “Adding a Generator” on page 796. The default Checkerboard generator appears in the Canvas, Layers tab, and in the Timeline, and the Dashboard appears.
01112.book Page 806 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Click the Color 1 color well and select a new color. If you are using the color wheel, click the center point and drag the pointer to select a new color. Color 1 is replaced with the new color.
01112.book Page 807 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can save a color in the swatches along the bottom of the Colors window. Click in the color bar (to the right of the color picker tool), then drag the color chip to a white swatch, and release the mouse button. Color bar (Drag a color chip from here.) Swatches (Position the color chip over a white swatch and release the mouse button.) 3 Click the Color 2 color well and select a new color. Color 2 is replaced with the new color.
01112.book Page 808 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can also use the standard object scaling methods—the onscreen transform controls or the Scale parameter in the Properties tab of the Inspector. However, scaling generators in this manner has a greater impact on your system’s performance. 5 Drag the Contrast slider to adjust the contrast between Color 1 and Color 2.
01112.book Page 809 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Set the initial generator parameter values: • Drag the Size slider to set the initial checker size. Once a keyframe is set for any parameter in a generator, a keyframe is set for all of the generator parameters. In other words, once the Size parameter is keyframed, the Color 1, Color 2, Contrast, and Center parameters are keyframed. • Click the color wells and pick the initial colors. • Drag the Contrast slider to set the initial contrast value.
01112.book Page 810 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the Library, navigate to the Generators category. Note: You can also save the modified generator in another category, such as Favorites. 4 From the Layers tab, drag the modified generator to the Library stack. The modified generator is saved in the Generators category and appears organized alphabetically in the stack. Custom items saved in the Library are identified with the user icon in the lower right of the icon.
01112.book Page 811 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Customized generator saved in Library Sharing Saved Generators By default, any generator that you save in the Library is stored in your user folder: home directory/Library/Application Support/Motion/Library/Generators. To share custom presets, templates, layouts, behaviors, filters, or Library content with another user, the other user must copy the files into his or her home directory.
01112.book Page 812 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Control-click the Spike Opacity parameter, then choose Randomize from the shortcut menu. The Randomize parameter behavior is applied to the Spike Opacity parameter, and the Behaviors tab is automatically displayed so you can adjust the Randomize parameters.
01112.book Page 813 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When a Parameter behavior is applied to a parameter, a Behaviors icon appears in the Animation menu for that parameter. In the Generator tab, the Behaviors icon appears in the Animation menu for the Spike Opacity parameter. Behaviors icon 4 Click Play (or press the Space bar). Since the Randomize parameter behavior is applied to the opacity of the star spikes, the star appears to flicker.
01112.book Page 814 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To increase or decrease the effect of the flicker, you can modify the Randomize parameters. To quickly jump to the Randomize parameters from the Generator tab, click the Behaviors icon, then choose Randomize from the shortcut menu. For more information on using Parameter behaviors, see “Parameter Behaviors” on page 354. Using Generators as Particle Cell Sources Like other objects, generators can be used as a source for particle cells.
01112.book Page 815 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To use a generator as a particle cell source: 1 Add the Soft Gradient generator to your project. 2 In the Dashboard or Generator tab of the Inspector, lower the Radius value. This example uses a Radius value of 40. 3 Lower the Width and Height values. In this example, Width is set to 82 and Height is set to 75. The size of the gradient and its bounding box are scaled down. 4 With the generator still selected, do one of the following: • Press E.
01112.book Page 816 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • The original reference object (the Soft Gradient) is disabled. • In the Canvas, the emitter bounding box appears, which can be transformed using the onscreen controls or the Inspector. • The particle appears in the Canvas in the same location as the original object. Although it appears as if the particle is selected, it is actually the bounding box for the emitter. • The Emitter Dashboard (press D) is displayed. 5 Play the project (press Space bar).
01112.book Page 817 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can change the particle color, emitter shape, scale, emission angle, birth rate, and so on in the Emitter controls. For more information on working with particles, see “Working With Particles” on page 565.
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01112.book Page 819 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 12 Using Shapes and Masks 12 Motion has a flexible tool set that you can use to create both simple shapes and complex illustrations, right in your project. The same techniques you use for drawing can also be used to mask objects to produce a wide variety of transparency effects, to crop out parts of still images, and to rotoscope moving subjects.
01112.book Page 820 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Difference Between Shapes and Masks Shapes are primarily used to create all kinds of visual elements. They work like any other object, except that they are created in Motion, and are stored within your project file. A single shape can be used as a background or colored graphic in a composition, or you can use a group of shapes to create lines and fills for more complex illustrations. Each illustration below is composed of shapes created within Motion.
01112.book Page 821 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Bezier splines are good for drawing shapes for illustration. The controls used to manipulate Bezier splines are similar to those found in many other drawing and compositing applications, so they may already be familiar to you. Bezier controls lend themselves to the creation of precise, detailed shapes. Tangent handles adjust the curvature of the shape on either side of the control point, and this defines the surface of the shape.
01112.book Page 822 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To draw a Bezier shape: 1 Click the Bezier shape tool in the Toolbar (or press B). 2 Click in the Canvas to draw the first point. 3 To add additional points to further define the shape, do one of the following: • Click to make a linear corner point. • Click, then drag to make a curved Bezier point, adjusting it to the shape you want. Note: Press Shift while making a curved point to constrain its tangents to 45-degree angles.
01112.book Page 823 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 To finish the shape, do one of the following: • Click the first point you drew to create a closed shape. • Press C to close the shape, joining the first point you created to the last. • Double-click anywhere in the Canvas to create the last point of an open shape. • Press Return to create the last point of an open shape, creating a line with a default width of two pixels.
01112.book Page 824 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM As you create new B-Spline control points, keep the following rules in mind: • The control points you draw influence the shape of the curve from a distance. They do not lie directly on the surface of the curve. • To create more detailed curves, create more points. However, it’s a good habit to use the fewest number of points necessary to create the amount of detail you need. Shapes with an excessive number of points can be difficult to edit later on.
01112.book Page 825 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • In many instances, it is easier to create a loose group of control points first, and then adjust them afterwards to create the precise curve you need in a later step. Starting with a loose collection of points Fine-tuning the illustration 4 While drawing a shape, you can move and adjust the control points you’ve already created prior to finishing the shape.
01112.book Page 826 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Press Return to finish an open shape at the last point you made. • Double-click anywhere in the Canvas to define the last point of an open shape, creating a line with a default width of two pixels. Note: You can press Esc at any time while drawing a shape to cancel the entire operation and delete the shape. How to Edit Shapes There are two ways to edit shapes.
01112.book Page 827 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Turning Dynamic Guides On or Off While Editing The Canvas Dynamic Guides help you snap the selected points to one another. Use the following guidelines to turn Dynamic Guides off, so that snapping doesn’t interfere with subtle shape adjustments: • Press N to turn off the dynamic guides. Press N again to turn the Dynamic Guides back on. • Once you begin to move the selected control point, press Command to turn off snapping as you drag the point.
01112.book Page 828 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To show a shape’s control points for point-by-point editing: 1 Click the Select/Transform tool, then choose the Adjust Control Points tool from the pop-up menu. 2 Click a shape to show its control points. Note: If Handles are turned off in the View > Overlays submenu, you cannot see a shape’s Bezier or B-Spline control points when editing. When editing shapes, make sure that Handles are turned on.
01112.book Page 829 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To move one or more control points: Select one or more points, then drag them to a new position. As you drag one or more selected control points, the rest of the shape automatically stretches or curves to accommodate the change. Selecting three points Moving all three points simultaneously To constrain the movement of selected points horizontally and vertically: 1 Select one or more control points.
01112.book Page 830 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding more control points does not immediately change a Bezier shape, unless you drag Bezier curve points as you create them. Before adding Bezier point After adding Bezier point Adding more control points to a B-Spline shape, on the other hand, nearly always changes its shape. Before adding B-Spline point After adding B-Spline point Warning: In general, do not add control points to a shape that’s already been animated.
01112.book Page 831 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To delete control points from a shape: 1 Select a shape with the Adjust Control Points tool. 2 Select one or more points to delete, then do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Delete. • Control-click the selected points, then choose Delete Point from the shortcut menu. • Press Delete. The shape changes to adjust to the missing point. If you remove points from a closed shape, the shape remains closed.
01112.book Page 832 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If the point was unlocked, it becomes locked. If the point was locked, Unlock Point appears in the shortcut menu, and it becomes unlocked. Locked points appear gray. Editing Bezier Curve Control Points The methods used to adjust Bezier shapes are similar to those used by many other applications. Bezier control points are widely used to modify curves, and allow you to easily draw any shape you may need.
01112.book Page 833 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To adjust a Bezier curve using the control point’s tangent handles, do one of the following: Drag a tangent handle to adjust its length. By default, the angle of each opposing tangent is locked to 180 degrees, and adjusting the angle of one tangent automatically adjusts the other. The length of each tangent can be independently adjusted. m Command-drag either tangent to break the relationship between opposing tangents.
01112.book Page 834 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Important: If automatic keyframing is enabled, curve adjustments are keyframed, creating animated shape changes. Editing B-Spline Control Points Editing the position of control points in B-Spline shapes is similar to editing Bezier shapes. In fact, the steps for selecting, moving, adding, deleting, and locking control points are almost exactly the same. The main difference in editing both types of shapes lies in how you manipulate and adjust curves.
01112.book Page 835 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM By default, B-Spline shapes have no corners. While this is the default behavior, you can adjust the amount of curvature at each individual B-Spline control point. This allows you to create sharper curves using fewer control points, even creating corners at a single point, if necessary. The easiest way to adjust B-Spline point curvature is by switching among three preset degrees of curvature.
01112.book Page 836 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Additional Shape Parameters in the Dashboard When you create and select shapes, additional parameters appear in the Dashboard along with the standard Opacity, Blend Mode, and Drop Shadow controls. Note: To adjust the opacity of a shape (or its outline) in the Inspector, use the Properties tab. Fill: Turn on this checkbox to fill the shape with the color specified with the color control next to it. Outline: Turns on an outline for the shape.
01112.book Page 837 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • B-Spline: Control points are all B-Spline points, with different degrees of curvature. B-Spline control points lie inside, outside, or on the edge of the shape, and are connected by the B-Spline frame. Note: To toggle the display of the B-Spline frame, choose View > Overlays > Lines. You can change a shape’s type at any time. Changing a shape’s type changes its form.
01112.book Page 838 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The controls for the Gradient Editor are identical to the gradient controls for text, with one exception. The text gradient parameters include a dial to control the angle of the gradient. The shape gradient parameters use Start and End point controls, which are available in the Inspector or in the onscreen controls.
01112.book Page 839 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Bevel: All corners are cut at an angle. Round joints Beveled joints Order: A pop-up menu lets you choose whether an outline is drawn over or under the fill color or gradient. The effect is more apparent with thicker outline widths. • Over Fill: Thick outlines appear on top of the selected fill of the shape. When an outline’s thickness is increased, it grows both outward and inward.
01112.book Page 840 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You cannot feather an object with Outline turned on. Feathered out Feathered in Creating Rectangles and Circles The Rectangle and Circle tools create simple Bezier shapes. The resulting shapes can be edited just like any other Bezier shape, using the methods described in “How to Edit Shapes” on page 826. To make a rectangle: 1 Click the Rectangle tool (or press R).
01112.book Page 841 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 2 Click in the Canvas to define the start point of the bounding box that defines the circle, then drag until the resulting circle is the size you want. 3 Release the mouse button to finish drawing. Note: To create a perfectly symmetrical circle, press Shift while you drag. To draw the circle from its anchor point, press Option while you drag.
01112.book Page 842 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Creating Freehand Shapes Use the Bezier and B-Spline shape tools to create any kind of line or shape you need. Once you draw a shape, you can adjust the fill, outline, and feathering to suit your needs. Note: You can only feather shapes that have the outline turned off. To make a line: 1 Select the Bezier or B-Spline shape tool. 2 Click in the Canvas to create the necessary control points for the line you need.
01112.book Page 843 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 By default, new closed shapes are filled. To make the shape empty, select it, then turn off the Fill checkbox in the Dashboard. Filled shape Empty shape To edit a shape’s fill: 1 Select a shape, then open the Shape tab in the Inspector. 2 Do one of the following: • To toggle a shape’s fill on or off, click the Fill checkbox. • To change a shape’s fill mode from a solid color to a gradient, choose a command from the Fill Mode pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 844 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Positive values spread the feathering outward, while negative values feather the shape inward. Feathered out Feathered in Tip: You can also blur a shape in other ways using filters. For more information, see “Applying Filters to Shapes” on page 847. Creating Illustrations Using Multiple Shapes You can use groups of shapes to create more detailed shapes, and even complete illustrations.
01112.book Page 845 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Organizing Objects Used in Multi-Shape Illustrations When you create illustrations using groups of shapes, it is helpful to take advantage of the organizational tools in Motion by grouping shape objects together within nested layers. In the example above, the objects that make up the illustration are arranged into three layers—one for the hair and face, another nested layer for the facial features, and an additional layer for the body.
01112.book Page 846 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Creating Holes and Transparency in Shapes There are several ways you can create holes and transparency within shapes. You can use the Opacity, Blend Mode, and Preserve Opacity parameters in the Properties tab to modify a shape’s overall transparency. Shapes with multiple blend modes For more information on using object blending parameters, see “Blend Modes” on page 244.
01112.book Page 847 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Applying Filters to Shapes You can apply filters to shapes, just like any other object. When you apply a filter to a shape, it remains editable, even though the filter is changing it from a vector-based object into a bitmapped object in order to perform the operation. Original shape Shape with filter applied You can apply filters to individual shapes, or to a layer in which a number of shapes have been nested.
01112.book Page 848 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Keyframing Shape Animation You can also keyframe a shape’s animation parameter to animate adjustments to its individual control points. This opens up powerful animation possibilities, since you can reform an entire shape using keyframe animation.
01112.book Page 849 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Move to the frame where you want to change the shape, then make any necessary changes to the shape’s control points. In the Keyframe Editor (and also in the Timeline, if the Show/HIde Keyframes button is turned on), a keyframe appears for each adjustment you make at a new frame. Note: Adjusting a shape while the playhead is on an already existing keyframe adjusts the shape at that keyframe. 4 Continue advancing frames and making changes as needed.
01112.book Page 850 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The animated shape object interpolates between each keyframed shape. If you don’t like how the interpolation is working, you can add more keyframes to force the control points to follow the path you want. First keyframe Interpolated shape Second keyframe You can also create, delete, and edit the timing of Shape Animation keyframes directly in the Keyframe Editor.
01112.book Page 851 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Masking Objects to Create Transparency When you create a mask to define transparency within an object, you’re drawing a shape to use as that object’s alpha channel. Since an object’s alpha channel is a grayscale channel, masks are grayscale objects, where white defines solid areas, progressively darker levels of gray define decreasingly opaque areas, and black defines areas of complete transparency.
01112.book Page 852 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Drawing and editing masks using these tools works identically to drawing and editing shapes. The main difference is that while drawing a shape creates a new object in your project, masks must be drawn on top of another object in your project. Once drawn, masks are nested within the specific objects for which they were created in the Layers tab and Timeline. Once a mask is attached to an object, a Masks icon appears to the right of the name of the object.
01112.book Page 853 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Begin drawing the shape you need to mask the object. For more information about how to draw and edit shapes, see “Shape and Mask Drawing Tools” on page 820. 4 When you’re done, you can finish the mask by doing one of the following: • • • • Click the first point to close the mask. Press C to close the mask, joining the first point you created to the last. Double-click to close the mask, joining the first point you created to the last.
01112.book Page 854 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can create multiple masks for a single object. To add additional masks, select the object again, then follow the above procedure. By default, all new masks are set to the Add blend mode. You can change the Mask Blend Mode parameter in the Inspector to combine masks for different effects. For more information about using multiple masks together, see “Combining Multiple Masks” on page 857.
01112.book Page 855 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Add: This is the default selection for new masks. Each new mask adds to the existing alpha channel. This is useful for adding back regions of an image that other masks are cutting out. In this example, both the rectangle and circle masks are creating opaque regions. • Subtract: Subtracts a mask from the alpha channel.
01112.book Page 856 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Replace: This setting uses the current mask to completely replace the object’s original alpha channel, as well as any other masks that are applied to the same object that appear underneath the current mask in the Layers list. You can add additional masks above, set to whatever blending mode you like. In the following example, the circle mask is overriding the rectangle, since it is at the top of the masks that are nested within the gradient object.
01112.book Page 857 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Feather: A slider that feathers (softens) the edges of a mask. Positive feathering values soften the edge of the mask from its edge outward. Negative feathering values soften the edge of a mask inward from the edge. Feathering the edge of a mask can soften a harsh rotoscoping job, making the masked object blend more easily with the background.
01112.book Page 858 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Whatever the reason, you can easily combine multiple masks for any object by adjusting each mask’s Mask Blend Mode parameter in the Inspector to create any combination. Mask Blend Mode pop-up menu Each mask’s blend mode determines whether the mask adds to, subtracts from, or replaces an object’s previously existing alpha channel. Additionally, blend modes affect how masks interact with one another.
01112.book Page 859 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: To display the rest of a masked object so you can trace it to create a second mask, turn off the first mask in either the Layers tab or Timeline. The outline of the first mask remains visible, even though it’s no longer affecting the object’s transparency. Predictably, masks set to Subtract have the opposite effect, creating black areas in the object’s alpha channel and making those parts of the object transparent.
01112.book Page 860 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Feathering Masks One of the easiest ways to adjust a mask is to feather its edges. Feathering a mask by a few pixels can make the masked object blend more seamlessly with a background. Feathering a mask by larger amounts allows you to create progressively softer edges for a variety of design purposes. You can feather mask edges either outward or inward. The direction in which you feather a mask is dictated by the subject you’re masking.
01112.book Page 861 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Do one of the following: • Drag the Feather value slider to the right for a positive value to feather the mask outward. • Drag the Feather value slider to the left for a negative value to feather the mask inward. Applying Filters to Masks Like shapes, you can apply filters to masks, which remain editable even after the fact.
01112.book Page 862 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To apply a filter to a mask, do one of the following: Drag a filter from the Library directly onto a mask in the Layers tab or Timeline. Select a mask in the Layers tab or Timeline, then choose a filter from the Add Filter pop-up menu in the Toolbar. The filter appears nested underneath the mask to which it’s applied. Applying Behaviors to Masks You can apply behaviors directly to masks.
01112.book Page 863 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To rotoscope a subject by animating a mask: 1 Choose View > Resolution > Full to ensure that you are viewing the Canvas at full resolution. Warning: If the Canvas resolution is not set to full, the outlines of objects and images may shift slightly. As a result, masks created to trace a subject at less than full resolution may not be accurate.
01112.book Page 864 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In this example, the best frame to start with when rotoscoping the dolphin in the example below is the one where all the fins are showing. When rotoscoping a moving subject, it’s a good idea to play through the clip and examine its direction and speed to get a sense of how the mask needs to be animated.
01112.book Page 865 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Every time you move the playhead to a new frame and make a change to the mask’s shape, a keyframe is automatically created in that shape’s Shape Animation parameter. If you move the playhead directly on top of a previously existing keyframe, you change the mask’s shape at that point without creating a new keyframe. Note: You can also transform and shear masks as you would any other object.
01112.book Page 866 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The power of image masks is that they do not have to be drawn or animated. Instead, you can use virtually any image or movie clip to create transparency in another object. By default, movie clips create animated image masks, but you can also set an image mask to use only a single frame. Image masks can also be used to assign masks that were created in other applications.
01112.book Page 867 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 Do one of the following: • Open the Image Mask tab in the Inspector, then drag the object you want to use as the mask into the Image well. • Drag the object you want to use as the mask into the Mask Source well in the Dashboard. Important: Be sure to click and drag in one movement to successfully drop an object in an image well. If you select the object to use as the source, and release the mouse button, you lose the selection.
01112.book Page 868 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Image: An image well that assigns a shape, text object, image, movie, or numbered image sequence to use to mask an object. Frame: When you use a movie or image sequence as the assigned image, this slider allows you to select the start frame for playback. Hold Frame: When you use a movie or image sequence as the assigned image, turning on this checkbox freezes the frame specified in the Frame parameter.
01112.book Page 869 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Replace: This setting uses the current mask to completely replace the object’s original alpha channel, as well as any other masks that are applied to the same object that appear underneath the current mask in the Layers list. You can add additional masks above, set to whatever blending mode you like. • Intersect: Masks that are set to Intersect do not replace an object’s original alpha channel.
01112.book Page 870 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Garbage Masks The second step in most keying shots is to create a garbage mask to crop out unwanted objects in the shot that can’t be keyed, such as the edge of a bluescreen stage, lighting rigs, or tape that appears in the background. You can also use a garbage matte to mask out parts of the background that are too difficult to key without the loss of foreground detail.
01112.book Page 871 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Holdout Masks Sometimes, while pulling a key, you lose part of the image you’re trying to keep. This can happen when the color of the subject’s clothes is too close to the color of the background being keyed out, or when you need to use keying values that are too aggressive. In this example, the shadows on the elephant’s face are accidentally getting keyed along with the background.
01112.book Page 872 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You may need to animate the holdout mask if the subject is moving. Holdout mask object Holdout mask combined with keyed object 4 On the newly duplicated layer, delete the original keying filters since they’re unnecessary. If you’ve used a Spill Suppression filter, don’t delete it, since it’s probably changing the color of the subject.
01112.book Page 873 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 4 Apply the appropriate keying filter to each of the isolated parts of the subject, and adjust each filter’s settings as necessary. Eventually, you may find you can achieve an optimal key for each part of the subject. Furthermore, with all duplicates nested within a single layer, you can continue to manipulate the subject as a single object.
01112.book Page 874 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Channel Blur: This filter, found in the Blur category of the Filters library, lets you selectively blur the alpha channel. You can set the amount of horizontal and vertical blur independently.
01112.book Page 875 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • Feather: A slider that allows you to adjust edge translucence. Lower values reduce the amount of translucence in a matte, but this results in harder edges around holes and edges in the alpha channel. Keyed original object (color channel) Keyed object with holes (alpha channel) Keyed object with Matte Choker (color channel) The Matte Choker eliminates the holes (alpha channel).
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01112.book Page 877 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 13 Working With Audio 13 Sound is an integral part of many motion graphics projects. Use audio in your project for background music, dialogue, or scratch tracks. You can add audio files to your project and use markers and keyframes to sync the audio with other events in your project. You can import several different types of audio files, including the audio tracks from QuickTime movie clips.
01112.book Page 878 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You can add keyframes for volume and pan to an audio track and trim an audio track in the Audio Editor. You can also trim an audio track in the Timeline. The Audio Editor You can export audio with video, or export audio alone, in a variety of formats. See “Exporting Audio” on page 898 for a list of the audio export formats Motion supports.
01112.book Page 879 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When you add an audio file to your project, Motion converts it to its own internal format. This allows you to use audio files with different formats, sample rates, and bit depths in the same project. When you export your project, the audio is exported according to the current audio settings in the Export dialog. Previewing an Audio File You can listen to, or preview, an audio file in the File Browser before adding it to a project.
01112.book Page 880 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Adding an Audio File To work with audio in your project, you start by adding an audio file to the project. Note: Although you can see a connected iPod in the File Browser as a hard disk, you can only browse for and import supported non-music files into Motion, such as images. m To add an audio file from the File Browser, do one of the following: Drag the file from the File Browser or the Finder into the Canvas.
01112.book Page 881 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The audio file is added to the project, and appears in the Audio tab of the Project pane, the Audio Editor, and the Timeline (if the Show Audio button is turned on). The start point of the audio file is determined by the Create Objects At preference in the Project Preferences. If set to “Start of project,” the file starts at the beginning of the project. If set to “Current frame,” it starts at the current location of the Timeline playhead.
01112.book Page 882 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Although you can import files that contain multiple audio tracks into Motion, when you export your project, all tracks are treated equally and mixed into a single track on export. To import a multi-track QuickTime movie file using the drop menu: 1 Drag the file from the File Browser or the Finder and hold the file over the Canvas. A drop menu appears.
01112.book Page 883 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM In the Layers tab, the link icon also appears in the Lock column for the object, indicating the object has a corresponding audio element. • To import the movie file with a single audio track for each track, select Import All Tracks, then release the mouse button. The file appears in the Audio tab with an individual audio track for each track in the file.
01112.book Page 884 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Choose an import option from the Audio pop-up menu (located at the bottom of the Import Files dialog), then click Import. The file is imported with your chosen option. Adding a Multi-Channel Audio File In the same manner as importing multi-track QuickTime movie files, you can import a multi-channel audio file as a single track, or as individual tracks for each channel.
01112.book Page 885 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When a multi-channel audio file is imported without using the drop menu, Mix To Stereo is the default import method. • To import the audio file with a separate track for each channel, select Import All Tracks, then release the mouse button. Each channel is converted into a track in Motion. Like importing a multi-track QuickTime movie, all tracks are enabled.
01112.book Page 886 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The waveform of the selected file appears in the Audio Editor. Viewing the audio waveform can be useful in the Keyframe Editor to synchronize motion and other parameter changes with audio events such as peaks or points of silence, and in the Audio Editor to synchronize level and pan changes with audio events. m To view information about your project’s audio files, do one of the following: In the Project pane, click the Media tab.
01112.book Page 887 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m To duplicate an audio track: In the Audio tab, select the audio track, then do one of the following: • Choose Edit > Duplicate. • Control-click the track, then choose Duplicate from the shortcut menu. The duplicate appears below the original file in the Audio tab. Deleting an Audio File There are two ways to remove an audio track from your project.
01112.book Page 888 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m m To turn an audio track on or off, do one of the following: In the Audio tab of the Project pane, click the activation checkbox on the left side of the track. Click the checkbox again to return the track to its previous state (on or off ). In the Timeline, with the Show/Hide Audio button turned on, click the activation checkbox (the left column). Click the checkbox again to return the track to its previous state.
01112.book Page 889 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Muting and Soloing Tracks When you mute an audio track, it is silent during playback, but is still part of the mix when you export your project. When you solo an audio track, all other audio tracks are muted, which lets you hear the soloed track more clearly. Name field Lock icon Activation checkbox Level slider Solo button Pan slider Mute button You can mute, unmute, solo, or unsolo an audio track at any time, even during playback.
01112.book Page 890 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Setting Track Panning Pan refers the left-right balance of a track in the stereo field. You can adjust a track’s pan position using the Pan slider. The available range is from –100 (hard left) to 100 (hard right). The default is 0 (center). m To set a track’s pan position: In the Audio tab, the track’s Dashboard, or the Audio Track pane of the Inspector, drag the Pan slider to the left or right to set the pan position for the track.
01112.book Page 891 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM You select the Master track by clicking its area at the bottom of the Audio tab. When selected, the Master track area appears highlighted. Turning the Master Track On or Off The Master track is turned on by default. When it is turned off, no sound is audible when you play the project, and no audio is included when you export your project. When it is turned on, all audio tracks that are turned on are included in your export.
01112.book Page 892 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Once you determine which track is causing the clipping, you can lower the track’s overall level, or use keyframes to lower the track’s level at the specific point in time where clipping occurs. Clipping indicators The clipping indicators are “sticky,” meaning that once they light up, they stay lit until you reset them or close the project. This is intended to help remind you to find and eliminate the cause of the clipping before you export your project.
01112.book Page 893 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: You can also show and slip the timebar for an audio track in the Timeline by clicking the Audio Scrubbing button at the lower-left edge of the Audio Editor. Trimming Audio Tracks You can edit the start and end points of an audio track to cut down the length of the audio in the track, or to have it start or end at a specific point in time. This is called “trimming” the track.
01112.book Page 894 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM m Position the pointer over the number in either the In or Out field, and the drag pointer appears. Drag left to increase the value, or drag right to decrease the value. The trimmed area appears highlighted in green. Scrubbing an Audio Track You can scrub an audio track in the Audio Editor to hear a portion of the track. Use the Audio Scrubbing button to turn scrubbing on or off.
01112.book Page 895 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Recording Keyframes You can record keyframes for audio level and pan by clicking the Record button, then moving the sliders in the Audio tab, the Dashboard, or the Inspector. Recording keyframes for audio level and pan can be useful for trying out changes, and when you want to hear the results in real time.
01112.book Page 896 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Drag the keyframe up or down to set the pan position you want at a specific time. Drag down to pan to the left, or drag up to pan to the right. 4 Add any other keyframe you need, and drag each one to set its value. Note: When modifying Pan values, you can Control-click a keyframe to display a shortcut menu that lets you set different interpolation methods between points on your curve. See “Modifying Curves” on page 437 for more information.
01112.book Page 897 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Markers With Audio When you add project markers to the Timeline, they appear in all three tabs of the Timing pane: the Timeline, the Keyframe Editor, and the Audio Editor. You can use project markers to designate “hit points” as you play back the project, to quickly jump to a specific point in time, or to highlight points where you want to synchronize visual and audio events.
01112.book Page 898 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: For more information on Soundtrack Pro, see the Soundtrack Pro documentation. Exporting Audio A Motion project can be exported as an audio-only QuickTime movie (.mov), or as a QuickTime movie with both video and audio. To export audio: 1 Choose File > Export. 2 In the Export dialog, type a name for the exported file, then browse to the location where you want to save the file. 3 Choose QuickTime Movie from the Kind pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 899 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 14 Exporting Motion Projects 14 Exporting your project renders it into a movie or series of still frames, based on your export choices. You can also render out audio tracks to a sound or movie file. When it’s time to share your project with the rest of the world (either the finished version or a draft), you export your project.
01112.book Page 900 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Exporting Your Project When you export your project, you can choose the kind of export and which media to include in the exported file. You can choose an export preset, or set video, audio, and output export options individually. You can export the entire project or, if you have marked a play range, export only the play range. To export your project: 1 Choose File > Export (or press Command+E).
01112.book Page 901 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Choosing the Export Type You can export your project as a QuickTime movie or as a numbered sequence of images, and can also export the current frame as a still image. QuickTime Movie When you export your project as a QuickTime movie, the project is rendered as a movie file (.mov). Exported QuickTime movies can include both video and audio, video only, or audio only.
01112.book Page 902 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Choosing an Export Preset Motion includes export presets for many typical work situations. There are presets for QuickTime movie, image sequence, and current frame export.
01112.book Page 903 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 Click a preset in the list, and its settings appear in the Summary field at the right, along with a brief description. The settings for the current export preset are also displayed in the Export Options dialog. m To choose an export preset: In the Export sheet, choose the preset from the Export Preset pop-up menu. Editing an Export Preset You can edit an existing preset.
01112.book Page 904 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Duplicating an Export Preset You can duplicate an existing preset, and use it as the starting point for creating a new preset. To duplicate an export preset: 1 Choose File > Export, then click the Options button in the Export sheet. The Export options dialog appears, with the Video/Audio pane visible. 2 In the Video/Audio pane, edit the video and audio settings you want to change.
01112.book Page 905 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To delete an export preset: 1 Choose Motion > Preferences, then click Presets. 2 Choose Export Presets from the Show pop-up menu. 3 Select the export preset you want to delete. 4 Click the Delete Preset (–) button. Setting Export Options If no export preset meets your specific needs, you can customize the export settings for your project. You can set export options for video, audio, and output individually.
01112.book Page 906 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • If you are exporting an image sequence, type a number for the starting frame of the sequence in the “Start number” field. Turn on the “Add spaces” checkbox to add an extra space to the filename between the name and number. Some applications require the space to read the image sequence files in the correct order. • Click the Advanced button to view and select advanced audio video options.
01112.book Page 907 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM When this checkbox is turned on, the Color option is set to Color + Alpha, and the “Premultiply alpha” option is turned on. All other fields are disabled. When this checkbox is turned off, the export uses the settings below, which override your project settings. • Choose one of the project preset sizes from the Resolution pop-up menu, or choose Custom and type a custom frame size in the two Resolution value fields.
01112.book Page 908 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the Compression Settings dialog, choose the settings you want. • Choose a codec from the Compression pop-up menu. • Drag the Quality slider to adjust the level of spatial compression. Some codecs may not allow you to adjust the quality level. • Choose the frame rate for your exported video in the “Frames per second” pop-up menu, or type a number in the field.
01112.book Page 909 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 3 In the Sound Settings dialog, choose the settings you want. • • • • • Choose a codec to compress the audio from the Compressor pop-up menu. Choose a sample rate for audio export from the Rate field. Set the size (bit depth) to 8 bit or16 bit by clicking one of the Size buttons. Set audio export to use mono or stereo format by clicking one of the Use buttons. Some codecs have additional export options.
01112.book Page 910 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To export a project using Compressor from within Motion: 1 Choose File > Export Using Compressor. The Compressor Export Options dialog appears. 2 Choose an export preset from the Export Preset pop-up menu. To see a summary of the Compressor settings, click the Summary button. 3 Choose which media to include in the export from the Include pop-up menu.
01112.book Page 911 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM The Batch Monitor window appears with your project listed in the upper window. A progress bar shows the progress of the export. When the export is complete, your project appears in the lower window. 10 When you are finished, choose Batch Monitor > Quit to exit Batch Monitor. While your project is being exported, you can continue to work on the project in Motion, or work on another project.
01112.book Page 912 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Compressor Presets Compressor includes a large number of presets, including video, image, and audio presets. When you export a project using Compressor, you can select a preset in the Compressor Export Options dialog. These presets cannot be edited in Motion, but you can edit them and create new presets in Compressor. You can use multiple Compressor presets by choosing them from the Preset pop-up menu in the Compressor Batch window.
A Keyboard Shortcuts A Appendix 01112.book Page 913 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Use keyboard shortcuts to streamline your work in Motion. The following tables organize the keyboard shortcuts by menu, component, and task. Some keyboard shortcuts are always active, whether or not you are working in the group that they are listed in, while other keyboard shortcuts are only active under special circumstances.
01112.book Page 914 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command option + x Function +W Close all open projects. x +I Import a file. x +E Export a project. + shift x +E + x +I + Import files as a project. Undo the last change. +Z shift Export a project using Compressor. Print the current view of the Canvas. +P shift x x x +Z Redo the last change. x +X Cut x +C Copy x +V Paste x +D Duplicate x +A Select all items. + shift x +A Deselect all items.
01112.book Page 915 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command + shift x option x Function x +P Hide Motion. +H + Display Page Setup sheet. +H x Hide other open application files. Quit Motion. +Q Play/Pause a project. space Record animation. A Go to the start of a project. home Go to the end of a project. end Motion Menu Key command Function +, Open Motion Preferences. x x +H Hide Motion. option x + +H x Hide other open application files. Quit Motion.
01112.book Page 916 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function x +W Close a project. x +S Save a project. + shift x x + x +I Import files as a project. Export a project. +E shift + x +E shift + x +P x Save a project as a new project. Import a file. +I shift x +S Export a project using Compressor. Display Page Setup sheet. Print the current view of the Canvas.
01112.book Page 917 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command + option x x Function +V Paste special Duplicate +D Delete delete + shift x Select all items. +A + shift x Perform a ripple delete which removes the selected object and closes the gap left behind. delete x +A Deselect all items. Open the Project Properties dialog. +J Mark Menu Key command Function Mark In point. I Mark Out point. O shift +[ shift +] Move the selected object to the In point.
01112.book Page 918 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Play/Pause a project. space Enable/Disable loop playback. +L shift Record animation. A option Open the Recording Options dialog. +A Go to the start of project. home Go to the end of project. end shift + home shift + end Go to the start of play range. Go to the end of play range. Go to the previous frame. Go to the next frame. shift + shift + option Go forward ten frames. Go to previous keyframe.
01112.book Page 919 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command option + x Function + option + shift Render a RAM Preview for the selected object. +R x +R Render a RAM Preview for the entire project. Object Menu Key command + shift Function x +N Add a new empty layer to the project. x +} Move the selected object to the top of the Layers list. x +{ Move the selected object to the bottom of the Layers list. x +] Move the selected object up the Layers list by one level.
01112.book Page 920 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Replicate the selected object. L +F shift Open the Media tab and Inspector to display the source and properties of media objects. View Menu Key command Function x + Zoom in. x + Zoom out. option +Z +Z shift Zoom to 100 percent. Zoom to fit in window. Show/Hide the Canvas in Full Screen mode.
01112.book Page 921 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Toggle between the current channel and alpha channels. V Show the Canvas at full resolution. +Q shift option +F option +M Enable/Disable field rendering in the Canvas. Enable/Disable motion blur in the Canvas. + shift x + option + x +R Show the rulers. Show Overlays. / x +; Lock the guides. x +' Show/Hide the grid. x +; Show/Hide the guides. + shift x +; Show/Hide the Dynamic Guides.
01112.book Page 922 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Window Menu Key command x +M control +U + shift + option Function Minimize the active window. Show the project in Standard layout. control control +U +U Show the project in Alternate layout. Show the project in Cinema layout. Show/Hide the Properties tab in Inspector. F1 Show/Hide the Behaviors tab in Inspector. F2 Show/Hide the Filters tab in Inspector. F3 Show/Hide the Object tab in Inspector. F4 Show/Hide the Project pane.
01112.book Page 923 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function x +8 Show/Hide the Keyframe Editor. x +9 Show/Hide the Audio Editor. Help Menu Key command Function x +? Open Motion Help. x +0 Show the Welcome Screen. Audio Editor Key command x +9 Function Show/Hide the Audio Editor. Play/Pause a project. space Record animation. A or M Add a marker at the current frame. Audio Tab Key command x +6 control +T control +L control +S Function Show/Hide the Audio tab.
01112.book Page 924 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Move down one level in the Audio list. x +I Import. Canvas View Group (includes Transform modes) Key command Function Global Transform Commands Choose the selected transform mode. S +S shift Choose the Select/Transform tool. Cycle through the transform modes. Press repeatedly until the transform mode you want is selected. tab + drag shift x option + drag + drag Constrain the movement of an object to the guidelines.
01112.book Page 925 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Crop an object proportionally from its center. + option + drag handle shift x option Pan a cropped object within the bounding box. + drag + x + drag Move the bounding box around a cropped object. Control Point Tool Double-click or option + click x + click x + drag x + drag x + click x + drag shift Add a point to path. + drag Convert a point to linear. Create tangents on point. Adjust a B-Spline point bias.
01112.book Page 926 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command + drag shift option + drag shift + option + click shift + drag rotation handle Function Draw a shape proportionally. Draw a shape from its center. Draw a shape proportionally from its center. Snap the rotation of an object to 45° increments. Bezier Tool Select the Bezier tool. B Toggle between the Bezier and B-Spline tools. B Close shape.
01112.book Page 927 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Double-click or Add a point to path. + click option x + drag x + click Adjust a B-Spline point bias. Toggle a B-Spline point bias. Cancel shape drawing and delete the open shape. esc Exit shape drawing mode. return Text Tool Select the Text tool. T , , + option x + x + , Move the insertion point by character. or , , , Move the insertion point by word. or Move to the beginning of a line of text.
01112.book Page 928 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command shift + Function x +A Deselect All. Exit Text tool. esc Mask Group Key command Function Rectangle & Circle Mask Tools option +R option +C shift option 928 + drag + drag shift + option + drag shift + drag rotation handle Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts Select the Rectangle Mask tool. Select the Circle Mask tool. Draw a shape proportionally. Draw a shape from its center. Draw a shape proportionally from its center.
01112.book Page 929 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Bezier Mask Tool option +B option +B Select the Bezier Mask tool. Toggle between the Bezier Mask and B-Spline Mask tools. Close mask. C Double-click or option + click x + click x + drag x + drag + drag shift Add a point to path. Convert a point to linear. Create tangents on point. Break a tangent handle. Constrain a tangent to 45° and original value. Cancel shape drawing and delete the open shape.
01112.book Page 930 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Cancel shape drawing and delete the open shape. esc Exit shape drawing mode. return Transport Controls Key command Function Play/Pause a project. space Record an animation. A +L shift Enable/disable loop playback. Go to the start of a project. home Go to the end of a project. end shift + home shift + end Go to the start of the play range. Go to the end of the play range. Go to the previous frame. Go to the next frame.
01112.book Page 931 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command x option Function Zoom to region. + drag Zoom to 100 percent. +Z Zoom to fit in the Canvas. shift +Z shift +C shift +T shift + option + T shift + option + C shift +R shift +G shift +B shift +A shift + option + A shift +Q option +F option +M Show all color channels. Show the transparent channel. option + Show the RGB channels only. Show the red channel. Show the green channel. Show the blue channel.
01112.book Page 932 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command shift + shift +' x Function x Show/Hide the Dynamic Guides. +; Show/Hide the Film Zones. Show the overlays. +/ Toggle between the current channel and alpha channel. V Show/Hide the Safe Zones. ' Enable/Disable snapping to guides. N Miscellaneous Key command Function Create Particle Emitter. E + shift x Import an image mask to the selected object. +M Select the next object above. Select the next object below.
01112.book Page 933 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Dashboard Key command Function Show/Hide the Dashboard. F7 Cycle through the Dashboards from top to bottom (when more than one effect is applied to an object). D Cycle through the Dashboards from bottom to top (when more than one effect is applied to an object). +D shift File Browser Key command x +1 x +O + shift x Function Show/Hide File Browser. Open project. x +O +N Open template. New project. Show/Hide Project pane.
01112.book Page 934 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Inspector Key command Function Show/Hide the Inspector. x +3 x + or x + or Increase a slider value by an increment of one. Decrease a slider value by an increment of one. shift + x + or shift + x + or Increase a slider value by an increment of ten. Decrease a slider value by an increment of ten. Keyframe Editor Key command Function x +8 Show/Hide Keyframe Editor. x +K Convert the applied behaviors to keyframes.
01112.book Page 935 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command option + control +T control +S control +L x Function +G Ungroup a group of objects so you can manipulate the objects individually. Make the object active or deactivate the object. Enable/disable the Solo button of a selected track. Lock/Unlock an object. Move up one level in the Layers list. Move down one level in the Layers list. Open a layer in the Layers list. Close a layer in the Layers list.
01112.book Page 936 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Move right one item in the file stack. x Move up one level in the folder hierarchy of the file stack. + Media Tab Key command x Function Show/Hide Media tab. +5 Move up one level in the Media list. Move down one level in the Media list. x Import +I Timeline Editing and Navigating Key command 936 x + x + Function Nudge one frame forward. Nudge one frame backward.
01112.book Page 937 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Reset the play range by moving the In and Out points to the first and last frames of the project. +X option Enable/Disable loop playback. +L shift Open the Recording Options dialog. +A option shift + home shift + end shift +I shift +O Go to the start of play range. Go to the end of play range. Go to the In point of the selected object. Go to the Out point of the selected object. Go to the previous frame.
01112.book Page 938 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command option + x Function +M Open the Edit Marker dialog. Play/Pause the project. space Record animation. A Go to the start of project. home Go to the end of project. end x + shift option Convert the applied behaviors to keyframes. +K + Perform a ripple delete. delete x +V Paste special. Keyframing Commands Key command Function Double-click or Add a point to path.
01112.book Page 939 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Shape and Mask Commands Key command Function + drag shift option Draw a shape from its center with the Rectangle, Circle Shape, and Mask tools. + drag + option + drag shift Draw a shape proportionally with the Rectangle, Circle Shape, and Mask tools. Draw a shape proportionally from its center with the Rectangle, Circle Shape, and Mask tools. Cancel shape drawing and delete the open shape. esc Exit shape drawing mode.
01112.book Page 940 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Key command Function Select the Pan tool. H Select the Zoom tool. Z Select the Rectangle Shape tool. R Select the Circle Shape tool. C Toggle between the Bezier and B-Spline tools. B Select the Text tool. T option +R option +C option +B Select the Rectangle Mask tool. Select the Circle Mask tool. Toggle between the Bezier Mask and B-Spline Mask tools. Show/Hide the Dashboard. F7 x +1 x +2 x +3 Show/Hide the File Browser.
B Video and File Formats B Appendix 01112.book Page 941 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Motion supports a wide variety of media and video formats for broadcast and multimedia. This appendix covers the technical specifications for the most popular video formats in use today. Motion allows you to create projects that integrate many media types using a wide variety of formats. This appendix provides an overview of the most popular file formats that are supported.
01112.book Page 942 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • DV/DVCPRO - NTSC DVCPRO - PAL DVCPRO HD 1080i50, 1080i60, and 720p60 DVCPRO50 - NTSC DVCPRO50 - PAL Uncompressed 8- and 10-bit 4:2:2 Graphics H.261 HDV 1080i50, 1080i60, and 720p30 Apple Intermediate Codec Motion JPEG A and JPEG B MPEG IMX 525/60 (30Mb/s, 40 Mb/s, 50 Mb/s) MPEG IMX 625/50 (30Mb/s, 40 Mb/s, 50 Mb/s) MPEG-4 Video Photo - JPEG Apple Pixlet Video Planar RGB PNG TGA TIFF VC H.264 Video H.
01112.book Page 943 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Other image formats In addition, Motion includes special support for the following image types: • Layered Photoshop files • PDF files Audio formats You can import audio files with sample rates up to 192 kHz, and with bit depths up to 32 bits. Mono and stereo files are supported. Multi-channel audio files are also supported. Motion supports the following audio file types: • WAV • AIFF • .cdda • MP3 • AAC (AAC files are listed in the Finder with the .
01112.book Page 944 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Standard Definition vs. High Definition Video Formats Motion is extremely flexible and can work with both highly compressed and uncompressed video. Standard Definition Video Despite having differing frame sizes, NTSC and PAL standard definition video share certain characteristics. • Both signals are interlaced, although the field order depends on the video capture interface used.
01112.book Page 945 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Standard definition DV formats include DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO25, and DVCPRO50. Digital format Maker Color sampling Compression ratio Compression type Recorded bit rate DV Sony 4:1:1 5:1 DV 3.6 MB/sec. DVCAM Sony 4:1:1 5:1 DV 3.6 MB/sec. DVCPRO25 Panasonic 4:1:1 (NTSC) 4:2:0 (PAL) 5:1 DV 3.6 MB/sec. DVCPRO50 Panasonic 4:2:2 3.3:1 DV 7 MB/sec.
01112.book Page 946 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Frame rates intended for broadcast video use can be interlaced, similar to standard definition video on a television, or progressive like a computer display. Frame rate Video format 23.98 A progressive frame rate intended for HD video transfer to film. 23.98 is rounded up from the actual frame rate of 23.976. This frame rate is useful in post-production since it can be converted easily by hardware to the interlaced 59.
01112.book Page 947 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Supported DVCPRO HD Formats Motion natively supports the following DVCPRO HD formats. Format Motion Easy Setup Dimensions Scanning method 1080i60 DVCPRO HD - 1080i60 1920 x 1080 Interlaced 720p60 DVCPRO HD - 720p60 1280 x 720 Progressive 720p30 DVCPRO HD - 720p30 1280 x 720 Progressive 720p24 DVCPRO HD - 720p24 1280 x 720 Progressive Format Timebase (on tape) Timebase (in Motion) Source timecode (in Motion) 1080i60 29.97 fps 29.
01112.book Page 948 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Format Bits per second (video only) Bytes per second Digital Betacam 95.2 Mbps 11.9 MB/sec. D-1 172 Mbps 21.5 MB/sec. Choosing a Frame Rate Most DVCPRO HD cameras and decks allow two types of video frame rates: • Integer frame rates such as 60, 30, and 24 fps • NTSC-related frame rate variants such as 59.94, 29.97, and 23.98 fps Note: If you are outputting via Final Cut Pro, Motion only supports NTSC-related timebases such as 59.94, 29.
01112.book Page 949 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Video footage, which generally has more grain, noise, and variations of texture and color than animated material, may not be compressed as much with the Animation codec as with other methods. Because some lossless compression is better than none, this codec is used more frequently than Uncompressed. DVCPRO 100 A high definition video format that can be used to capture video digitally from FireWire-enabled DVCPRO100 compatible decks.
01112.book Page 950 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Third-party codecs There are several manufacturers of video-editing solutions, most of whom use different variations of the M-JPEG codec. Many make software-only QuickTime codecs that you can install in your System folder, enabling you to play back movies with little or no rerendering. For more information, contact the manufacturer of the editing system. Note: Most third-party codecs cannot have alpha channels.
01112.book Page 951 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Using Square or Nonsquare Pixels When Creating Graphics When you’re preparing to import graphics into Motion, it’s important to be aware of the pixel aspect ratio you’re using and whether your project requires you to work with square or nonsquare pixels. Nonsquare pixels: Use this for standard definition projects in NTSC or PAL.
01112.book Page 952 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Working With Standard Definition (SD) Video Monitors and Computer Displays Standard definition (SD) video monitors differ from computer displays in a significant way (aside from interlacing): computer displays represent images using a grid of square pixels, while video monitors use pixels that are rectangular in shape.
01112.book Page 953 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Differences in Color Between Computer and Video Graphics You should also be aware that the range of colors that can be displayed on a broadcast video monitor is much smaller than that which can be displayed on your computer. For this reason, colors that appear bright and clean on NTSC or PAL video can seem duller when viewed on your computer.
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Integration With Final Cut Pro C C Appendix 01112.book Page 955 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Motion graphics work is often part of a larger project being edited in Final Cut Pro. The nature of both motion graphics and editing requires you to continually refine your work, so it’s important to be able to quickly and easily update the files being passed back and forth. Apple offers a clean workflow, letting you view your Motion project inside a Final Cut Pro Timeline as if it was a single clip.
01112.book Page 956 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM What Happens When a Motion Project Is Imported or Embedded? Although you cannot edit the actual imported or embedded Motion project in Final Cut Pro, you can scrub it, place it in your sequence, trim edit it, add transitions or titles, and apply filters to it.
01112.book Page 957 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Important: Any media clips used in the Motion project, such as movies or still images, need to be available on the same hard drive for the project to play correctly in Final Cut Pro. Using Alpha Channels If your Motion project has transparent areas, the clip imported into Final Cut Pro assigns an alpha channel representing those transparent sections. Final Cut Pro may erroneously assign the alpha type to be straight.
01112.book Page 958 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM This lets you start the arrangement of a composition in Final Cut Pro and then export the items (with all of their compositing-related attributes) into Motion to take advantage of the Motion specialized toolset. The file exported by Final Cut Pro is a Motion project file. You can also export clips to Motion from the Final Cut Pro Browser. Exporting a sequence in the Browser creates a new Motion project containing all the elements in the sequence.
01112.book Page 959 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: When a clip that contains a freeze frame or time remapping in Final Cut Pro is exported, the freeze frame is not represented in Motion (the clip plays normally). Automatic Launch Option When you export from Final Cut Pro you have the option to automatically launch Motion, so you can begin working on your composition. Final Cut Pro remains open, so you can move back and forth between the two applications.
01112.book Page 960 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Note: Whether or not the Motion project clip is embedded in the Final Cut Pro sequence, a new sequence containing the objects selected for export is added to the Browser. What Properties Are Exported? When you select clips or sequences to export to Motion, the following properties are retained with the exported project.
D Using Gestures D Appendix 01112.book Page 961 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM If you use a Wacom tablet and pen with your computer system, you can use gestures to navigate within Motion and to perform tasks such as editing, copying and pasting, and so on. Gestures are continuous, uninterrupted patterns that are drawn in the Motion user interface (using your tablet). Note: The supported tablet for using gestures in Motion is the Wacom Intuos tablet family.
01112.book Page 962 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Important: Gestures in Motion use the Inkwell technology in the Mac OS X operating system. In order to use gestures, you must first enable Handwriting Recognition in Motion Preferences. If you cannot turn gestures on at this point, or perform the following steps, click Open Ink Preferences and follow the instructions in the section, “To set up Ink Preferences” on the next page. Once you have enabled Handwriting Recognition, complete the following steps.
01112.book Page 963 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gestures in the Air You can use gestures by swiping just above the tablet, without the tip of the pen actually touching the tablet. This feature is called “Allow gestures in the air.” Important: To use gestures in the air, you must set one of the pen buttons as the gesture trigger input method, as well as set the pen button 1 to Ignored in the Tool Buttons tab of the Wacom Tablet application. For more information, see “Wacom Settings” on page 964.
01112.book Page 964 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM To disable the default gesture sound: 1 Click the Options button in Ink Preferences. 2 In the Ink sheet, turn off “Play sound while writing.” Turn “Play sound while writing” on and off. Wacom Settings In the Wacom Tablet application, you can create customized tool settings for individual applications. For example, you can disable the pen buttons for use in Motion, but have button 1 set as “Double-Click” for another application.
01112.book Page 965 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM 5 Click the Motion icon, then set your pen tool options in the Tool Buttons tab. 6 To set customized tool settings for another application, follow steps 2–5 for that application. Using Gestures The following illustration shows the basic gesture anatomy. The green dot represents the start of the gesture, the blue arrow is the direction of your gesture, and the red dot the end of the gesture.
01112.book Page 966 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Playback Control Gestures Use the gestures described in the following table for controlling playback. Gesture Description Modifier keys Advance one frame. To advance in increments of 10 frames, press Shift. Go back one frame. To go back in increments of 10 frames, press Shift. Play forward at normal speed. • To play from start, press Shift. • To toggle loop, press Option. Stop or pause playback.
01112.book Page 967 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gesture Description Modifier keys Select the Zoom tool. To zoom in and out of the Canvas, move the pen left or right. The zoom is centered on the area in which the pointer is placed in the Canvas. Select the Pan tool. Set the Canvas to Home (100 percent). Fit the Canvas in the window. To toggle the Canvas to full-screen mode, press Shift. Show or hide the Timing pane. Show or hide the Project pane. Show or hide the Inspector.
01112.book Page 968 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gesture Description Modifier keys Show or hide the File Browser. Show or hide the Library. General Commands The following table describes the gestures for general commands, such as undo, select, and copy and paste. Gesture Description Undo Redo Delete the selected object. Choose the Select tool. If a Select tool mode is enabled, such as Shear, when the gesture is drawn, the Select mode is enabled. Show and hide the Dashboard.
01112.book Page 969 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gesture Description Modifier keys Copy Paste Note: The Paste command may be a bit tricky to master. Timeline Navigation and Editing Gestures The following table describes the gestures used for Timeline navigation and editing. Gesture Description Modifier keys Go to start of play range. Go to end of play range. Go to the start of the project. Go to the end of the project. Go to start of the currently selected object.
01112.book Page 970 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gesture Description Modifier keys Go to end of the currently selected object. Group Ungroup Set a local In point for the currently selected object. To move the In point to the current playhead position, press Shift. Set a local Out point for the currently selected object. To move the Out point to the current playhead position, press Shift. Bring the selected object forward in the stack. To bring an object to the front of the stack, press Shift.
01112.book Page 971 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM Gesture Description Modifier keys Add an object marker. • To edit an object marker, press Shift. • To clear an object marker, press Option. Appendix D Using Gestures Set the start of the play range. To clear the play range, press Option. Set the end of the play range. To clear the end of the play range, press Option.
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