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Color: Sets the drop shadow’s color. This color is black, by default.
Opacity: Sets the drop shadow’s transparency.
Blur: Specifies how soft the drop shadow is.
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 of the drop shadow. Changing the Angle of the
drop shadow changes the apparent direction of the light casting the shadow.
Fixed Source: When this checkbox is selected, the drop shadow behaves as if it were
cast by a fixed light source, regardless of camera or text movement.
Retiming
Your motion graphics projects may require you to perform special timing tricks on media:
speeding a clip up, slowing it down, or playing it back at a variety of speeds.
Using Retiming Behaviors
The Retiming category of behaviors offers various ways to quickly execute the most
commonly applied retiming tasks. A hold frame or strobe is easily accomplished with a
retiming behavior. Take some time to look over the behaviors in the Retiming category
before spending a lot of time in the Inspector creating your own custom retiming from
scratch.
Tip: You can also manipulate clip timing in the Timeline with the help of modifier keys.
Indicators in the Timeline help you visualize loops and other retiming conditions. For
more information on Retiming in the Timeline, see Retiming in the Timeline.
Timing Controls in the Properties Tab
Media objects (images and movie clips as opposed to Motion-created shapes) have
individual timing parameters in the Properties tab of the Inspector. Click the disclosure
triangle beside the Timing category to reveal these timing controls.
Time Remap: Sets how time is remapped in the clip. Use this pop-up menu to set Constant
Speed or Variable Speed.
• Constant Speed: Retimes the entire clip using the same value.
• Variable Speed: Allows you to animate the speed of the clip over time.
Speed: Sets the speed of the clip as a percentage. The default is 100%. Values lower
than 100 play back the clip more slowly than its original speed and also extend the
duration of the clip. Values higher than 100 play back the clip faster than its original speed
and shorten the duration of the clip. This parameter appears only when Time Remap is
set to Constant Speed.
345Chapter 7 Basic Compositing