5.5

Table Of Contents
167Motion User Guide
Display playback frame rate
Part of the way Motion plays back a project in real time is by lowering the frame rate when
a sequence is too complex to render at full speed. You can monitor the current frame rate—
in frames per second (fps)—in the status bar.
Note: The frame rate appears in the status bar only while a project is playing.
In the Appearance pane of Motion Preferences, select the “Frame rate (only during
playback)” checkbox.
When you play the project, the frame rate appears in the status bar.
Custom canvas view options in Motion
The pop-up menus in the top-right side of the canvas let you customize various view
settings, including zoom level, color channels, rendering options, overlay options, and 3D
view layouts.
Important: In 360° projects, many of the View and Overlay options, such as rulers, guides,
safe zones, and so on are not always available. See Intro to 360° video in Motion.
Zoom Level pop-up menu
Choose any of several default zoom levels. Zooming the canvas changes the current view of
the window, not the size of the images in your project. See Zoom or pan the canvas in Motion.
Channels pop-up menu
Choose which color channels are displayed in the canvas:
Color: Shows the image as it would appear on a video monitor. Visible layers appear in
natural color and transparent areas reveal the background color as set in the Properties
Inspector for the project. The background color is black by default. To change it, press
Command-J, then choose a color from the Background Color control in the Properties
Inspector.
Note: To export the background color with the project, make sure the Background pop-
up menu in the Properties Inspector is set to Solid. This option creates a solid alpha
channel on export (when exporting using a codec that supports alpha channels). When
the Background pop-up menu is set to Transparent, the color is visible in the canvas,
but does not render as part of the alpha channel.
Transparent: Shows the background area of the canvas as transparent. A checkerboard
pattern appears by default 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.