5.5

64Motion User Guide
Image sequences in Motion
Numbered image sequences store video clips as individual still image files. Each image
file has a number in the filename that indicates where it fits into the sequence. In a film
clip that’s been digitally scanned, each file represents a single frame. In a video clip that’s
been converted to an image sequence, each file contains both fields of a single video
frame, with the upper and lower lines of the image saved together.
Image sequences use the same variety of file formats as still image files. Some of the most
popular formats for saving image sequences include SGI, BMP, JPEG, TIFF, and TGA. Like
still image formats, many of these image sequence formats support alpha channels, which
are used by Motion.
Because image sequences have been around for so long, they remain the lowest-common-
denominator file format for exchanging video across editing and compositing applications.
Although QuickTime is increasingly used to exchange video clips between platforms, image
sequences are still used, especially in film compositing.
As with QuickTime video clips, you can mix image sequences of different formats, using
different frame sizes, pixel aspect ratios, frame rates, and interlacing.
Important: Any imported image sequence must contain three or more digits of padding—
for example, “imagename.0001.tif.”
Animated GIFs in Motion
You can import animated GIFs into Motion.
Note: Animated GIFs have a limited color palette and don’t support alpha channels or audio.
Set an animated GIF frame rate
Depending on your project’s frame rate, the animated GIF may play at the wrong speed.
You can correct this in the Project pane.
1. In the Media list of the Project pane, select the GIF.
2. In the Media Inspector, choose an option from the Frame Rate pop-up menu.
Note: Clips playing at a frame rate different from that of the project may not play
smoothly.
PDF files in Motion
The PDF file format is a PostScript-based document format that accommodates PostScript-
based graphics and text, as well as bitmap graphics. Areas of transparency in a PDF file are
also transparent in Motion.
PDF files are capable of storing PostScript-based illustrations. Unlike graphics file formats
such as TIFF and JPEG, which save images as a collection of pixels at a given resolution
divided into red, green, and blue channels, PostScript-based illustrations are saved
as mathematical descriptions of how the artwork is drawn. As a result, PDF files using
PostScript-based artwork and text have infinite resolution.
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.