5.5

827Motion User Guide
Geometry pane controls in Motion
The Geometry pane of the Shape Inspector contains controls to change the shape type, to
close or open a shape, and to individually adjust the position of a shape’s control points.
The Geometry pane controls are available for all shapes regardless of what is selected
in the Brush Type pop-up menu in the Style pane. You can change a shape’s type at any
time. Changing a shape’s type changes its form. For example, a single set of control points
produces the following three shapes, depending on the selected Shape Type:
The Geometry pane contains the following adjustable controls:
Basic Geometry controls
• Roundness: A slider (available when a simple rectangle shape, Bezier shape, or B-Spline
shape is selected) that adjusts the roundness of shape corners. Use this control to
create rounded rectangles or to smooth the edges of any shape.
• Curvature: A slider (available when a simple circle shape is selected) that adjusts the
degree of curvature of the circle. When set to 100%, the shape is elliptical. When set to
0%, the shape is rectangular.
• Preserve Scale: A checkbox (available when a simple rectangle shape, Bezier shape, or
B-Spline shape is selected) that controls whether the Roundness setting is absolute
or relative to the overall shape size. When this checkbox is selected, the roundness
remains at the same approximate percentage of curvature as the object is scaled. When
this checkbox is deselected, the curvature varies as the overall shape changes size.
• Radius: A slider (available when a simple circle shape is selected) that controls the
width and height of the shape. Click the disclosure triangle to reveal individual X (width)
and Y (height) sliders.
• Size: A slider (available when a simple rectangle shape is selected) that controls the
scale of the shape. Click the disclosure triangle to reveal individual Width and Height
sliders.
• Shape Type: A pop-up menu (available when a complex shape with control points is
selected) that sets the type of control points used to define the shape. For example,
if you originally created a Bezier shape, you can choose B-Spline from this menu to
change each Bezier control point into a B-Spline control point. Changing the shape
type does not move the control points, although the shape is changed, sometimes
dramatically. There are three options:
• Linear: All control points are joined by hard angles, and the resulting shape is a
polygon. The control points of a Linear shape lie directly on its edges.
• Bezier: Control points can be a mix of Bezier curves and hard angles, creating any
sort of shape. The control points of a Bezier shape lie directly on its edge.