5

Inserting Time
You can select a region to add blank playback time into your project (which will appear
black in the Canvas). For example, you might want to add some black frames between
two objects, or add frames in as a placeholder for a clip you don’t yet have. This is called
inserting time.
To insert time into a project
1 Holding down the Command and Option keys, drag in the ruler.
Drag as wide an area as you want to insert.
2 Choose Edit > Insert Time.
The number of frames in the region is added to the project, beginning at the end of the
selected region and pushing any existing objects further out in time.
Before After
If time is inserted during a range that contains a video clip, the clip is split onto two tracks
and objects beyond the split point are placed in a new group.
Project Duration
Motion projects default to ten seconds in length. You can change this duration to match
the needs of your project. To learn how to change the default project duration, see Project
Properties.
The project duration is displayed at the bottom of the Motion window. You can also
display the duration in the timing display in the toolbar.
To display the project duration in the timing display
µ
Choose Show Project Duration from the pop-up menu in the timing display (the
downward-facing arrow).
µ
Click the watch icon to the left of the numbers in the timing display.
To change the project duration
Do one of the following:
µ
With the timing display set to show project duration, double-click the number, then enter
a duration value.
357Chapter 8 Using the Timeline