2
Table Of Contents
- Motion User Manual
- Contents
- Motion 2 Documentation and Resources
- Getting To Know Motion
- Creating and Managing Projects
- Creating New Projects
- Managing Projects
- Editing Project Properties
- Browsing Media Files in Motion
- File Types Supported by Motion
- Adding Media to Your Project
- Managing Objects in Your Project
- Deleting Objects From a Project
- Exchanging Media in a Project
- Object Media Tab Parameters
- Using Media in the Library
- Organizing Layers and Objects in Motion
- The Background of Your Project
- Selecting Objects and Layers in the Layers Tab
- Reorganizing Objects in the Layers Tab
- Nesting Layers Inside Other Layers
- Grouping and Ungrouping Objects
- Showing and Hiding Layers and Objects
- Fixing the Size of a Layer
- Locking Layers and Objects
- Collapsing and Uncollapsing Layer Hierarchies
- Renaming Layers
- Searching for Layers and Objects
- Sorting Layers and Objects in the Media Tab
- Customizing and Creating New Templates
- Basic Compositing
- Using the Timeline
- Using Behaviors
- Keyframes and Curves
- Using Text
- Working With Particles
- The Anatomy of a Particle System
- Using Particle Systems
- Creating Graphics and Animations for Particle Systems
- Advanced Particle System Controls
- Animating Objects in Particle Systems
- Using Behaviors With Particle Systems
- Applying Filters to Particle Systems
- Particle System Examples
- Saving Custom Particle Effects to the Library
- Using the Replicator
- The Difference Between the Replicator and a Particle System
- The Anatomy of the Replicator
- Using the Replicator
- Advanced Replicator Controls
- Animating Replicator Parameters
- Using the Sequence Replicator Behavior
- Using Behaviors With Replicators
- Applying Filters to Replicators
- Saving Custom Replicators to the Library
- Using Filters
- About Filters
- Working With Filters
- An Introduction to Filters
- Working With Filters
- Enabling, Renaming, and Locking Filters
- Copying, Pasting, and Moving Filters
- Reordering Filters
- Changing Filter Timing
- Blur Filters
- A Fun Effect That Can Be Used With All the Blur Filters
- Border Filters
- Color Correction Filters
- Distortion Filters
- Glow Filters
- Keying Filters
- Matte Filters
- Sharpen Filters
- Stylize Filters
- Tiling Filters
- Working With Third-Party Filters
- Working With Generators
- Using Shapes and Masks
- Working With Audio
- Exporting Motion Projects
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Video and File Formats
- Supported File Formats
- Standard Definition vs. High Definition Video Formats
- Popular Video Codecs for File Exchange
- What Is Field Order?
- Using Square or Nonsquare Pixels When Creating Graphics
- Differences in Color Between Computer and Video Graphics
- Using Fonts and Creating Line Art for Video
- Scaling Imported High-Resolution Graphics
- Creating Graphics for HD Projects
- Integration With Final Cut Pro
- Using Gestures
- Index
16 Chapter 1 Getting To Know Motion
Design Tools
Graphic designers have been using software to facilitate their work for many years.
Motion has incorporated many of the most valuable tools commonly found in layout
and design applications, including guides, alignment, and direct manipulation for
positioning, transforming, and distorting objects. It also contains some of the most
flexible and sophisticated tools for creating and handling text elements. This is
especially important because text is such a critical component of motion graphics
design.
Timing Tools
The principal difference between traditional design and motion graphics is that motion
graphics is time based. This means that you are concerned with creating a well-
composed and readable layout, and you must also manipulate that layout over the
duration of the show. Motion provides a Timeline that contains tools usually found in a
video editing application (such as trimming, markers, slipping, and snapping) to allow
you to hone and compose the temporal aspects of your project.
Motion also supports audio files, including basic audio mixing, so you can create a
soundtrack for your project and make timing decisions based upon the audio as well as
visual components. Furthermore, you can animate objects, filters, behaviors, and other
elements to create elegant and precise compositions.
Compositing
Any time you have more than one object onscreen simultaneously, you must employ
some version of compositing to combine the elements. This might mean moving the
objects onscreen so they don’t overlap, adjusting the objects’ opacities so they are
partly visible, or incorporating blend modes that mix the overlapping images in a
variety of ways. Compositing is fundamental to motion graphics work. Fortunately,
Motion makes it easier than ever before, allowing you to control layer and object order,
group and lock objects, and apply more than 25 different blending options to create
unique effects.
Special Effects Tools
You can further enhance your motion graphics projects by employing many of the
same tools used in movies to combine dinosaurs with live actors, sink luxury liners in
the ocean, or create space battles. Motion provides many of these tools such as keying
(isolating an object shot against a solid colored background), masking (to hide wires or
other objects that should not be seen in the final image), and particle systems (to
simulate natural phenomena such as smoke, fire, and water). In fact, Motion can be
used to create special effects shots like these, but its real power is in integrating these
tools with the design and editing tools described above.
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