Lesson 1. Getting Around in Motion

Lesson Files

Motion5_Book_Files > Lessons > Lesson_01

Media

Motion5_Book_Files > Media > Skier

Time

This lesson takes approximately 60 minutes to complete.

Goals

Navigate the Motion interface

Add video to a project

Make transformations

Add and modify effects

Apply blend modes

Create and animate text

Use Library content

Output your project

With its intuitive interface, Motion lets you immediately combine video and graphics, animate text, or create dazzling particle effects. But don’t confuse efficient design with simplicity. Motion is a deep application that can help realize your creative vision, no matter how intricate or complex.

In this first lesson, we won’t focus on what things are or why they work. You’ll learn more details in the lessons that follow. In this lesson, you’ll jump right in and start building a new project to quickly get a feel for what’s unique about Motion and why it’s so much fun.

Following a New Paradigm

With Motion, you can do things on a desktop or portable computer that were unthinkable only a few years ago: create compelling, professional-looking motion graphics and visual effects in a real-time design environment.

Whether you answer to a producer, agency, corporate client, or to your own creative muse, you can design motion graphics in a way that is natural and addictive.

Motion makes it easy to perform the primary motion graphics tasks: compositing and animating. Compositing involves layering together disparate elements to create a single complete image. Animating involves changing properties of those elements over time so that they fly, drift, grow, fade, spin, or wriggle. The interactive, real-time design engine and unique behaviors of Motion allow you to design and animate elements as your project plays.

With its intuitive 3D design tools, you can spread out your elements in 3D space; add lights, reflections, and shadows; and fly virtual cameras around a 3D world.

Finally, you can use all of these features in Smart Templates that can be published to and modified in Final Cut Pro X.

Whether you’re designing an opening title sequence, producing a series of lower thirds, or doing green screen work, Motion makes motion graphics and visual effects more accessible, more interactive, and more enjoyable.

Opening Motion

Before you get started, install the Motion application, if necessary, and copy the lessons and media from the book’s DVD to your hard disk. Instructions for doing this are in the Getting Started section of this book. After those two tasks are complete, let’s start by opening Motion and creating a new project.

1. From the Dock, click the Motion icon to open the application.

The first window that opens is the Project Browser, where you can create a new project, open a recent project, or choose a template. In this exercise, you’ll create a new project. The sidebar to the left of the Project Browser lists project categories and themes. The center project stack displays thumbnail previews of projects based on the sidebar selection. An information column to the right includes project settings options.

2. Verify that the Blank category is selected in the sidebar, that Motion Project is selected in the project stack and that the Broadcast HD 720 Preset is selected in the information column.

In this lesson, you’ll work with a video clip recorded in 1280 × 720 HD resolution at 59.94 frames per second (fps). Because these are the default project settings, you needn’t change the Broadcast HD 720 Preset in the information column.

3. Click Open.

A new, empty Motion project opens.

Importing a Video Clip

The Motion interface, called the workspace, consists of a single window with components you can show or hide. The large upper-right area dominated by a black rectangle is the Canvas. Here you build and view your project. To the left of the Canvas is the Project pane, which displays all the elements in your project.

The tall, skinny component to the left of the Project pane is divided into three major panes: the File Browser, Library, and Inspector. Along the bottom of the workspace, you’ll find the Timing pane, which contains the Timeline, the Audio Timeline, and the Keyframe Editor. Finally, above the Timing pane is the toolbar, which contains tools and controls for creating and editing project elements.

When you add any video, graphic, or text element to Motion they are called layers. The first way you’ll create a layer is by bringing a video clip into your project.

In the File Browser, you’ll locate, preview, and import media into your project. Media can include graphics, video, and audio files that are located on your computer or connected storage devices.

1. In the middle of the File Browser, click the Desktop icon. This section of the File Browser is called the sidebar.

The contents on your desktop are now displayed in the lower section of the File Browser, called the stack.

2. Double-click the Motion5_Book_Files folder.

3. Double-click the Media folder, and then double-click the Skier folder, which contains a single video clip, mogul_1.

4. Select the clip and look at the top of the File Browser.

In this preview area, you can preview a video clip and also find important information about the clip, including its resolution, codec, and frame rate.

Because this is the clip you want to use, you can add it to your project by simply dragging it into the Canvas or clicking the Import button.

5. Drag the clip from the File Browser stack (not from the preview area) to the Canvas but don’t release the mouse button just yet.

Yellow lines appear as you move the clip near the vertical and horizontal center of the Canvas. You’ll see the clip snap to those lines as it approaches them. These lines, called dynamic guides, help you center an element in the Canvas and align multiple elements.

6. Snap the clip to the center of the Canvas and release the mouse button.

Congratulations. You’ve now created your first Layer in Motion.

Before you go any further, it’s a good idea to save your project.

7. Choose File > Save, or press Command-S.

8. Navigate to Desktop > Motion5_Book_Files > Lessons > Lesson_01 > Student_Saves.

9. Name your project Lesson_01_practice, and click Save.

When you added the clip to the project, you may have noticed that a translucent gray window appeared in the center of the workspace. It’s called the heads-up display, or HUD, and you’ll use it later in this lesson. For now, you can turn it on and off by clicking the HUD button on the right side of the toolbar or by pressing F7.

Setting a Play Range

Now for the fun part: building your project while it plays. First, you’ll set a play range to focus your efforts.

1. At the bottom of the Canvas find the transport controls. Click the Play button, or press the Spacebar, to start playback.

Motion is set to loop project playback, so at the end of the project the clip will play again from the beginning. This clip includes audio that you will not use. For now, let’s mute it.

2. In the toolbar directly under the left edge of the Canvas, click the Mute button.

Notice that a few seconds of black plays after the end of the clip. This is because the clip is shorter than the overall project duration. At the bottom of the Canvas, notice that the green bar doesn’t quite extend to the end of the project.

The area that contains the blue bar is titled mogul_1, and the green playhead above it is called the mini-Timeline. It shows the currently selected element and is handy when moving and trimming single elements in your project.

To play just a section of the video clip, you’ll adjust the play range—the area that loops or repeats during playback, identified by white triangles. Changing the play range is a great way to focus on a specific part of your project.

3. As the project plays, drag the play range Out point (the rightmost white triangle) to 300 frames (5 seconds). A tooltip appears showing the new location of the Out point.

At frame 300, the skier in the clip is just beginning to go out of focus, a good point at which to stop.

4. Review the results of the new play range, by pressing the Spacebar and then press the Spacebar again to stop playback. Press Command-S to save your work.

Transforming and Duplicating a Clip

Every element you add to a Motion project can be manipulated or transformed, whether it’s a video clip, a graphic, or a Motion object such as a text or shape layer. Transformations include changing an element’s position, scale, rotation, and other properties. Before you begin transforming an element, you must first be sure that you can see the entire frame in the Canvas.

1. In the top right of the Canvas area, the Zoom Level pop-up menu is set to 100%. Click the pop-up menu and choose Fit In Window.

The entire Canvas and frame are displayed in the Canvas area. It’s important to note that the clip and the project have not changed size or resolution, only the display has changed. Now you are ready to transform the image.

2. In the Canvas, click the clip to select it. Notice the thin white line around the edge of the clip. This is called a bounding box and appears around any selected object.

3. Click anywhere inside the clip and drag it around. You can change the position of any selected element by dragging it.

4. Choose Edit > Undo Move, or press Command-Z, to return the clip to the center of the Canvas.

For this project, you’ll use this clip as a full-screen background and then duplicate it to create a scaled-down copy for the main foreground element.

The small blue circles at the corners and midpoints of the bounding box are transform handles. You can drag them to manipulate the clip size.

5. Choose Edit > Duplicate, or press Command-D, to create a copy of the clip.

6. Drag the top-right transform handle down to the left.

The clip changes size nonproportionally—that is, you can make it skinny or fat—which is something you often want to avoid. Secondly, the clip doesn’t stay centered as you scale. Rather, the control handle at the bottom left stays locked in place as the center of the clip moves around.

Often you’ll want to scale an element proportionally and around its center. To do so, you can hold down modifier keys while dragging a transform handle.

7. Press Command-Z to undo the scale change.

8. Shift-drag the upper-right transform handle. The clip now scales proportionally, but the center is still moving.

9. Press Command-Z to undo.

10. Shift-Option-drag the upper-right transform handle again. The clip scales both proportionally and around its center.

11. Scale the clip down to about 70 percent of its original size. You can watch the scale display in the upper left of the Canvas as a guide.

12. Press Command-S to save your work.

OK, so far we haven’t done anything that’s too compelling, but next you’ll add filters to this project to make a more interesting composite.

Adding Effects

You’ll now apply effects to make your project come to life. Motion has three categories of effects: filters, behaviors, and masks. You’ll use at least one of each for this project. You’ll also try out a powerful technique, called blend modes, that lets you change the interaction between overlapping elements. But first, let’s look at a critical part of the Motion interface: the Project pane.

Hiding and Showing the Project Pane

While you can work exclusively in the Canvas, you’ll eventually find it helpful to use a view that lists all the elements in your project—particularly when you want to select, rename, or reorganize them. Motion calls this view the Project pane.

1. To hide the Project pane, click the Show/Hide Project pane button to the left of the Mute button you used earlier, or press F5.

The Project pane slides away. It is useful from time to time to hide the Project pane to give yourself more room in the Canvas.

2. Click the Show/Hide Project pane button again to show the Project pane, or press F5.

The Project pane contains three lists. The Layers list is the one you’ll use the most. It displays the elements in your project as layers stacked inside groups.

3. In the Layers list, deselect the checkbox for the upper, foreground clip, mogul_1 copy. This activation checkbox toggles the visibility of the layer in the Canvas. With the foreground clip hidden, you can more easily focus on the background clip when adding and modifying filters.

4. In the Layers list, click the mogul_1 layer. The selected clip highlights in the Layers list, gets a bounding box in the Canvas, and appears in the mini-Timeline.

Stylizing with Filters

You can use filters to change the look of an element in your project. For example, you could use filters to color-correct a video clip that was too dark, turn a flat map into a sphere, or remove a green screen background to composite one clip on top of another.

You’ll find the filters in the Library.

1. In the same pane as the File Browser, click Library, or press Command-2.

The Library is organized like the File Browser with a preview area at the top, a sidebar in the middle, and a stack at the bottom. But rather than displaying files on your hard disk, the Library displays all the elements that are installed with Motion.

2. Select the Filters category.

Let’s apply a Gamma filter to darken this background clip—that way, it won’t distract the viewers’ attention from the foreground.

3. Select the Color Correction folder.

4. In the Library stack, locate the Gamma filter.

5. Drag the filter onto the video in the Canvas.

Notice that the filters appear in the Layers list under the layer to which you applied it. Not much happens by default with this filter. You’ll need to change the settings.

6. If the HUD is not visible, click the HUD button in the toolbar or press F7. The HUD appears displaying the Gamma parameter. Making Gamma adjustments darkens or lightens the midtones of an image.

7. Drag the Gamma slider to the left to reduce Gamma to about 0.50 and darken the background clip.

Next, let’s add a retro style to this image to make it more interesting. This time you’ll make your adjustment as the clip is playing.

8. Press the Spacebar to begin playing the project.

9. In the Library, select the Stylize folder, and then drag the Bad TV filter onto the Canvas. You can now adjust the Bad TV settings even as the clip is playing.

10. In the HUD, adjust Roll to 1 to remove the split screen and lower Saturate to roughly –50 to give the clip more of an old TV look.

11. In the toolbar, click the HUD button to close the HUD, or press F7.

Even though you may not remember that TV reception once looked like this, you have successfully mimicked an old TV look. You’ll now turn your attention to the foreground clip.

Framing with a Mask

Masks allow you to hide parts of a layer based on a shape or a characteristic of another layer. In Motion, you can create countless complex masking effects.

For this exercise, you’ll add a simple shape mask to the foreground video clip and adjust it to create a more interesting frame.

1. Stop playback and drag the playhead to the first frame of the project.

To draw a mask, it will be easier to work on a single frame of the video. The first frame is a good place to start.

2. In the Layers list, click the mogul_1 copy layer to select it.

3. Select the activation checkbox for the layer to make it visible in the Canvas.

4. On the left side of the toolbar, click the Rectangle Mask tool.

5. Starting above and to the left of the skier, draw a rectangle that encompasses the skier yet leaves room to the right to reveal her direction of travel. The video now appears inside this rectangle only. Notice that the mask appears in the Layers list and is selected.

You may want to adjust the size and position of the mask after you draw it. You can adjust the mask the same way that you previously transformed the video clip. You’ll know when the mask is selected (as opposed to the clip) because the selection rectangle turns red.

6. With the mask selected, drag inside the mask to reposition it slightly.

7. Drag a transform handle on the bounding box to change the shape and size of the mask so it fits a bit more tightly around the skier.

Let’s soften and round the edges of the mask a bit.

8. Click the HUD button to open the HUD, and increase Feather to 25 and Roundness to 20.

To distinguish the foreground clip from the background clip, you can add a drop shadow.

9. In the Layers list, select mogul_1 copy.

10. In the HUD, select the Drop Shadow checkbox.

11. Save your work.

12. Start playback to review your work so far.

You’ve given a single video clip some pizzazz by transforming it, duplicating it, and adding a few filters and a mask. Well done! You can perform one more step to more effectively composite the two images. You’ll use a Blend mode to achieve a more appealing blended composite.

Compositing with a Blend Mode

Blend modes are a compositor’s best friend. They alter the ways text, images, or video layers interact with each other based on their overlapping colors and/or luminance. In this exercise, you’ll use a blend mode to lessen the harsh distinction between the two clips.

1. In the Layers list, select the foreground layer, Mogul_1 copy.

2. In the HUD, click the Blend Mode pop-up menu.

You can choose from many blend modes. In later lessons, you’ll learn more about how they are organized and when certain modes are best used.

3. From the Blend Mode pop-up menu, choose Screen to brighten the two images where they overlap.

With the video clips now composited, masked, and filtered, you’ll add some new elements to round out the project: animated text to describe the scene, and an animated graphic to draw attention to the text.

Adding Text

Our skier is competing in the Freestyle Moguls competition. This seems like important information that your viewers might want to know, so let’s add text, format it, and position it onscreen.

1. Click in the gray area of the Canvas to deselect everything, or choose Edit > Deselect All.

2. Press the Spacebar to start playback, if necessary.

You’ll add the text while the project is playing so that you can position it interactively.

3. In the toolbar, click the Text tool.

4. Click near the center of the Canvas, a little below the masked skier, and type the skier’s name, Veronica Paulsen.

5. Press the Esc key to return to the Select/Transform tool. The Select/Transform tool is the default tool with a pointer that looks like an arrow.

6. In the HUD, click the Font pop-up menu. Scroll down through the fonts, and choose Futura. Then from the Typeface pop-up menu, choose Condensed ExtraBold.

As you scroll, the Canvas updates in real time to show you each selected font.

7. Drag the HUD’s Size slider to change the font size to 70 points.

8. Change the text color by clicking the down arrow next to the color well in the HUD and choosing a dark icy blue tone to match the cold feel of the clip.

9. Drag the text to position it against the left edge of the Canvas.

Let’s animate that onscreen text to attract more attention.

Animating with Behaviors

Behaviors are a type of effect in Motion that let you animate elements with drag-and-drop simplicity. To make something move, grow, spin, wriggle, oscillate, speed up, or slow down over time, you just apply a behavior and adjust it to suit the situation.

Most behaviors can be applied to any video, still image, graphic, or text element in your project, and some are specifically designed for text. In this exercise, you’ll use both types of behaviors to animate the text.

1. With the Veronica Paulsen text selected and the project playing, go to the Library and select the Behaviors category.

2. Select the Basic Motion folder.

3. Select the Throw behavior and watch the preview. In the preview area, you’ll see a description of the behavior and an animation that shows what it does.

4. In the lower left of the Canvas, click the Show/Hide Project pane button to open the Project pane, or press F5, if necessary.

5. Drag the Throw behavior onto the Veronica Paulsen text layer in the Layers list.

6. In the HUD, drag from the center of the circle out to the right while watching the project play back.

The text moves to the right. The farther you drag out, the faster and farther the text moves across the screen.

Now you’ll also hold down the Shift key to horizontally constrain the Throw direction.

7. Shift-drag the Throw direction so the tip of the arrow is just about to the middle ring in the HUD.

Only the skier’s name is on the screen. You still need to add the name of the event. Instead of recreating the text font, color, and animation settings, you’ll duplicate the skier’s name and change the text.

8. In the Layers list, select the Veronica Paulsen text layer and choose Edit > Duplicate.

You now have identical text layers on top of each other. Although you can’t see them in the Canvas, you can see each one in the Layers list. You’ll now reposition one and change the text.

9. In the Canvas, drag the top text down to separate the two text layers.

10. Triple-click the lower text to highlight the entire name, and type Freestyle Moguls. Yes, you can even do this while the project is playing!

11. In the HUD, change the Typeface to Condensed Medium, and then change the text Size to 60.

12. Press the Esc key to exit the text editing mode and return to the Select tool.

13. Close the HUD.

14. In the Layers list, Command-click the Veronica Paulsen text layer.

15. Choose Object > Alignment > Align Right Edges.

Now let’s add a behavior specifically created to animate each character in a text layer.

16. From the Library’s Behaviors category, select the Text Sequence folder and double-click the Text-Basic folder.

17. Drag the Fade Characters Left In behavior onto the Freestyle Moguls text layer in the Layers list.

18. Drag the same behavior to the Veronica Paulsen text layer in the Layers list.

You’ve now created sophisticated text animation using Basic and Text Sequence behaviors. The last step to complete your project is to add an interesting background to make the text stand out. To do that, you’ll use content that is included with Motion.

Using Library Content

Although you can create your own graphics in Motion, a massive repository of graphical elements is included in the Content category of the Motion Library.

For this exercise, you’ll add an animated graphic on the bottom third of the video that makes the title stand out.

1. In the Library, choose the Content category. As you can see, this folder includes over 1,300 elements.

2. Select the Lines folder. Scroll down through the icons, select Bar 19, and watch the preview. The yellow animated strips will be a great complement to the dark blue text and the icy blue video.

3. In the preview area of the Library, click Apply.

4. Watch the project to see the new graphic you added.

The animated graphic is added to the Canvas on top of the other layers. It needs to be placed lower on the screen and arranged behind the text. Also the timing of the text animation and the yellow lines could be improved by offsetting them. All of these issues can be dealt with using the Layers list and the Timing pane.

Arranging Layers

In previous steps, you learned how to position elements spatially in the Canvas, but you haven’t yet learned how to arrange the elements in front of or behind one another. You’ll do that now using the Layers list to place the bars behind the text.

1. In the Layers list, drag the thumbnail frame of the Bar_19 layer just below the Throw behavior within the Veronica Paulsen text layer.

The Bar_19 graphic now animates under the text layers, but it could still be better positioned so that it doesn’t obscure as much of the skier.

2. In the Canvas, drag down the Bar_19 graphic so the top of it aligns with the top of the Veronica Paulsen text layer.

Although that looks better, some of the skier is still obscured, so let’s arrange the elements so that the skier clip is layered above the Bar_19 graphic.

3. In the Layers list, select the mogul_1 copy layer and drag its thumbnail frame just above the Bar_19 graphic layer.

You now have a nicely arranged composite. The text stands out on that bright yellow graphic and the skier isn’t obscured at all.

With the layers set, let’s look at the timing of the elements. Currently, the text is onscreen from the very first frame of the project. It would be more effective if the text appeared after the Bar_19 graphic appeared. You can make this change in the Timing pane.

4. In the Timing pane, drag the Freestyle Moguls text layer to the right until the tooltip display shows an In point of 60 frames.

You’ve now set the Freestyle Moguls text to begin two seconds into your project. Let’s set the skier’s name to begin at one second into the project.

5. In the Timing pane, drag the Veronica Paulsen text layer to the right until the tooltip display shows an In point of 30 frames.

6. After you view the project a few times, press the Spacebar to stop playback.

Terrific! You created your very first Motion project and have become familiar with the Motion interface and many of its key features, including real-time playback; importing and transforming media; filters, masks, and behaviors; blend modes; Library content; and text.

Using Function Keys

You have worked briefly with the File Browser and the Library and also looked at one list in the Project pane, the Layers list.

But Motion has more lists to explore: the Inspector, two more lists in the Project pane, and an entire pane that you haven’t yet opened that contains four panes of its own. Toolbar buttons are available for each of these panes and tabs, but it’s much quicker to access them using their keyboard shortcuts.

1. Click the Media list.

The Media list displays all of the media—video and graphics—that is included in your project. Notice that the text and the bars graphics aren’t included here because they are elements that came from the Motion Library.

2. Click the Audio list. If you have any audio in your project, you can see it, select it, and adjust it here.

3. Click the Layers list again, and select the mogul_1 copy layer.

4. If the HUD isn’t visible, press F7.

As you’ve seen, the HUD gives you quick access to a few key parameters for a selected element. But it doesn’t show you everything that you can change. For that, you’ll use the Inspector.

5. Next to the Library, click Inspector.

6. Click the Properties pane, if necessary.

The Inspector contains four panes of its own. In the Properties pane, you can make precise adjustments and set keyframes for parameters that are common to any kind of layer. You’ll work in the Properties pane in later lessons.

7. Press F2 to open the Behaviors pane. This pane is empty because no behaviors are applied to the selected layer.

8. In the Layers list, select the Veronica Paulsen text layer. Now the two applied behaviors appear in the Behaviors pane.

9. Press F3 to open the Filters pane, and then in the Layers list, select the mogul_1 layer. In the Filters pane, you can adjust all the parameters for any applied filters.

10. Notice that the last pane currently reads Image. In the Layers list, click below all the layers to deselect everything. The pane name changes to Object.

11. Press F4 to bring the Object pane forward. The Object pane is context sensitive. Its name and contents change depending on what is selected.

12. Press F1 to return to the Properties pane. Notice that you can navigate to each of these four panes by pressing the function keys F1, F2, F3, and F4.

You already know that F5 opens and closes the Project pane. Leave that pane open for now.

13. Press F6 to hide the Timing pane, and then press F6 again to show it. The Timing pane contains three components: the Timeline, the Audio Timeline, and the Keyframe Editor. The Timeline component is selected by default. You’ll work with the Audio Timeline and the Keyframe Editor in upcoming lessons.

You already know that pressing F7 toggles the HUD.

14. Press F7 to hide the HUD. Click in the bottom of the Layers list to deselect everything, if necessary, and then press F8 to open Player mode.

The Player mode fills your entire monitor with the Canvas, transport controls, and toolbar. However, you can still apply changes to a project in this mode.

15. Press F8 to exit Player mode.

16. Save your work.

Additional keyboard shortcuts allow you to go directly to each of the nine panes and to execute a variety of Motion commands. You’ll explore these in later lessons. If you have a graphics tablet, you can use a special set of commands called gestures to navigate the interface and perform many other tasks. For more information, see the Motion Help documentation in the Help menu.

Outputting Your Projects

Your first project is done! Now the client comes calling and you need to deliver your work. So how do you get it out of Motion?

In Motion you have options—lots of ’em! If you want to output to tape, add to iTunes, watch on an Apple TV, burn to Blu-ray disc, or post to the web, you need only render your project into a movie file.

The rendering choices are located in the Share menu. The actual steps to render the different output choices are similar, so let’s walk through one to get a general feel for the process.

1. Choose Share > Export Movie, or press Command-E.

For many Share options, the output format is dictated by the destination device. When you choose Export Movie, you have access to more formatting options because that option has no specific destination hardware. It’s the best option to choose when you want to render a Motion project as a movie file to be used in Final Cut Pro.

2. From the Export pop-up menu, choose ProRes 422 (HQ).

Yes, I know what the preceding tip says, but this project has no alpha channel so we can save some space and time by exporting our movie in ProRes 422 (HQ) format. This format is a good choice for motion graphics without alpha channels because it provides high color fidelity.

The After Export pop-up menu includes several choices. By choosing the default menu selection, Open with QuickTime Player, the rendered file opens immediately after exporting it, so you can play the final file. You’ll keep the default choice for this lesson.

Because the skier clip you used in this project had some irrelevant ambient audio, you’ll want to include just the video in the rendered file.

3. From the Include pop-up menu, choose Video only.

Finally, you can choose to export the entire project or just a play range selection. Earlier in this lesson, the play range was set when you moved the Out point, so you’ll limit this export to that section of the project.

4. From the Duration pop-up menu, choose In/Out Points, and then click the Render button.

In the Render pane, you can override the Project and Canvas settings. In this exercise, you won’t modify these settings because you want a full resolution project that exactly matches what you have seen in the Canvas. The Render pane also includes 3D rendering options, which you’ll learn more about in the last two lessons in this book.

5. Click the Advanced button.

Options in the Advanced pane are used only if you have purchased and installed the Compressor application. When using Compressor, you can set the Background Rendering pop-up menu to This Computer Plus to utilize other computers on your network for rendering. By clicking Send to Compressor, additional advanced compression options are available. You can learn more about Compressor from Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro X Advanced Editing (Peachpit Press).

6. Click the Summary button.

If you are not using Compressor, the Summary pane displays a good overview of your current export settings. The Output Filename is taken from the project name, but you are able to change it after you click Next.

7. Click Next.

A standard Apple Save dialog opens, allowing you to choose a location for the exported file and to change the filename.

8. Click Save.

An export progress bar appears with a time estimate for completion. When using Export Movie, the rendering is performed in the foreground, preventing you from using Motion during the export process.

If you select any other Share option or you use Compressor, the exporting is performed in the background. In those cases, the Share Monitor will open a detailed view of your project’s export progress.

That’s it! You’ve exported your project to high-quality ProRes format that is ready to be used in Final Cut Pro. Take the time to review what you learned in this lesson by answering the following questions.

Lesson Review

1. In the Project Browser, what must you do to create and open a new Motion project?

2. Identify the four main areas that are visible in a new project.

3. How can you precisely center a clip in the Canvas?

4. Other than in the Timing pane, in what part of the Motion interface can you change the play range or adjust a selected layer?

5. Do you have to stop playback to change the scale of a video clip?

6. How do you change the scale of a layer in the Canvas without changing its proportions?

7. Name the three kinds of effects you can add to a layer.

8. How can you change the way the pixels of one layer combine with pixels of a layer underneath?

9. Where is all the content that ships with Motion located?

10. In what part of the Motion interface can you interactively view fonts for a text layer without going to the Inspector?

11. Which keyboard shortcut opens Player mode?

12. If you choose Export Movie, can you still render in the background as long as you open the Share Monitor?

Answers

1. Select the Blank category in the sidebar and the Motion Project in the project stack, and then click Open.

2. The Canvas, File Browser, Project pane, and Timing pane

3. Drag the clip and use the dynamic guides with snapping enabled, or click the Import button in the File Browser.

4. The mini-Timeline

5. No, you can build an entire Motion project while the project is playing, although it’s sometimes easier to accomplish certain tasks when the playhead is stopped.

6. Shift-drag a transform handle.

7. Filters, masks, and behaviors

8. Change the blend mode.

9. The Library

10. The heads-up display, or HUD

11. F8

12. No, Export Movie renders in the foreground unless you use Send to Compressor.

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