Welcome to the official Apple Pro training course for Motion 3, Apple’s revolutionary real-time motion graphics application. This book is a comprehensive guide to designing with Motion. It covers the use of particle dynamics, behaviors, audio, keying, paint, tracking, round tripping with other Final Cut Studio applications, and working in 3D.
Whether you’ve been creating motion graphics for years or are encountering these techniques for the first time, Motion’s design approach is different from anything you’ve used before. The real-time design engine and behavior system are easy to learn, yet open the door to expansive creativity.
This book takes a hands-on approach to learning the software. It’s divided into projects that methodically introduce the interface elements and ways of working with them, building progressively until you can comfortably grasp the entire application and its standard workflows.
Each lesson in this book is self-contained, so you can jump to any lesson at any time. However, each lesson is designed to support the concepts learned in the preceding lesson, and newcomers to motion graphics should probably go through the book from start to finish. The first four lessons, in particular, teach basic concepts and are best completed in order.
The lessons are project based and designed to teach you real-world techniques for completing the types of motion graphics projects most commonly encountered in a professional setting. As you progress through the book, you will learn the features and capabilities of Motion while you create a broadcast-television ad, a news teaser, a show promo, and a DVD motion menu.
The lessons are organized into the following sections:
In Lesson 1, you’ll learn how to work with filters, behaviors, and particles while getting familiar with the Motion interface and workflow. Next, you’ll use the fundamental building blocks of Motion: groups and layers. In Lessons 3 and 4, you’ll explore the world of 3D graphics in Motion.
Lessons 5–7: Working with Studio
After learning how to efficiently use the power of Motion templates, you’ll explore editing, optical-flow retiming, and text effects in detail. Lesson 6 focuses on using Motion with other Final Cut Studio applications, such as Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and DVD Studio Pro.
Lessons 8–11: Creating and Animating Content
While working on various motion graphics projects, you’ll discover the power of Motion’s library of generators and particle presets; animation techniques using the replicator, keyframing, and particle behaviors; and painting in Motion.
Lessons 12–14: Visual Effects Design
In this section, you’ll integrate motion graphics into existing footage using keys, mattes, rotoscoping, motion tracking, and match moving. Then you’ll examine ways to add and edit audio into your projects using the waveform and Keyframe editors.
Because this book is project based, you will sometimes be using features and techniques in earlier lessons that aren’t explained in detail until later lessons. When this occurs, you’ll see a note referring you to the lesson where the concept is covered in more detail.
Here are two key terms used throughout the book.
Composite—. You’ll see the word composite appearing throughout the book. Most often it’s referring to your final work—the image you see on the screen. You could also think of this as a “composition.” It’s occasionally used as a verb: You composite several objects together to create the final product.
Objects—. This is the term used by Motion to describe the individual elements of a composite. Objects can include QuickTime movies, image sequences, still images, and text. The objects are layered together to create the composite.
For a full list of motion graphics–related terms, a glossary in PDF format is included on the DVD.
Final Cut Studio applications are designed to scale their performance from less-powerful laptops to fully equipped Mac Pro systems. While this is true of Motion, the real-time performance that makes Motion so extraordinary also requires adequate hardware configurations to operate effectively.
For detailed information on how Motion uses system memory, video card memory, and CPU speed, see Appendix A: How Motion Uses Your Hardware. in PDF format on the DVD that accompanies this book.
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
System RAM determines how many frames of animation you can preview in real time (and to some degree, how many objects in a composite can be viewed in real time before you have to perform a RAM Preview render). Motion can handle up to 4 GB of a G5’s or Mac Pro’s system RAM.
VRAM (video RAM on the graphics card) determines how many objects in a composite can be rendered in real time before a RAM Preview render is required. If you want more objects on the screen with more filters and effects, you’ll need more VRAM. The graphics cards approved by Apple contain up to 256 MB of VRAM.
CPU speed determines how many complex behaviors and simulations can be applied to the composite objects in real time. It has less impact on the number of layers that can be drawn to screen; the amount of VRAM is more important in determining this.
The following are the minimum system requirements for Motion:
A 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Xeon processor with 1 GB of RAM and one of the following AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics cards: ATI Radeon 9800, 9700 Pro, 9600 XT, or 9600 Pro; ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600; or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, 7300 GT, 6600, 6600 LE, FX Go5200, or FX 5200 Ultra.
Mac OS X v10.4.9 or later.
QuickTime v7.2 or later.
A video display with a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.
A DVD drive.
For best performance, 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM and one of the following graphics cards are recommended: ATI Radeon X1900 XT, X850 XT, X800 XT, or X1600; or NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, or Quadro FX 4500.
Visit www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/motion for a current list of system requirements and supported hardware. In addition, be sure to install any Apple updates to the Motion 3 software, such as Motion 3.01.
Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3 comes with a DVD containing all the files you need to complete each lesson. The project and media files are contained within the Motion3_Book_Files folder.
Insert the Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3 DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.
For best results, drag the entire Motion3_Book_Files folder from the DVD to the top level of your computer’s hard drive or to an attached media drive.
The disc contains approximately 7 GB of data.
It is important that you put this folder on the top level of your hard drive as described; this will ensure that the Motion project files correctly link with their media.
For any number of reasons, you may need to separate the lesson files from the media files when you install and use them. For instance, you may choose to keep the project files in a user home directory and the media files on a dedicated media drive. In this case, when you open a project file, a window will appear asking you to reconnect the project files to their source media files.
Reconnecting files is a simple process. Just follow these steps:
When you open a lesson’s project file, a dialog may appear listing one or more files as missing. Click the Reconnect button.
In the window that appears, navigate to Motion3_Book_Files > Media, and open the appropriate project folder.
Select the highlighted file and click Open.
Continue to connect files as necessary until the window closes.
Be sure to save the newly reconnected project file, or you will have to perform the reconnect operation every time you open the project.
Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3 is both a self-paced learning tool and the official curriculum of the Apple Pro Training and Certification Program. Developed by experts in the field and certified by Apple, the series is used by Apple Authorized Training Centers worldwide and offers complete training in all Apple Pro products. The lessons are designed to let you learn at your own pace. Although each lesson provides step-by-step instructions for creating specific projects, there’s room for exploration and experimentation. Each lesson concludes with review questions and answers summarizing what you’ve learned, which can be used to help you prepare for the Apple Pro Certification Exam.
For a complete list of Apple Pro Training Series books, visit www.peachpit.com/applebooklet.
The Apple Pro Training and Certification Program is designed to keep you at the forefront of Apple’s digital media technology while giving you a competitive edge in today’s ever-changing job market. Whether you’re an editor, graphic designer, sound designer, special-effects artist, or teacher, these training tools are meant to help you expand your skills.
Upon completing the course material in this book, you can become a certified Apple Pro by taking the certification exam at an Apple Authorized Training Center. Successful certification as an Apple Pro gives you official recognition of your knowledge of Apple’s professional applications while allowing you to market yourself to employers and clients as a skilled, pro-level user of Apple products.
For those who prefer to learn in an instructor-led setting, Apple offers training courses at Apple Authorized Training Centers worldwide. These courses, which use the Apple Pro Training Series books as their curriculum, are taught by Apple Certified Trainers and balance concepts and lectures with hands-on labs and exercises. Apple Authorized Training Centers have been carefully selected and have met Apple’s highest standards in all areas, including facilities, instructors, course delivery, and infrastructure. The goal of the program is to offer Apple customers, from beginners to the most seasoned professionals, the highest-quality training experience.
For more information or to find an Authorized Training Center near you, go to www.apple.com/software/pro/training.
Apple Pro Training Series: Motion 3 is not intended as a comprehensive reference manual, nor does it replace the documentation that comes with the application. For more information about Motion, refer to these sources:
Motion User Manual. Accessed through the Motion Help menu, the User Manual contains a complete description of all the features.
Apple’s website: www.apple.com.
Peachpit’s website: As Motion 3 is updated, Peachpit may choose to update lessons or post additional exercises as necessary on this book’s companion webpage: www.peachpit.com/apts.motion3.
Apple Pro Training Series: Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Studio 2 (Peachpit Press, 2007). This practical book focuses on just the parts of Final Cut Studio that editors and designers need to create motion graphics in their daily work. You’ll build broadcast-quality titles, motion menus, show bumpers, and news opens as you learn everything from text animation, compositing, and keyframing to 3D set creation and camera animation.