Book Image

Apple Motion 5 Cookbook

By : Nicholas Harauz
Book Image

Apple Motion 5 Cookbook

By: Nicholas Harauz

Overview of this book

Let's face it, people like images that move. Whether you see images on a moving billboard, walk into a bank with an LCD screen, watch TV, or surf the Web, motion graphics are everywhere. With an even greater demand to integrate motion graphics in just about every type of video or interactive content there is, this book will help you get there with Motion 5. It's all about creating eye-catching titles, transitions, and effects!"Apple Motion 5 Cookbook" contains exercises for the beginner and seasoned motion graphics user. You will learn how to navigate Motion's interface and quickly grasp the tools available to you while creating sophisticated and sleek animations in both 2D and 3D environments. Not forgetting visual effects, we will also explore motion tracking and green screen techniques that will help you composite like a pro. Let's launch the application, grab a cup of coffee, and get started on this exciting journey!The exercises will take you right from creating your very first Motion project through to export. You will learn how to navigate quickly and efficiently through Motion's complex interface and toolsets so that you can focus oncreating your masterpiece!You will learn how to create a new project and import material into that project from the File Browser and Motion's vast and rich content library. From there, you will learn to manipulate and animate these source files using Motion's behaviors, classic keyframing techniques, adding filters, and master the built-in tools such as particle systems that will knock your socks off! Last but not least, you will export your projects to a variety of different formats including DVD, as a Final Cut Pro generator, and the Web.The "Apple Motion 5 Cookbook" contains downloadable content for each chapter and is packed with screenshots and illustrations. After reading this book, you'll be creating motion graphics and visual effects in no time!
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Apple Motion 5 Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Managing the Layers tab


In some of the previous recipes, you may have seen that the Layers tab can become a very busy place. It's important as Motion graphic designers to feel comfortable where we're working. Let's look at a few tricks we can use to manage our Layers tab as we work in Motion.

How to do it...

  1. Launch Motion. Under Composition, select the Pulse category and choose Pulse – Open. Click Open a copy.

  2. The project has three groups comprising of various elements from the project. Press Command + 1 to close the File Browser and Command + 7 to close the Timeline, so that we can have a little more room to view our Layers tab.

  3. Let's play back the project to get a feel for it. Press the Space bar. This project consists of four different views of our animating circles and pulses.

  4. Let's look at this project a bit deeper. Go to the beginning of the project. Click the disclosure triangle for the Text Elements group, as shown in the following screenshot. Notice how the group is slightly less highlighted than the Camera Light Graphics and Background Elements groups. This indicates that at the current frame, this group doesn't exist. We get further confirmation of this by looking in our mini-Timeline and seeing the Text Elements group start a lot later. Press Shift + I to move to the in-point of the group.

    Notice how the group now becomes highlighted but the Subtitle layer does not, as shown in the following screenshot:

  5. Drag your playhead forward until you see the word Subtitle onscreen or go to frame 273. Notice it's now highlighted. Hit the disclosure triangle for the Subtitle group. Notice that there is a Sequence Text behavior on the text. (We will be going in depth with behaviors in Chapter 3, Making It Move with Behaviors, but right now think of it as what's causing the text to animate in). Sometimes when we add filters, masks, and behaviors to clips, our workspace in the Layers tab can get cluttered. We can easily turn off the visibility of these filters, behaviors, and masks at the bottom of the Layers tab. Press the gear icon (shown in the following screenshot) and notice how the Sequence Text disappears. Press it again so you can see it.

  6. When we work, it's also advantageous to solo elements in the project. It allows us to focus our work rather than worry about hundreds of items. To see the layers in the Text Elements group by themselves, select it and click the square within the rectangle icon. Notice how the graphic disappears and the text moves slightly to the side. Click it again to unsolo it.

  7. Close the Text Elements group and open the Cameras Light Graphics group. Notice there are four scenes in this group that correspond to the four circle and pulse animations that take place over time. Get a feel for when each scene starts and stops by looking in the Layers tab and in the mini-Timeline for when a group is highlighted.

  8. Twirl open scenes four through one by clicking the disclosure triangle for each of them. This may cause some of the layers to go outside the view, and in order to see them you have to scroll. Instead, click the icon at the bottom-left of the Layers tab with the little head on it. Drag the slider to your right to resize the layers.

  9. Close the Camera Lights and Graphics group.

See also

  • An intro to Text behaviors in Chapter 3, Making It Move with Behaviors.

  • Changing the text format in Chapter 5, Let's Make Text.

  • Changing the text style in Chapter 5, Let's Make Text.