Apple Motion 4 - Manual (Page 83)

To switch between timecode and frame numbers
Do one of the following:
µ
Click the current frame icon directly to the left of the current frame field.
µ
Click the duration icon directly to the left of the project duration field.
Duration icon
Clicking either icon switches between frame and timecode view for all controls in all open
projects.
Counting Time
Motion offers two different ways of looking at the frame numbers for your project. You
can view the time as incremental frames, starting at 1 or 0 and continuing indefinitely.
Or, you can view the time in the video-standard, eight-digit timecode system, which
runs like a clock from 00:00:00:00 to 23:59:59:29. The first two digits represent the hours;
the second two, the minutes; the third two, the seconds; and the final two, the frames,
as in HH:MM:SS:FF.
Some formats of timecode also skip numbers in order to accommodate the inexact
frame rates of certain video formats.
Both frames and timecode have advantages, depending mainly on the format with
which you are originating and finishing. For example, if you are designing a title sequence
for a 35 mm film that must be exactly 720 frames, it is easier to set your counters to
frames.
If you are building a television spot that is going to be laid onto a videotape or broadcast,
you would probably benefit from setting your counters to timecode, so that the frame
numbers correspond with the numbers on the videotape.
83 Chapter 2 The Motion Interface