Apple Motion 3 - Manual (Page 44)

44 Chapter 1 Getting to Know Motion
Channels
The Channels pop-up menu controls which color channels are displayed in the Canvas.
This menu displays the following options:
Color: Shows the image just as it would appear on a video monitor. Visible layers
appear in natural color and transparent areas reveal the background color as set in the
Project Properties dialog. This is black by default. To change the project background
color, choose Edit > Project Properties (or press Command-J) and click or Control-click
the Background Color well.
Note: The Background pop-up menu in the General tab of the Project Properties dialog
must be set to Solid in order to export the background color with the project. This
option creates a solid alpha channel on export (when exporting using a codec that
supports alpha channels). When the Background pop-up menu is set to Transparent,
the color is visible in the Canvas, but does not render as part of the alpha channel.
Transparent: Shows the background area of the Canvas as transparent. A
checkerboard pattern appears by default where no images block the background.
Alpha Overlay: Displays the image in normal color, but adds a red highlight over
transparent areas of the image.
RGB Only: Displays the normal mix of red, green, and blue channels but displays
transparent areas (including semi-transparent areas) as opaque.
Red: Displays only the red channel as a range of black to white.
Green: Displays only the green channel as a range of black to white.
Blue: Displays only the blue channel as a range of black to white.
Alpha: Displays the alpha (transparency) channel of the layers in the Canvas.
Inverted Alpha: This setting displays an inverted view of the alpha (transparency)
channel.
View and Overlay
The View and Overlay pop-up menu provides access to the various types of guides and
controls that can be viewed in the Canvas. It also has controls to globally turn off some
render-intensive functions, such as motion blur, to accelerate Canvas playback. When
an option is active, a checkmark appears beside the menu item.
Note: These options are also available in the View pull-down menu.
Show Overlays: Toggles the display of all overlays on and off in the Canvas. This setting
must be on in order to view any of the other overlay items (grids, guides, and so on). To
turn the camera overlays on or off, use Show 3D Overlays.
Note: You can also press Command-/.