Apple Motion 2 - Manual (Page 112)

112 Chapter 1 Getting To Know Motion
Project Duration: Sets the default duration for new projects. You can type a number
into the value field in either frames or seconds by choosing from the pop-up menu.
Background Color: Sets the color and opacity of the background for the project. This
color is rendered into the final movie when you output your project. By default, the
background color opacity is set to 0 percent.
To change the background color:
1 Control-click the color well, then use the Colors window to select a new color.
The selected color becomes the background color.
2 Adjust the slider to the right of the color well to change the opacity of the background.
Time Display
These settings control how the time counters across the application are displayed.
Display Time As: You can make one of two choices:
• Frames: Displays all counters as incrementing frame numbers.
• Timecode: Displays all counters as eight-digit timecode numbers.
Frame Numbering: This lets you choose whether frame counts begin at zero or one.
Still Images & Objects
These settings control the default duration, placement, and size of still images and
imported objects, as well as objects created in Motion, such as text, shapes, and masks.
Default Object Duration: You can specify the duration of still images, generators, and
other objects that lack an inherent duration in one of two ways:
• Use project duration: All objects are the same duration as the project.
• Use custom duration: Objects are the duration you set here.
You can set the time in frames or in seconds.
Create Objects At: When you drag objects to the Canvas, the Layers tab, or the
Timeline Layer list, they can either be added to the project at the current playhead
position or they can be added at the first frame of the project. This setting also applies
to objects created within Motion, such as text or shapes.
Large Stills: When importing large still images, set this preference to instruct Motion
to import the file at its original size, to change the resolution of the image to fit the
Canvas size, or to scale the image down to fit the Canvas size.
• Do Nothing: Imports the image at its original size.
• Scale to Canvas size: Imports and scales the image to fit the project size while
maintaining its aspect ratio.
• Down-Res to Canvas Size: This setting changes the resolution of the imported
image so that the image fits the project size while maintaining its aspect ratio.
01112.book Page 112 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM