Apple Motion 2 - Manual (Page 117)

Chapter 1 Getting To Know Motion 117
Output
The Output Preferences pane tells Motion to render the contents of the Canvas out to a
video deck or monitor connected to your computer via FireWire or another port.
External Video
These settings control how Motion plays your project directly to a video deck or
monitor connected to your computer.
Video Output: Set this pop-up menu to match the type of device connected to the
monitor. When this is set to anything other than None, Motion outputs a new frame to
the externally connected video monitor every time you release the mouse button (if
the Canvas has changed). If no deck or video monitor is connected, the menu is set to
None. If you have two computer displays, one can be used to view the Motion interface
and the Finder while the other can be used as a dedicated video monitor using a
cinema display as an external monitor. The following external video monitoring choices
are available:
• Digital Cinema Desktop Preview: The video is not scaled unless it is too large to fit
on the display. If the video signal is larger than the display, it is scaled to fit on the
display.
• Pros: The video always maintains proper aspect ratio and does not exhibit scaling
artifacts due to magnification.
• Cons: Some formats, especially SD formats, may look very small when displayed on
large computer displays.
• Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Full Screen: The video is scaled to fit the display
in at least one dimension. If the aspect ratio of the video signal and the computer
display do not match, the video on the display is letterboxed (black on top and
bottom) or pillarboxed (black on sides) as necessary.
• Pros: This format gives you the biggest picture possible and maintains the proper
aspect ratio.
• Cons: Scaling artifacts may be noticeable when viewed up close.
• Digital Cinema Desktop Preview – Raw: This mode shows the video data with as
little processing as possible. This can be useful for engineering evaluations of the
image. No scaling is done whatsoever.
• Pros: More accurate assessments of video quality can be made.
• Cons: Not useful for general viewing. No scaling or pixel aspect ratio adjustments
are made, even when the video is larger than the display.
01112.book Page 117 Sunday, March 13, 2005 10:36 PM