Apple Motion 2 User Manual
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Chapter 2
Creating and Managing Projects
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Defines whether the project is created using square or nonsquare
pixels. Computer displays, film, and high-definition video use square pixels, while
standard-definition video uses nonsquare pixels. Choose Square for projects intended
for the web, high-definition projects, and film, or one of the nonsquare pixel ratios
corresponding to each international standard-definition broadcast standard. A field to
the right of this pop-up menu displays the numerical aspect ratio, in case you need to
manually change it.
Field Order: When working with interlaced video, choose the field order you plan on
using for eventual output from this pop-up menu. This should match the field order of
the device being used to output the resulting QuickTime file to video. When working
with progressive-scan video or film, choose None.
Frame Rate: Choose a frame rate (in frames per second) that matches the format you’ll
eventually be outputting to. For example, film is 24 fps, PAL video is 25 fps, and NTSC
video is 29.97 fps. Additional frame rates are available for different video formats.
Duration: Allows you to enter the total duration available in your project’s Timeline. A
pop-up menu allows you to define the duration with either a timecode value based on
the currently selected frame rate, a frame count, or in seconds. The default value is 900
frames, or 30 seconds.
Start Timecode: When you export your project as a QuickTime movie, this value
defines the starting timecode value of the timecode track it’s created with.
Background Color: Defines the color that appears in the Canvas if no other graphic or
QuickTime object is present. If the Background Opacity is set to 0 percent and you
export your project with a premultiplied alpha channel, the color you select here is the
color with which the alpha channel is premultiplied.
Note: If you intend to export your project with a premultiplied alpha channel, be aware
that most alpha channels are rendered against either white or black.
Background Opacity: A slider that adjusts the opacity of the background. Setting this
value to 100 percent makes the background completely solid—no transparency
appears in the resulting image when it is exported. Setting this value to 0 renders the
background completely transparent when the project is exported with an alpha
channel.
Project Description: A field into which you can enter a brief description of the project.
It may also be useful to call out significant characteristics of that particular preset such
as frame size or frame rate.
For more information about commonly used frame sizes, frame rates, interlacing, and
other project setting information, see “
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