Motion User Guide
- Welcome
- What’s new
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- Intro to basic compositing
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- Intro to transforming layers
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- Intro to transforming layers in the canvas
- Transform layer properties in the canvas
- Transform tools
- Change layer position, scale, or rotation
- Move a layer’s anchor point
- Add a drop shadow to a layer
- Distort or shear a layer
- Crop a layer
- Modify shape or mask points
- Transform text glyphs and other object attributes
- Align layers in the canvas
- Transform layers in the HUD
- Transform 2D layers in 3D space
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- Intro to behaviors
- Behaviors versus keyframes
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- Intro to behavior types
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- Intro to Parameter behaviors
- Audio behavior
- Average behavior
- Clamp behavior
- Custom behavior
- Add a Custom behavior
- Exponential behavior
- Link behavior
- Logarithmic behavior
- MIDI behavior
- Add a MIDI behavior
- Negate behavior
- Oscillate behavior
- Create a decaying oscillation
- Overshoot behavior
- Quantize behavior
- Ramp behavior
- Randomize behavior
- Rate behavior
- Reverse behavior
- Stop behavior
- Track behavior
- Wriggle behavior
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- Intro to Simulation behaviors
- Align to Motion behavior
- Attracted To behavior
- Attractor behavior
- Drag behavior
- Drift Attracted To behavior
- Drift Attractor behavior
- Edge Collision behavior
- Gravity behavior
- Orbit Around behavior
- Random Motion behavior
- Repel behavior
- Repel From behavior
- Rotational Drag behavior
- Spring behavior
- Vortex behavior
- Wind behavior
- Additional behaviors
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- Intro to using generators
- Add a generator
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- Intro to image generators
- Caustics generator
- Cellular generator
- Checkerboard generator
- Clouds generator
- Color Solid generator
- Concentric Polka Dots generator
- Concentric Shapes generator
- Gradient generator
- Grid generator
- Japanese Pattern generator
- Lens Flare generator
- Manga Lines generator
- Membrane generator
- Noise generator
- One Color Ray generator
- Op Art 1 generator
- Op Art 2 generator
- Op Art 3 generator
- Overlapping Circles generator
- Radial Bars generator
- Soft Gradient generator
- Spirals generator
- Spiral Drawing generator
- Use Spiral Drawing onscreen controls
- Star generator
- Stripes generator
- Sunburst generator
- Truchet Tiles generator
- Two Color Ray generator
- Save a modified generator
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- Intro to filters
- Browse and preview filters
- Apply or remove filters
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- Intro to filter types
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- Intro to Color filters
- Brightness filter
- Channel Mixer filter
- Color Adjustments filter
- Color Balance filter
- Example: Color-balance two layers
- Color Curves filter
- Use the Color Curves filter
- Color Reduce filter
- Color Wheels filter
- Use the Color Wheels filter
- Colorize filter
- Contrast filter
- Custom LUT filter
- Use the Custom LUT filter
- Gamma filter
- Gradient Colorize filter
- HDR Tools filter
- Hue/Saturation filter
- Hue/Saturation Curves filter
- Use the Hue/Saturation Curves filter
- Levels filter
- Negative filter
- OpenEXR Tone Map filter
- Sepia filter
- Threshold filter
- Tint filter
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- Intro to Distortion filters
- Black Hole filter
- Bulge filter
- Bump Map filter
- Disc Warp filter
- Droplet filter
- Earthquake filter
- Fisheye filter
- Flop filter
- Fun House filter
- Glass Block filter
- Glass Distortion
- Insect Eye filter
- Mirror filter
- Page Curl filter
- Poke filter
- Polar filter
- Refraction filter
- Ring Lens filter
- Ripple filter
- Scrape filter
- Sliced Scale filter
- Use the Sliced Scale filter
- Sphere filter
- Starburst filter
- Stripes filter
- Target filter
- Tiny Planet filter
- Twirl filter
- Underwater filter
- Wave filter
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- Intro to Stylize filters
- Add Noise filter
- Bad Film filter
- Bad TV filter
- Circle Screen filter
- Circles filter
- Color Emboss filter
- Comic filter
- Crystallize filter
- Edges filter
- Extrude filter
- Fill filter
- Halftone filter
- Hatched Screen filter
- Highpass filter
- Indent filter
- Line Art filter
- Line Screen filter
- MinMax filter
- Noise Dissolve filter
- Pixellate filter
- Posterize filter
- Relief filter
- Slit Scan filter
- Slit Tunnel filter
- Texture Screen filter
- Vignette filter
- Wavy Screen filter
- About filters and color processing
- Publish filter controls to Final Cut Pro
- Using filters on alpha channels
- Filter performance
- Save custom filters
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- Intro to 3D objects
- Add a 3D object
- Move and rotate a 3D object
- Reposition a 3D object’s anchor point
- Exchange a 3D object file
- 3D object intersection and layer order
- Using cameras and lights with 3D objects
- Save custom 3D objects
- Guidelines for working with 3D objects
- Working with imported 3D objects
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- Intro to 360-degree video
- 360-degree projects
- Create 360-degree projects
- Add 360-degree video to a project
- Create a tiny planet effect
- Reorient 360-degree media
- Creating 360-degree templates for Final Cut Pro
- 360-degree-aware filters and generators
- Export and share 360-degree projects
- Guidelines for better 360-degree projects
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- Intro to settings and shortcuts
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- Intro to Keyboard shortcuts
- Use function keys
- General keyboard shortcuts
- Audio list keyboard shortcuts
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- Tools keyboard shortcuts
- Transform tool keyboard shortcuts
- Select/Transform tool keyboard shortcuts
- Crop tool keyboard shortcuts
- Edit Points tool keyboard shortcuts
- Edit shape tools keyboard shortcuts
- Pan and Zoom tools keyboard shortcuts
- Shape tools keyboard shortcuts
- Bezier tool keyboard shortcuts
- B-Spline tool keyboard shortcuts
- Paint Stroke tool keyboard shortcuts
- Text tool keyboard shortcuts
- Shape mask tools keyboard shortcuts
- Bezier Mask tool keyboard shortcuts
- B-Spline Mask tool keyboard shortcuts
- Transport control keyboard shortcuts
- View option keyboard shortcuts
- HUD keyboard shortcuts
- Inspector keyboard shortcuts
- Keyframe Editor keyboard shortcuts
- Layers keyboard shortcuts
- Library keyboard shortcuts
- Media list keyboard shortcuts
- Timeline keyboard shortcuts
- Keyframing keyboard shortcuts
- Shape and Mask keyboard shortcuts
- 3D keyboard shortcuts
- Miscellaneous keyboard shortcuts
- Touch Bar shortcuts
- Move assets to another computer
- Work with GPUs
- Glossary
- Copyright
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Track Points controls in Motion
The Track Points behavior (available in the Shape subcategory of Behaviors in the Library) lets you link the control points of a shape or mask (including paint strokes) to reference features on a source clip. This behavior also lets you apply tracking data recorded by the Analyze Motion, Match Move, or Stabilize tracking behaviors to the control points of a shape or mask.
After you apply a Track Points behavior to an object in your project, adjust the behavior using the parameter controls in the Behaviors Inspector:
Source: A well to specify the source object supplying tracking data. Drag a source object from the Layers list into the well. The source object can be another tracking behavior, a footage object, or an animated object. To clear a Source well, drag the thumbnail away from the well and release the mouse button.
Action pop-up menu: A pop-up menu (with a gear icon) to manually assign tracking data (from other tracking behaviors in your project).
Transform: A pop-up menu to set how the destination object moves. There are two options:
Attach to Source: Anchors the destination object to the recorded track or animation source. Use Attach to Source when the source object is scaling or rotating, and you want the destination object to “stick” to a specific spot on the source object. You can preserve preexisting animation in the destination object by using the Adjust buttons (Position, Scale, and Rotation), available when the Type pop-up menu is set to Transformation.
Note: Although the destination object is “attached” to the movement of the source object, the destination object can be offset from the source object.
Mimic Source: Allows the destination object to “mimic” the recorded track or animation source. You can preserve preexisting animation in the destination object by using the Adjust buttons (Position, Rotation, or Scale).
Note: The destination object can be offset from the source object.
Align Tangents: A checkbox that, when deselected, forces tangents to remain aligned at their original angles. When the checkbox is selected, the tangents match the transformation of the source animation, and the shape changes its form.
Analyze: Three buttons used for the motion tracking analysis (available when the Source well contains footage):
Left arrows: Analyzes the portion of the clip before the playhead position.
Analyze: Analyzes the entire clip forward from the playhead position to the end of the clip (or to where the reference pattern can no longer be tracked).
Right arrows: Analyzes the portion of the clip after the playhead position.
Tracker Preview: A preview area (available when the Source well contains source footage) providing a magnified view of the tracking reference area for the selected tracker. The preview updates as you adjust the position of the tracker in the canvas. You can drag in the preview area to adjust the position of the tracker. When you do so, the image moves around the red crosshair in the preview, and the tracker moves in the canvas.
Offset Track: A checkbox (available when the Source well contains source footage) that, when selected, lets you set a new tracker position when the original reference pattern becomes temporarily obstructed by an obstacle or goes off the screen. Motion uses the tracker position to continue the same tracking path begun by the original reference pattern. For more information on offset tracking, see Track obscured or off-frame points.
Auto-Zoom: A pop-up menu to choose a magnification level when positioning the tracker in the canvas. You can zoom in on the canvas when searching for an ideal tracking reference pattern. There are five options: None, 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x.
Auto-Zoom Mode: A pop-up menu to set the display of the auto-zoomed tracker in the canvas. There are three options:
Normal: Displays a normal pattern.
Contrast: Displays the tracker pattern with contrast detection.
Edge: Displays the tracker pattern with edge detection.
The Auto-Zoom Mode applies to trackers in the canvas and does not affect the Tracker Preview in the Behaviors Inspector.
Note: When Auto-Zoom is set to None, the Auto-Zoom Mode setting has no effect.
Look Ahead Frames: A slider and value slider to specify the number of future frames to be analyzed by the tracker. In other words, you can direct the tracker to look in a specific location for its reference point, which helps the tracker follow fast-moving objects. For more information about the Look Ahead Frames control, see Advanced tracking strategies.
Track 1, Track 2, and so on: A list displaying the trackers in the behavior. To disable a tracker, deselect its checkbox. A deselected tracker is not analyzed. To remove a tracker, click its adjacent Remove button.
Note: When the Source well (described above) contains tracking data from another behavior (such as Analyze Motion), these checkboxes become pop-up menus used to assign which trackers (from the source tracking data) will provide anchor (position) data to the destination object, and which will provide rotation-scale data. And because trackers are no longer needed in the Match Move behavior, onscreen trackers are removed from the canvas.
To expose the following additional track controls, move the pointer over the track row, then click Show:
Position: Value sliders displaying the X and Y positions of the tracker.
Track Size: A slider to set (in pixels) the pattern search size for the tracker. As you adjust the tracker size, the Tracker Preview is updated to show the new pattern search size. However, there’s no visual change in the onscreen tracker.
Alternatively, you can adjust the Track Size parameter by Option-dragging left or right in the Tracker Preview area.
Search Size: A slider to set search area size for the tracker. In Motion, you do not specify the size of a search area when setting up trackers in the canvas. If your clip contains a lot of rapid movement, you may have better results increasing the Search Size. For example, if Search Size is set to 150%, the tracker searches 50% further beyond the Track Size setting.
Fail Tolerance: A slider to set the amount of tolerance for error, or confidence value, of the tracker. In other words, Fail Tolerance defines a threshold score at which the tracker determines it can match a reference feature. When the analysis yields a score above the Fail Tolerance value, the tracker accepts the match. When the score is below the value, the tracker rejects the match.
Fail Behavior: A pop-up menu to specify what happens if the track confidence value falls below the Fail Tolerance amount. There are six menu options:
Smart Retry: The tracker attempts to find the reference pattern in a larger search area. If the pattern still cannot be found, the tracker switches to the Predict option (described below). Smart Retry is the default Fail Behavior setting.
Stop: The analysis stops when the tracker loses the reference pattern.
Predict: The tracker predicts a new search area without creating keyframes until it finds a match for the reference pattern. This option is excellent for tracked elements that pass behind foreground elements.
Predict and Key: If a failure is detected, the tracker predicts the location of the next track point (keyframe) based on a vector of the last two keyframes and continues tracking in the new area.
Don’t Predict: The tracker remains in its position and searches for subsequent matches as the clip’s frames progress. While searching for a match, the tracker does not create keyframes.
Use Existing Keyframes: The tracker uses keyframes you have manually created as a guide. After manually adding keyframes, return to the start frame and start the tracking analysis. If the tracker has difficulty locating the reference pattern, the manually created tracking keyframes help guide the tracker.
Color: A color control to set a new color for the onscreen tracker. The default tracker color is red. A selected tracker is yellow. When a tracker is being positioned, its center crosshair is yellow and the border of its magnified inset is the color set in the color well. To adjust individual color channels, including the tracker’s opacity, click the disclosure triangle. For more information about color controls, see Use basic color controls.
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