Apple Motion 4 Course

Welcome to VTC's Motion Version 4 course. I'm Scott Simmons, Animation Director at Live Wire Productions in Los Angeles. In this course, we'll explore the powerful new features of Version 4 of Apple's Motion product, part of the Final Cut Studio package. With this version, Apple has built upon a very impressive animation and compositing program with great new 3D Tools like Depth of Field, Shadows and Reflections, new behaviors which act as Scripts telling our graphics and 3D cameras how to act, new Text Tools, new Generators and Filters, and we'll explore Motion's Keyframing, Retiming Tools and Paint and Particle effects. With Version 4, Apple has added a cornucopia of Library Presets and Graphics that you can use in your own animations. We'll also take a look at some third party software that enhances Motion even more by adding true 3D objects, advanced filters and generators and automates the creation of animation. There's a lot to look at, but before we begin I want to explain how these lessons are built. Motion requires a screen size with minimum dimensions of 1280 by 800 pixels, which are larger than these videos can contain, but that's no problem because I've created these tutorials so that we can zoom in and out of Motion's interface so we'll often be in close to focus in on some important feature. Also, there will be times when I have a split screen like this, which allows you to see controls up close on one side and the animation in full on the other side. From time to time you will see a tip graphic appear like this. These tips are usually points and will help you work more easily or explain a hard to find feature available in Motion. Let's start by launching Motion. When you first start Motion you'll see its splash screen here. I have third party filters also installed on my machine, so that's why you see the Fx Factory splash screen as well. Once Motion starts by default you will see a Welcome screen. From there you can choose to view an online tour of Motion and other Final Cut applications, access some basic tutorials, start with one of Motion's built-in template projects, or start with a new blank project. If you've never used Motion before then I would suggest looking at the Templates. So, I'll click on Start with a Template and click Continue. The Template Browser opens and in the left column you will find various designs called Themes. There are designs for Standard Definition, Animations, as well as High Definition animations. Each theme has its own projects. Each project suggests a specific use for the animation. Let's scroll down a bit and pick Skyline. Each one of these three projects has a specific purpose for on air use and as I click on each one you see how it animates. A Lower Third, a Menu you could use for showtimes and an Opening Title Sequence. Let's look at another Theme. I'll pick the Seasons Theme and of course there are four sets of projects for the four seasons and I'll click on the Fall version to preview it and then the Spring. Very nice. I like the Spring Open. And I'll click the Open Template button on the bottom right and I'll start playing the animation again. This time we see gray boxes instead of faces. These boxes are placeholders called Drop Zones. Into any of these you can place your own graphic, so I'll just browse my computer and select an image and just drag it into one of the Drop Zones. Motion automatically sizes it to fit the Drop Zone. Notice that I never stopped playing the animation. This is the power of Motion. You can just keep working. There's just not a lot of waiting around as you experience with other animation programs. That makes Motion a lot of fun to use. Again, welcome. There's a lot of cool stuff to cover, so let's get into the next lesson.  

Download WorkFiles