Apple Motion 4 - Manual (Page 291)

The onscreen controls and the HUD controls all correspond to parameters that appear
in the Properties tab of the Inspector. Each parameter corresponds to a different Canvas
control, and adjustments made in the Canvas are simultaneously updated in the Inspector.
For example, if you’re using the Select/Transform tool and you change an object’s scale
by dragging its corner handles in the Canvas, the object’s Scale parameter is updated in
the Properties tab of the Inspector.
When you begin to lay out a composition, it’s a good idea to start by creating a static
layout of your project that represents how it looks at the beginning, end, or at a particular
moment in time. In addition to manipulating the geometry of objects in your project,
you can also alter their opacity. This gives you additional control over how overlapping
elements of your layout merge together. Blend modes provide further control over the
appearance of overlapping objects, accentuating or stylizing the colors of the topmost
objects based on the objects underneath.
After you create an initial layout, you can animate any of the objects you’ve added to set
your project in motion. For more information about animating objects and their properties,
see
Animation in Motion .
Group and Layer Order
In a purely 2D project, the order in which layers and groups appear in the Layers tab and
Timeline (the layer order) determines which layers appear in front of others in the Canvas.
Before you use any of the tools described in this chapter, you should first arrange the
layers and groups in your project so that they appear in the proper order. For information
about layer order, see
Reorganizing in the Layers Tab .
Arrangement Commands in the Object Menu
In addition to rearranging object order in the Layers tab, you can also move objects in
front of or behind other objects using commands in the Object menu. This is useful when
you want to quickly move an object to the front while you’re working in the Canvas.
Rather than open the Layers tab, you can simply use one of the commands in the Object
menu.
The arrangement commands can be used with either objects, groups, or groups that are
nested within another group. Reordering a group reorders all objects that are nested
within that group.
Note: You cannot use the reorder commands to move objects out of the group they’re
nested within.
291 Chapter 7 Basic Compositing