Chapter 5: user interface controls, User interface controls overview, Toolbar controls – Apple Motion 5.1.1 User Manual

Page 127: Slider controls, Basic slider, User interface controls, Overview, Toolbar, Controls

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User interface controls overview

In Motion, you build and modify your compositions by adjusting parameters—numeric attributes
that define each characteristic of the objects, clips, and effects comprising a project. Although
there are thousands of parameters in Motion, you can easily adjust all of them by mastering a
small set of intuitive user interface controls.

To learn more about each of these controls, choose a topic in the Help table of contents (the
sidebar to the left of this window).

Toolbar controls

The Motion toolbar is located in the middle of the main window, underneath the Project pane
and Canvas.

The left side of the toolbar contains controls to create and edit elements such as text, shapes,
and masks. The center of the toolbar contains the timing display. The right side of the toolbar
includes buttons that do the following:

Show or hide the heads-up display (HUD)

Add cameras, lights, or generators

Apply filters and behaviors

Create particle systems and replicators

Toolbar controls with multiple modes or options are available as pop-up menus, identifiable by
a small downward arrow in the lower-right corner. For example, the default Rectangle Mask tool
can be set to Rectangle, Circle, Freehand, Bezier, or B-Spline mode.

Access a toolbar control’s additional modes or options

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Click any tool with a small downward arrow in the lower-right corner, and hold down the mouse
button as you choose a mode or option from the pop-up menu.

For a description and use of each tool, see

Toolbar overview

on page 46.

Slider controls

Basic slider

Sliders adjust parameters that span a fixed range of numeric values. For example, opacity must
fall between 0% and 100%. Drag the slider to set a value anywhere within that range.

User interface controls

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