Apple Motion 5.1.1 - Manual (Page 852)

Chapter 20 Shapes, masks, and paint strokes 852
m Control-click a handle point, then choose Break Handle from the shortcut menu to break the
relationship between opposing handles.
m Option-drag a broken tangent or Control-click a handle point and choose Link Handle from the
shortcut menu to lock the angle of the tangents together again. The tangents now maintain
their relationship when moved and rotated.
You can also press Option-Command and drag a handle point so the tangents maintain their
broken relationship when moved and rotated.
m Control-click a handle point and choose Align Handles from the shortcut menu to align the
tangents to a 180-degree angle.
Press Shift while you adjust a tangent to constrain its movement to 45-degree angles. To
simultaneously modify the handles for more than one control point, Shift-select the points (on
the same spline) and then adjust the tangents.
Important: If Record (automatic keyframing) is enabled, curve adjustments are keyframed,
creating animated shape changes. Additionally, if a keyframe has been added to the Control
Points parameter in the Geometry pane of the Shape Inspector, curve adjustments are
keyframed, regardless of the Record button state.
Edit B-Spline control points
Editing the position of control points in B-Spline shapes is similar to editing Bezier shapes. In fact,
the steps for selecting, moving, adding, deleting, and locking control points are almost exactly
the same. The main difference in editing both types of shapes lies in how you manipulate and
adjust curves.
The simplest, and usually fastest, way to manipulate B-Spline curves is to move B-Spline
points closer to or farther from one another. When B-Spline points are moved closer to one
another, a sharper curve is created. B-Spline points that are farther from one another create
shallower curves.
Sharper curve (B-Spline points are closer) Shallow curve
67% resize factor