Before you can view and adjust focus points in Cinematic mode video clips, you must import the clips, show the Timeline, and enable the Cinematic onscreen controls.
In Motion, do one of the following:
If you recorded Cinematic mode clips in HDR (the default on iPhone):Create an HDR project prepopulated with Cinematic mode clips.
If you recorded the Cinematic mode clips in SDR:Create a new project, then import Cinematic mode clips using the import command or import button or by dragging SDR clips from the Photos category in the Motion Library.
Make sure that each Cinematic clip you import is a MOV file without a capital E in its filename. See Move Cinematic mode clips to your Mac before importing them into Motion.
Note: If you want to use HDR clips in an SDR project, after importing the clips, convert them to SDR using the HDR Tools filter or by overriding the clip’s color profile. See Adjust HDR media.
In Motion, click the Show/Hide Timeline button in the timing toolbar.
In the Timeline, two kinds of focus points appear along the bottom of the Cinematic clip’s timebar:
Automatic focus points: These are created automatically while recording in Cinematic mode in the Camera app. In the Timeline in Motion, automatic focus points appear as white dots.
Manual focus points: These are created manually while recording in Cinematic mode in the Camera app when you tap the iPhone screen (to focus on a particular element in the scene). In the Timeline in Motion, manual focus points appear as yellow dots.
Focus points are not keyframes—they represent focus decisions created when the video was recorded.
In the Layers list or Timeline in Motion, select a Cinematic clip.
Do either of the following:
In the canvas toolbar, click and hold the transform tools pop-up menu, then choose Cinematic.
Control-click in the canvas, then choose Cinematic.
Note: If the Cinematic tool isn’t available, make sure to select the Cinematic activation checkbox in the Properties Inspector.
The Cinematic onscreen controls appear in the canvas.
If you drag the playhead, different types of controls appear in the canvas around elements in the scene. These controls indicate focus decisions made while recording on iPhone, either automatically (by the Camera app) or manually (by the person recording the video). There are four types of controls:
Item | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Current focus indicator | Yellow brackets indicate the current subject or area of focus tracked automatically by the camera. |
 | Suggested focus indicator | White frames indicate potential subjects of focus tracked automatically by the camera. Move the pointer over the canvas to reveal additional suggested focus points. You can convert a suggested focus point to the current subject of focus. |
 | AF tracking lock | A yellow frame indicates the current subject or area of focus set manually by the user (during recording or in Motion). AF tracking lock focuses on a subject while following its movement, even when other potential subjects of focus appear in the clip. |
 | AF lock | A small yellow square with tick marks indicates a fixed-focus point set manually by the user (during recording or in Motion). AF lock focuses on a specific area of the clip at a specific distance from the camera, ignoring all other elements in the clip (until the next focus change). |
Note: The colors of the onscreen controls have been brightened for illustrative purposes in this user guide. The controls appear muted in the Motion canvas. Depending on focus decisions made by the user during recording, some of the controls described above may not appear in the canvas.
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