Final Cut Studio 2: Motion 3 - Technical Specifications
| Final Cut Studio 2 - Part Numbers | |
| Retail | MA886Z/A | 
| Upgrade from Final Cut Pro | MA887Z/A | 
| Academic | MA886Z/A | 
Additional Information
Minimum Requirements to Install All Final Cut Studio Applications
- A Macintosh computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, or Intel Xeon processor 
- 1GB of RAM 
- An AGP or PCI Express Quartz Extreme graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors) 
- A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher 
- Mac OS X v10.4.9 or Mac OS X v10.5.5 or later 
- QuickTime 7.1.6 or later 
- A DVD drive for installation 
Available Disk Space
- 4GB of disk space required to install all applications (Final Cut Pro, Color, DVD Studio Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, Cinema Tools, LiveType, Compressor, and Apple Qmaster) 
- Additional 55GB required to install all optional templates, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate disks): 
- 9GB for DVD Studio Pro content 
- 8GB for Motion templates and tutorial media 
- 24GB for Soundtrack Pro audio content 
- 12GB for LiveFonts and LiveType animated elements and templates 
- 2GB for Apple Pro Training Final Cut Studio Tutorials media 
Recommended Configurations
The following are recommended for all applications:
- 2GB of RAM when working with compressed HD and uncompressed SD sources 
- 4GB of RAM when working with uncompressed HD sources 
- A display with 1280 x 1024 resolution or higher 
- 4 GB of hard disc space is required to install all of the Final Cut Studio 2 applications 
- An additional 55 GB of hard disc space is required to install all optional templates, content, and tutorials (may be installed on separate discs): 
- 9 GB for DVD Studio Pro content 
- 8 GB for Motion templates and tutorial media 
- 24 GB for Soundtrack Pro audio content 
- 12 GB for LiveFonts and LiveType animated elements and templates 
- 2 GB for Apple Pro Training Final Cut Studio Tutorials media 
Motion-Specific Requirements
- A standard or built-to-order system configuration with a NVIDIA GeForce 5200, FX Go5200, FX 5200 Ultra, 6600, 6600 LE, 6800, 7300, 7300 GT, 7800, 7600 GT, 8600, 8800 or Quadro class graphics card. 
- A standard or built-to-order system configuration with a ATI Radeon 9800, 9700, 9600Pro, 9600XT, 9700Pro, X800, X1600, X1900, or X2600 class graphics card; or a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 or 9600 graphics card. 
- For 16- and 32-bit rendering: a graphics card with at least 128MB of VRAM. 
Motion-Configuration Recommendations
- One of the following graphics cards is highly recommended: - ATI Radeon C1900 XT, X800 XT, or X1600 
- NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT, 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL, or Quadro FX 4500 
 
- For 32-bit rendering: a graphics card with 256 MB of VRAM or more 
*Some features require additional hardware. Capturing HD resolution video using the ProRes 422 format requires a Mac Pro with an Intel Xeon processor or a G5 Quad computer and a qualified third-party capture card. DV, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO HD output requires a FireWire-enabled camera or deck. SD output via FireWire requires an AJA Io. Please contact your Apple Authorized Reseller for information.
Motion 3
User Interface
- Unlimited tracks of movie clips, graphics, text, and particles 
- Project sizes up to 4K (4K resolution requires a graphics card with 256MB of VRAM or more) 
- Color bits-per-channel: 8-bit, 16-bit float, and 32-bit float (Float processing requires a graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; 256MB or more recommended) 
- Customizable nonsquare-pixel support 
- Semitransparent heads-up display with onscreen controls for layers, behaviors, and filters 
- Onscreen controls for 3D position, 3D rotation, 3D anchor point, skew, four corner pin, and crop 
- Enable/Disable float bit-depth viewing independent of project setting 
- View color channels and alpha channels independently 
- Canvas alignment tools including dynamic alignment guides, 3D grid, and rulers 
- Pen-and-tablet gesture-based interface 
- Integrated File Browser for fast access to Finder content 
- RAM Previews for viewing complex animations at full frame rate 
- Save favorite settings, customized effects, gradients, text styles, and more in the Library 
- Over 1000 pieces of Apple-designed, royalty-free vector artwork, high-resolution images, and animated design elements 
- Instantly display and access all layers in the project using a single keystroke, similar to Exposé in Mac OS X 
- Customizable toolbar that places your favorite tools at your fingertips 
- Create, save, and remap custom keyboard shortcuts 
- Show images outside the visible frame boundary for easily adjusting off-screen objects 
- Automatically collect media used in a project for easy backup or moving to other locations 
- Use Spotlight in Mac OS X to locate Motion projects by searching on any layer name or text string created in the project 
3D Compositing Environment
- Position, rotate, and intersect multiple layers in 3D space 
- Combine multiple layers into 3D groups for hierarchical 3D animations 
- Add, animate, and cut between multiple cameras 
- Unique Walk-Camera intuitively operates like a first-person video game 
- Adjust the camera's near and far soft clipping planes to avoid object "popping" 
- Apply Camera behaviors for easily creating and modifying complex camera moves 
- Quad split view for displaying multiple orthographic and perspective views 
- Inset viewer for quickly checking alternative views while making adjustments 
- Multiple light sources including ambient, directional, point, and spot 
- Enable particles, Replicator elements, and paint strokes to animate in 3D space 
- Create 3D text behaviors for character-by-character animations with full 3D position and rotation control 
- Create 3D motion paths for layers, cameras, and light sources 
- Apply behaviors like throw, orbit, and vortex with 3D attributes 
- Isolate any layer to a Front view for easily modifying masks or editing text 
Timeline Editing and Layering
- Layer list view makes it easy to change the stacking order of any layer, group, filter, or animation behavior 
- Grouping for applying compound transformations and filters 
- Common "bring to front" and "send to back" functions 
- Opacity and blend mode display for quick access on every layer and group 
- Create drop zones for easy drag-and-drop image replacement 
- Clone layers for linking instances of images that inherit properties automatically 
- Solo tracks for easier viewing and refinements 
- Composite with premultiplied or non-premultiplied alpha channels 
- Mini-Timeline built into the Canvas that displays a single track for the currently selected layer, group, filter, or behavior 
- Trim, slip, slide, and retime audio and video clips via the mini-Timeline 
- Retime clips using frame blending, motion blur blending, or optical flow 
- Cache optical flow retiming analysis to change speed at any time without reanalyzing 
- Full Timeline with drag-and-drop editing to choose between compositing and assembling multiple clips 
- Insert and overwrite editing directly into the Timeline 
- Display and edit audio tracks in the Timeline or in the Audio Editor 
- Markers that can be placed in the Timeline or on a specific clip with notes 
Animation
- Unique behavior animations for creating natural phenomena like wind, gravity, and vortex 
- Sophisticated simulations like attract, repel, and orbit, which create multilayered 3D animations 
- Text sequencing for automating complex title animations in 3D space 
- Auto-animated Parameter control like oscillate, wiggle, and more 
- Retiming behaviors automate ramping in and out of speed changes 
- Audio behavior for syncing animations with audio tracks 
- MIDI behavior for triggering parameter changes via any MIDI device 
- Shape behaviors allow for tracking points on a shape or creating random wiggling animated shapes 
- Complete keyframe-based animation tools 
- Keyframe Editor with Bezier, Linear, Constant, and Ease In/Ease Out interpolations 
- Copy and paste keyframes from different tracks and parameters 
- Keyframe settings for ping pong, repeat, and progressive 
- Record Animation feature with keyframe thinning for recording animations in real-time 
- Draw keyframes in the Keyframe Editor using freehand pen tool 
- Squish, stretch, and move groups of keyframes using a transform box 
- Save curve sets for quick access to common parameters 
- View animated curves for easier navigation 
- View keyframes in the Timeline for quick positioning 
- Enable/Disable keyframe and behavior-based animations to easily compare different results 
Particle Engine
- Sprite-based particle engine with accelerated performance 
- Over 200 particle presets for easy access to sparkles, fire, smoke, and more 
- Animate particles in 3D space with "Face-Camera" control 
- Apply multiple objects or video clips as emitters 
- Apply additive blend mode for intense glowing results 
- Animate emitters and cells independently 
- Save newly created particles in the Library for reuse in other projects 
- Choose between point, line, rectangle, circle, box, sphere, and more for emitter shapes 
- Control birth rate, life, speed, angle, spin, scale, and gradient colors for particle cells 
- Scale particles over their life or add behaviors like orbit and vortex for amazing 3D results with little effort 
Paint Effects
- Paint with pressure-sensitive vector-based brush strokes 
- Select from over 100 customizable brush styles from traditional to abstract 
- Modify brush width, color, opacity, jitter over the stroke path 
- Automatically draw on and draw off with full customization 
- Edit brush strokes as Bezier or advanced B-spline paths 
- Rotate the stroke in 3D space with "Face-Camera" control for volumetric 3D strokes 
- Assign pressure and speed to brush properties when using a pen and tablet 
- Enable dynamics on paint dabs for particle paint type effects 
- Apply Replicator-like sequencing animations that can cause the paint stroke to ripple through 3D space 
Replicator Tool
- Automatic replication of any graphic, text object, or movie file along defined patterns 
- Over 200 Replicator presets that can be completely customized and resaved 
- Animate replicated patterns in 3D space with "Face-Camera" control 
- Save newly created Replicators in the Library for reuse in other projects 
- Choose between line, rectangle, circle, burst, spiral, wave, box, sphere, and more for Replicator patterns 
- Define the number of rows, columns, and 3D ranks that fill or outline the pattern 
- Control pattern size, cell size, angle, scale, and gradient colors for Replicator cells 
- Change the offset for rows and columns, causing them to shift position across the defined pattern 
- Control origin of animation from various points of the pattern 
- Add random scale and angle setting for more natural replications 
- Apply additive blend mode for intense glowing results 
- Set color of replicated objects from a single tint to a user-defined range 
- Add Replicator Sequence behavior for wavelike animations over various patterns 
Title Design
- Vector-based text engine for creating clean type at any size 
- Format text using size, rotation, slant, tracking, kerning, and more 
- Animate individual text characters in 3D space using customizable text behaviors 
- Select from common set of blend modes, including normal, multiply, screen, and add 
- Customize text styles with control over the face, outline, glow, and drop shadow 
- Type-on and text on a path layout/animation options 
- Text field in Inspector that makes it easy to edit text even if text is obscured in the Canvas 
- Fill text with solid or multipoint gradients 
- Apply static images or video clips as textures to text faces 
- Control textures using hold frame, offset, wrap modes, and opacity 
- Support for Asian, Cyrillic, and other Unicode system fonts 
- Support for Apple LiveFonts for unique font animations 
Tracking and Stabilization
- Match move using single-point tracking or four corner pinning 
- Create tracking data that can be referenced by multiple objects 
- Track a filter’s onscreen position controls 
- Offset tracking for creating a single track from multiple offsets 
- Tracking behavior highlights best potential tracking points, eliminating guesswork 
- Advanced tracking algorithm maintains accurate analysis when patterns rotate or skew 
- Smart retry resets search region automatically for less user intervention 
- Provide directional hints for fast-moving regions by using Look-ahead feature 
- Stabilize using traditional point stabilizer or optical flow analysis 
- Automated optical flow stabilizer bypasses selecting points and time-consuming setup 
- SmoothCam optical flow analysis removes jitter and rocking from handheld shots while retaining overall camera moves 
- Adjust amount of smoothing applied to transforms, rotation, and scaling in real time 
Accelerated Filters and Effects
- Over 130 accelerated filters for real-time interactivity 
- More than 10 blur filters, including Gaussian, Channel Blur, Radial Blur, and Defocus 
- Simple and bevel borders 
- More than 15 color correction filters, including Color Balance, Gradient Colorize, Color Reduce, and Threshold 
- More than 25 distortion filters, including Basic 3D, Refraction, Insect Eye, Glass Distortion, Ripple, and Scrape 
- Stunning glow effects for Light Rays, Bloom, Aura, and more 
- PrimatteRT chroma keyer 
- Stylize filters like Vignette, Color Emboss, Half Tone, Line Art, and Tunnel 
- Unique kaleidoscope and tiling filters 
- Time-based filters for echo and strobe effects 
- Video filters for deinterlacing and broadcast-safe colors and luminance 
- Generators that automatically generate patterns, noise, colors, and caustics 
- Support for GPU-accelerated third-party FxPlug filters 
Masking Tools
- Bezier or advanced B-spline masking tools 
- Create ovals, rectangles, and arbitrary freehand shapes 
- Control opacity and edge feathering 
- Combine masks using mathematical operations 
- Track entire shapes or control points using tracking behaviors 
- Create image masks from alpha, luminance, or RGB values of a second image 
Audio
- Support for AIFF, WAV, MP3, VBR MP3, and AAC (MPEG-4 Audio) 
- Edit audio tracks in the Timeline with trim, slip, and move 
- Retime audio tracks with pitch change 
- Scrub audio tracks for frame-accurate positioning 
- Control balance, gain, mute, and solo individually 
- Use master audio controls for global audio adjustments 
- Keyframe audio volume in Audio Editor 
- Trigger parameter changes based on audio frequencies or transient hits 
Integration and Third-Party Support
- Open Timeline data from Final Cut Pro, including cuts, layers, transforms, and retiming data 
- Open Motion directly from the Final Cut Pro Timeline, bypassing import/export steps 
- Create master templates in Motion that retain editable text and drop zones in Final Cut Pro 
- Animations from Motion automatically update in the Final Cut Pro Timeline when changes are made in Motion 
- Round-trip editing between DVD Studio Pro and Motion, making it simple to create and modify Motion menus without intermediate rendering 
- Send audio from Motion to Soundtrack Pro Waveform Editor; sound design changes in Soundtrack Pro automatically update in Motion 
- Drag and drop Motion 3 native project files into Adobe After Effects 6.5 or 7.0, without rendering 
- Preview projects on a broadcast monitor using AJA I/O or Blackmagic devices 
- Import vector PDF graphics or Photoshop layered documents 
- Import OpenEXR files (Float processing requires a graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; 256MB or more recommended) 
- Support for third-party FxPlug plug-ins 
- Support for Core Image Unit plug-ins 
Export
- Export to HDV, H.264, MPEG-4, and other QuickTime-supported codecs 
- Export as movies or image sequences 
- Export as 16-bit or 32-bit floating-point OpenEXR format (Float processing requires a graphics card with 128MB of VRAM; 256MB or more recommended) 
- Support for progressive and field-based rendering 
- Accelerated motion blur with customizable shutter 
- Save custom export settings for easier selection 
- Render back to the Timeline 
- Copy protection requires that you output your project to a replicator. Macrovision requires that users work with a Macrovision-certified replication facility or execute a Macrovision usage agreement. Check with your replicator for costs and minimum quantities