Motion 4 - Technical Specifications

Minimum System Requirements

  • Mac computer with an Intel processor

  • 1GB of RAM (2GB of RAM recommended when working with compressed HD and uncompressed SD sources; 4GB of RAM recommended when working with uncompressed HD sources)

  • ATI or NVIDIA graphics processor. Integrated Intel graphics processors are not supported except the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

  • 128MB of VRAM

  • Display with 1280-by-800 resolution or higher

  • Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later

  • QuickTime 7.6 or later

  • DVD drive for installation

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, crop, and text glyph manipulations

  • Enable/Disable float bit-depth viewing independent of project setting

  • Enable/Disable viewing and rendering of Lighting, Shadows, Reflections, and Depth of Field

  • View color channels and alpha channels independently

  • Canvas alignment tools including dynamic alignment guides, 3D grid, and rulers

  • Pen-and-tablet gesture-based interface

  • 3D mouse support

  • 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 1400 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 shadows for selected point or spot lights, define objects to receive or cast shadows, and control the shadow colors and softness

  • Enable Reflectivity on most objects, movies, paint strokes, and more

  • Activate depth of field to enhance realism and control focus

  • 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

  • Isolate selection for temporary framing and solo of an object to facilitate editing of an object in a 3D composition

  • 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

  • Parameter linking for driving secondary animations

  • 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 curve interpolations

  • Keyframe Editor with a keyframe edit tool, keyframe sketch tool, and a keyframe box manipulation tool

  • 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, and 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

  • Import capability supporting Text and RTF files to create Motion text objects

  • Format text using size, rotation, slant, tracking, kerning, and more

  • Animate individual text characters in 3D space using customizable text behaviors

  • Transform single characters with the Adjust Glyph tool

  • 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

  • Scroll and Crawl layouts/animation options that support large amounts of text

  • Text field parameter in Inspector 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 styles and 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 120 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 20 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, Scrape, and Polar

  • Stunning glow effects for Light Rays, Bloom, Aura, and more

  • PrimatteRT chroma keyer

  • Stylize filters like Vignette, Bad TV, Bad Film, Color Emboss, Half Tone, Line Art, and Slit 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, caustics, and concentric shapes and spirals

  • Text generators that create and animate text elements like numbers, currency, dates, and timecode or can generate text using the contents of a text file

  • Support for wide array of GPU-accelerated third-party FxPlug filters

Masking Tools

  • Bezier or advanced B-spline masking tools

  • Create ovals, rectangles, and arbitrary freehand shapes

  • Control opacity, rounding, 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

Final Cut Pro 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

  • Preview projects on a broadcast monitor using AJA I/O, Matrox, 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 Image Unit plug-ins

Export

  • Share feature can export and deliver content automatically to devices like iPod and Apple TV or services like YouTube in a few clicks

  • Export to ProRes, 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

  • Export Selection can render out selected objects and even automatically re-import the render back to the Motion Timeline