Motion User Guide
- Welcome
- What’s new
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- Intro to basic compositing
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- Intro to transforming layers
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- Intro to transforming layers in the canvas
- Transform layer properties in the canvas
- Transform tools
- Change layer position, scale, or rotation
- Move a layer’s anchor point
- Add a drop shadow to a layer
- Distort or shear a layer
- Crop a layer
- Modify shape or mask points
- Transform text glyphs and other object attributes
- Align layers in the canvas
- Transform layers in the HUD
- Transform 2D layers in 3D space
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- Intro to behaviors
- Behaviors versus keyframes
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- Intro to behavior types
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- Intro to Parameter behaviors
- Audio behavior
- Average behavior
- Clamp behavior
- Custom behavior
- Add a Custom behavior
- Exponential behavior
- Link behavior
- Logarithmic behavior
- MIDI behavior
- Add a MIDI behavior
- Negate behavior
- Oscillate behavior
- Create a decaying oscillation
- Overshoot behavior
- Quantize behavior
- Ramp behavior
- Randomize behavior
- Rate behavior
- Reverse behavior
- Stop behavior
- Track behavior
- Wriggle behavior
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- Intro to Simulation behaviors
- Align to Motion behavior
- Attracted To behavior
- Attractor behavior
- Drag behavior
- Drift Attracted To behavior
- Drift Attractor behavior
- Edge Collision behavior
- Gravity behavior
- Orbit Around behavior
- Random Motion behavior
- Repel behavior
- Repel From behavior
- Rotational Drag behavior
- Spring behavior
- Vortex behavior
- Wind behavior
- Additional behaviors
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- Intro to using generators
- Add a generator
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- Intro to image generators
- Caustics generator
- Cellular generator
- Checkerboard generator
- Clouds generator
- Color Solid generator
- Concentric Polka Dots generator
- Concentric Shapes generator
- Gradient generator
- Grid generator
- Japanese Pattern generator
- Lens Flare generator
- Manga Lines generator
- Membrane generator
- Noise generator
- One Color Ray generator
- Op Art 1 generator
- Op Art 2 generator
- Op Art 3 generator
- Overlapping Circles generator
- Radial Bars generator
- Soft Gradient generator
- Spirals generator
- Spiral Drawing generator
- Use Spiral Drawing onscreen controls
- Star generator
- Stripes generator
- Sunburst generator
- Truchet Tiles generator
- Two Color Ray generator
- Save a modified generator
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- Intro to filters
- Browse and preview filters
- Apply or remove filters
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- Intro to filter types
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- Intro to Color filters
- Brightness filter
- Channel Mixer filter
- Color Adjustments filter
- Color Balance filter
- Example: Color-balance two layers
- Color Curves filter
- Use the Color Curves filter
- Color Reduce filter
- Color Wheels filter
- Use the Color Wheels filter
- Colorize filter
- Contrast filter
- Custom LUT filter
- Use the Custom LUT filter
- Gamma filter
- Gradient Colorize filter
- HDR Tools filter
- Hue/Saturation filter
- Hue/Saturation Curves filter
- Use the Hue/Saturation Curves filter
- Levels filter
- Negative filter
- OpenEXR Tone Map filter
- Sepia filter
- Threshold filter
- Tint filter
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- Intro to Distortion filters
- Black Hole filter
- Bulge filter
- Bump Map filter
- Disc Warp filter
- Droplet filter
- Earthquake filter
- Fisheye filter
- Flop filter
- Fun House filter
- Glass Block filter
- Glass Distortion
- Insect Eye filter
- Mirror filter
- Page Curl filter
- Poke filter
- Polar filter
- Refraction filter
- Ring Lens filter
- Ripple filter
- Scrape filter
- Sliced Scale filter
- Use the Sliced Scale filter
- Sphere filter
- Starburst filter
- Stripes filter
- Target filter
- Tiny Planet filter
- Twirl filter
- Underwater filter
- Wave filter
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- Intro to Stylize filters
- Add Noise filter
- Bad Film filter
- Bad TV filter
- Circle Screen filter
- Circles filter
- Color Emboss filter
- Comic filter
- Crystallize filter
- Edges filter
- Extrude filter
- Fill filter
- Halftone filter
- Hatched Screen filter
- Highpass filter
- Indent filter
- Line Art filter
- Line Screen filter
- MinMax filter
- Noise Dissolve filter
- Pixellate filter
- Posterize filter
- Relief filter
- Slit Scan filter
- Slit Tunnel filter
- Texture Screen filter
- Vignette filter
- Wavy Screen filter
- About filters and color processing
- Publish filter controls to Final Cut Pro
- Using filters on alpha channels
- Filter performance
- Save custom filters
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- Intro to 3D objects
- Add a 3D object
- Move and rotate a 3D object
- Reposition a 3D object’s anchor point
- Exchange a 3D object file
- 3D object intersection and layer order
- Using cameras and lights with 3D objects
- Save custom 3D objects
- Guidelines for working with 3D objects
- Working with imported 3D objects
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- Intro to 360-degree video
- 360-degree projects
- Create 360-degree projects
- Add 360-degree video to a project
- Create a tiny planet effect
- Reorient 360-degree media
- Creating 360-degree templates for Final Cut Pro
- 360-degree-aware filters and generators
- Export and share 360-degree projects
- Guidelines for better 360-degree projects
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- Intro to settings and shortcuts
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- Intro to Keyboard shortcuts
- Use function keys
- General keyboard shortcuts
- Audio list keyboard shortcuts
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- Tools keyboard shortcuts
- Transform tool keyboard shortcuts
- Select/Transform tool keyboard shortcuts
- Crop tool keyboard shortcuts
- Edit Points tool keyboard shortcuts
- Edit shape tools keyboard shortcuts
- Pan and Zoom tools keyboard shortcuts
- Shape tools keyboard shortcuts
- Bezier tool keyboard shortcuts
- B-Spline tool keyboard shortcuts
- Paint Stroke tool keyboard shortcuts
- Text tool keyboard shortcuts
- Shape mask tools keyboard shortcuts
- Bezier Mask tool keyboard shortcuts
- B-Spline Mask tool keyboard shortcuts
- Transport control keyboard shortcuts
- View option keyboard shortcuts
- HUD keyboard shortcuts
- Inspector keyboard shortcuts
- Keyframe Editor keyboard shortcuts
- Layers keyboard shortcuts
- Library keyboard shortcuts
- Media list keyboard shortcuts
- Timeline keyboard shortcuts
- Keyframing keyboard shortcuts
- Shape and Mask keyboard shortcuts
- 3D keyboard shortcuts
- Miscellaneous keyboard shortcuts
- Touch Bar shortcuts
- Move assets to another computer
- Work with GPUs
- Glossary
- Copyright

Stroke pane controls in Motion
The Stroke pane becomes available when the Brush Type pop-up menu in the Shape Inspector’s Style pane is set to Airbrush or Image. The Stroke pane contains adjustable parameters specific to the paint stroke and brush, such as opacity, width, brush size, and so on.

Stroke controls
Stroke Color Mode: A pop-up menu that specifies how color is applied to the stroke over its length. There are three options:
Use Brush Color: Uses the color of the brush as defined by the Brush Color parameter in the Style pane. The stroke is a solid color over its length.
Color Over Stroke: Dabs are tinted based on their position over the length of the paint stroke.
Pick From Color Range: Dabs are tinted at random, with the range of possible colors defined by a gradient editor. A point on the gradient is randomly chosen, so the relative sizes of each color region determine the frequency of the color being used.
Opacity Over Stroke: An opacity gradient editor (available when Stroke Color Mode is set to Use Brush Color) to change the opacity of dabs based on their location on the stroke. This gradient control is limited to grayscale values, which are used to represent varying levels of transparency. White represents solid dabs, progressively darker levels of gray represent decreasing opacity, and black represents complete transparency. A simple white-to-black gradient represents a stroke that is solid at its start, but fades out gradually over its length until finally vanishing at the end. For information on using gradient editors, see Gradient editor controls.
Color Over Stroke: A gradient editor (available when Stroke Color Mode is set to Color Over Stroke) to define the range of color in the stroke, beginning with the leftmost color in the gradient, and progressing through the range of colors until reaching the rightmost color at the end of the stroke. Gradual color changes do not appear in each dab, but only across the stroke as a whole. An opacity bar appears at the top of the gradient editor. For information on using gradient editors, see Gradient editor controls.
Color Range: A gradient editor (available when Stroke Color Mode is set to Pick From Color Range) to define a range of colors to randomly tint the stroke’s paint dabs. The direction of the gradient colors is not relevant (because this control merely defines the colors to be used in the random tinting). The Color Range parameter has the same controls as the Color Over Stroke parameter. For information on using gradient editors, see Gradient editor controls.
Color Repetitions: A slider (available when the Stroke Color Mode is set to choose Color Over Stroke) that increases the number of times the gradient is repeated over the stroke.
Spacing Over Stroke: A mini-curve editor that lets you customize the spacing of the dabs over the length of the stroke. You can create a curve that gradually increases the dabs’ spacing over the length of the stroke, create a curve that varies the dabs’ spacing over the length of the stroke, and so on.
In the following images, the default Spacing Over Stroke value of 100% in the mini-curve editor creates an even distribution of the dabs—based on the value set in the Spacing parameter in the Style pane. For more information on using the mini-curve editor, see Use the mini-curve editor.
In the following images, the Spacing Over Stroke curve in the mini-curve editor is adjusted to use a greater value at the start of the stroke, and 100% at the end of the stroke. The dabs at the beginning of the stroke are spaced more widely apart and get closer at the end of the stroke.
Two additional controls in the mini-curve editor let you fine-tune the values of selected points in the curve:
Spacing Over Stroke: A slider that adjusts the spacing between dabs at the selected keyframe. Increasing this parameter increases the spacing between each dab in the stroke.
Stroke Length: A slider that determines where along the range of the dabs within the stroke the Spacing Over Stroke value (for the selected keyframe) is applied.
Fixed Brush Dabs: A checkbox that, when selected, keeps the number and spacing of the dabs constant regardless of the changes in the stroke’s shape over time caused by behaviors or keyframe animation. The effect of this parameter is not visible when editing a paint stroke on a single frame.
Anchor Dabs To: A pop-up menu (available when the Fixed Brush Dabs checkbox is deselected) that defines how dabs are added to or removed from a paint stroke when the length of the paint stroke is modified. There are two options:
Start: Adds dabs to or removes dabs from the start point of a paint stroke when the length of the paint stroke is modified. The first dab on the stroke remains fixed.
Start and End: Adds dabs to or removes dabs from the start and end points of a paint stroke when the length of the paint stroke is modified. The first and last dabs on the stroke remain fixed.
Note: Changing a shape’s control points or adjusting the Width or Spacing parameters (in the Style pane) or Spacing Over Stroke and Width Over Stroke parameters (in the Stroke pane) affects the dab spacing because larger dabs can be spaced further apart.
Width Over Stroke: A mini-curve editor that lets you customize the width of the dabs over the length of the stroke. You can create a curve that gradually increases the dabs’ width over the length of the stroke, create a curve that varies the dabs’ width over the length of the stroke, and so on. The start value for the dab width is based on the value set in the Width parameter in the Style pane. For more information on using the mini-curve editor, see Use the mini-curve editor.
Two additional controls in the mini-curve editor let you fine-tune the values of selected points in the curve:
Width Over Stroke: A slider that adjusts the width of the dab at the selected keyframe.
Stroke Length: A slider that determines where along the range of the dabs within the stroke the Width Over Stroke value (for the selected keyframe) is applied.
You can also adjust the Width Over Stroke parameter for a selected paint stroke in the canvas. See Adjust stroke width in the Motion canvas.
Brush Scale: A slider that adjusts the size of the brush (the source of the dabs). Click the disclosure triangle to adjust the X and Y scale values independently. By default, Scale is set to 100%—the size of the dabs is equal to the size of the source brush. Unlike the width parameter in the Style pane, brush scale adjustments affect only the size of the dabs and don’t preserve the spacing between dabs.
Brush Scale Randomness: A slider that defines an amount of variance in the scale of the stroke’s brush. A value of 0 results in no variance—all dabs in the stroke are the same size. A value greater than 0 introduces a variance. The scale for an individual dab is defined by the Scale parameter, plus or minus a random value falling within the Brush Scale, Width Over Stroke, and Width (in the Style pane) parameters. Click the disclosure triangle to adjust the X and Y values independently.
Align Brush Angle: A checkbox that, when selected, causes the stroke dabs to rotate to match the shape on which they are positioned.
Brush Angle: A dial that specifies (in degrees) the rotation of the stroke dabs. Using the default dial or value slider modifies the Z angle. When the Local 3D checkbox (described below) is selected, additional Brush Angle Randomness controls become available. Click the disclosure triangle to expose X, Y, and Z rotation dials and the Animate pop-up menu.
Animate: A pop-up menu (available when the Local 3D checkbox—described below—is selected) that lets you change the interpolation for animated 3D rotation channels. Click the Brush Angle disclosure triangle to display the Animate parameter. There are two menu options:
Use Rotation: Dabs rotate from their start rotation to their final rotation. Depending on the animation, the elements may rotate multiple times before reaching their final orientation (the last keyframed value). For example, if the X, Y, and Z angle parameters are animated from 0 degrees to 180 degrees in a project, the elements rotate on all axes before reaching their final orientation.
Use Orientation: Dabs rotate more smoothly and without multiple rotations. This option interpolates between the dabs’ start orientation (first keyframe) and their end orientation (second keyframe).
Angle Over Stroke: A mini-curve editor that lets you customize the Z rotation (in degrees) of the dabs over the length of the stroke. You can create a curve that gradually increases the dabs’ angle over the length of the stroke, a curve that varies the dabs’ angle over the length of the stroke, and so on. For more information on using the mini-curve editor, see Use the mini-curve editor.
Two additional controls in the mini-curve editor let you fine-tune the values of selected points in the curve:
Angle Over Stroke: