Motion 4 - Technical Specifications

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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