Shape styles can be applied to any shape, and are control by Outline > Width.
A rectangle with a blue Traditional > Acrylic shape style applied.
You are probably familiar with using Fill and Outline for shapes. But there is a wealth of other edge options hiding in Shape Styles. After you draw a shape, or use the pen or paint brush tools to create a shape, select the shape using the Arrow tool.
NOTE: If you select a shape using the Shape tool, changes will affect the NEXT shape you draw, not the current one.
With the shape selected, check Outline, then enter a Width value of 10 or more.
Open the HUD (F7) and click Shape Style at the bottom. There you’ll find dozens of different styles from Traditional to Light, that can be applied to the edges of your shape.
Use Width to modify the width of the effect.
EXTRA CREDIT
Shape styles can only be applied to the edges of a shape drawn by the shape, pen or paint brush tools.
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-04-09 01:30:002020-04-04 10:51:25Tip #596: An Easy Way to Create a 3D Look
Threshold creates striking duo-tone images, which you can then colorize.
Threshold creates duo-tone images (top) from a full color image (middle) using the settings illustrated at the bottom.
If you want to create striking, duo-tone backgrounds, the Threshold filter in Apple Motion is exactly what you need.
The Threshold filter converts full-color images into stark, black-and-white images which you can then colorize using the same filter. The operation is simple:
Select an image. Then, apply Filters > Color > Threshold.
Instantly the image is a black-and-white duotone.
Next, select one of the two color boxes and adjust colors to suit. For me, the most effective color to adjust is the darker box.
The screen shot shows the results (top), source (middle), and the settings that got us there (bottom).
Colorful lighting is one menu choice away, and you can customize it to suit.
A sample lighting effect and the settings that created the colors.
There’s a hidden lighting secret in Motion for 3D text that is worth learning: colored light! At the top of the screen shot is an example of lighting 3D text with colored light. Here’s how to create it:
Create any 3D text.
Select the text in the Layers panel.
Go to Inspector > Text > Appearance, then twirl down Lighting and enable Environments.
Show the contents of Environments by clicking the word Show to the right of the word “Environments.”
Change Type from Field to Colorful.
Change the Rotation to pick out the colors you like.
For more control, twirl down Rotation and modify each of the axes. The effect changes with each. I’ve found that changing X rotation creates some very dramatic underlighting.
When you get the look you want, ah, stop tweaking. The screen shot shows the settings I used to create the lighting effect at the top.
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-04-02 01:30:002020-04-02 01:30:00Tip #581: Create Colorful Lighting for 3D Text
Backgrounds, to be useful, need to be slow, dark and soft.
The Goo background before (top) and after (bottom) after effects are applied.
The problem I have with most of Apple’s default backgrounds is that they are too BRIGHT and too in-focus for text. Well, yeah, they are too busy, too.
Fortunately, this is easy to fix. Here are some ideas to try when you need to bring a background back under control. I’m going to work with Library > Content > Backgrounds > Goo, but you can pick anything.
It’s moving too fast. Select the Clouds layer inside Goo, then go to Inspector > Generator and change Speed to 0.07.
All the edges are waaay too sharp. This is because this effect is simply the Cloud generator with a Posterize filter applied. Select the Goo layer, apply Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur and, in the Inspector, manually type in an Amount of 150.
NOTE: If you try to use the slider, it will stop at 64. Manually typing in numbers allows you to enter much larger values for almost every parameter.
It’s also too bright, so, with the Goo layer selected, apply Filter > Color > Levels and make sure it is placed below Gaussian Blur in the Layers panel. Adjust the mid-tone slider so that the background gets as dark as you need. If there’s a lot of light shades, pull down the highlights a bit, too.
NOTE: You could do something similar by adjusting Opacity, but that actually makes the background transparent. Levels makes it darker without adding transparency.
As with all effects, adjust the settings until you are happy. In the screen shot, the top image is “before,” the bottom image is “after.”
https://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpg00Larry Jordanhttps://www.theinsidetips.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Tips-Logo-700x150.jpgLarry Jordan2020-04-02 01:30:002020-04-02 01:30:00Tip #582: Make a Better Background
This menu is located in the top left corner of the Keyframe Editor.
The Curve menu in the top left corner of the Keyframe Editor. The pop-up menu is outlined in white.
As projects get more complex, tracking which elements are animated and how they are animated gets tricky. Fortunately, Motion has a menu option that quickly allows you to see any modified settings or keyframes applied to a selected element.
With your project open, display the Keyframe Editor (shortcut: Cmd + 8). Next, select the element with the settings you want to review.
Then, in the top left corner, click the Animated menu. Here, you have several options:
All. Shows all settings for the selected element, whether modified or note.
Animated. Settings which have keyframes applied.
Modified. Setting which were changed from their defaults, whether or not keyframes were applied.
Other options limit the settings that are displayed to minimize visual clutter.
EXTRA CREDIT
Tip #555 illustrates how to create custom curve sets, so you see exactly the settings you need.
Custom Curve Sets allow us to see just the parameters we want.
A Custom Curve Set, showing parameter settings for Position, Scale and Opacity.
This tip originally appeared as an Apple KnowledgeBase article. This is an excerpt. In Tip #550, we illustrated how to access the default curve set in Apple Motion to see which settings have been modified or animated. However, we can also create our own custom curve set.
In the screen shot, I created a new curve set, then added Position, Scale and Opacity settings to it. This allows me to see just the changes to those key settings for the selected elements for the duration of the Motion project.
In addition to using the built-in curve set views, you can make and manage your own view using the last two options in the Show Curve Set pop-up menu: New Curve Set and Manage Curve Sets. As you create and store custom parameter sets, they appear in the Show Curve Set pop-up menu (at the top of the parameter list in the Keyframe Editor), allowing you to switch between them. Deleting, duplicating, and modifying custom sets is done in the Manage Curve Sets dialog (accessible from the Show Curve Set pop-up menu).
To create a custom curve set:
In the Keyframe Editor in Motion, click the Show Curve Set pop-up menu, then choose New Curve Set.
In the dialog that appears, enter a name for the set, then click OK.
After you create a curve set, you can choose it from the Show Curve Set pop-up menu.
To add parameters to a custom curve set do one of the following:
After you create a custom curve set, drag a parameter name from any pane in the Inspector into the Keyframe Editor parameter list.
In the Inspector, click the Animation menu for the parameter, then choose Show in Keyframe Editor.
The Animation menu (a down arrow) remains hidden until you position the pointer over the far-right side of the parameter row you want to modify.
The parameter is added to the custom curve set.
To remove a parameter, drag it out of the list.
EXTRA CREDIT
To delete, duplicate or manage the display order of custom curve sets, select Manage Curve Sets from the Cuve menu.
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