Lesson8.Working in the Timeline

Lesson 8. Working in the Timeline

Time Goals

Lesson_08 > 8-1 Timeline start

Lesson_08 > 8-2 Timeline finished

Lesson_08 > 8-3 Oakley start

Lesson_08 > 8-4 Oakley finished

Lesson_08 > 8-5 Template finished

Master_Project > 08 Master Project start

This lesson takes approximately 1 hour to complete.

Add objects to the Timeline

Modify regions in the Timeline

Work with markers

Edit objects and layers in the Timeline

Insert, overwrite, and exchange objects

Move, delete, and collapse layers

Work with templates

If you've been following along with the lessons in this book, you've already built more than a dozen projects using the Canvas and the Layers tab in the Project pane. In this lesson, you'll expand your Motion horizons as you learn to create and modify a project on the Timeline tab, located in the Timing pane.

Those of you who are video editors are already accustomed to working in a timeline environment. The Timeline in Motion includes many of the features of professional editing software such as Final Cut Pro. You're already familiar with the mini-Timeline, which is actually a condensed version of the Timeline. The difference is that the mini-Timeline shows only one region at a time, whereas the Timeline in the Timing pane shows tracks for all the elements in the project.

In this lesson, you'll work with three projects to hone your Timeline skills. You'll practice moving, importing, replacing, marking, and compositing clips within the various Timeline tracks.

First, you'll compare the Layers and Timeline tabs as you add files to a project. Then you'll organize and modify a more complicated project in the Timeline. Finally, you'll open a Motion template and modify it in the Timeline with your own media. You'll also use markers in the Timeline to help choreograph the elements of your composite scene. We'll start with a quick tour of the Timeline tab.