Viewing the Project and Timing Panes | Apple Pro Training Series: Getting Started With Motion

Before you move on to the next lesson, I'd like you to take a quick look at the Timing pane. Up to this point, you have built two complete projects using only the Canvas window. There are two additional ways that you can view and interact with your project.

The Project pane shows all the different layers and media in the project. If you are accustomed to working with layer-based design software such as Adobe Photoshop, then the Project pane will look very familiar.

The Timing pane shows a timeline view of your project with different tracks for each layer, behavior, and effect. If you are accustomed to working with timeline-based software such as Final Cut Pro, then you will find this pane familiar.

You'll get to work with each of these panes in later lessons. For now, let's just take a look to see where they are and how to show and hide them.

Motion offers three easy ways to open the Project and Timing panes:

Choose Window > Show Project Pane or Window > Show Timing Pane.
Drag the left edge of the Canvas window to open the Project pane or the bottom edge of the Canvas window to open the Timing pane.
Press F5 to open the Project pane or F6 to open the Timing pane.

NOTE

If you are using a laptop computer, you'll need to hold down the Function (Fn) key before you press a numbered function key.

The keystroke shortcuts are easy to use. Let's try them here.

1.	Press F5 to open the Project pane. The Project pane opens on the left side of the Canvas window. This pane contains all the objects used in the project. If your Project pane looks different from the one in the illustration, don't worryyou'll learn how to organize the objects and layers in the next lesson.
2.	Press F5 again to close the Project pane.
3.	Press F6 to open the Timing pane. As you can see, all the different objects and their regions are visible on the Timeline tab of the Timing pane. You'll work more with the Timing pane throughout the book, especially in Lesson 8.
4.	Press F6 again to close the Timing pane.