You can set and change project presets on the Presets tab of the Motion Preferences window.
If you set a preset default, all new projects will be created with the default settings.
To extend the duration of a movie file in the mini-Timeline, you can change the file's end condition to Loop.
You can easily navigate among the tabs in the Utility window and the Project pane by pressing the Command key plus a number that corresponds to the tab. Cmd-1 = File Browser, Cmd-2 = Library, Cmd-3 = Inspector, Cmd-4 = Layers tab, and Cmd-5 = Media tab.
All new projects start with an empty layer on the Layers tab.
Layers are vessels that contain objects and sublayers.
The order, from top to bottom, in which objects and layers appear on the Layers tab corresponds to the order in which they appear in the Canvas.
You can drag layers or objects up or down on the Layers tab to change their positions. Dragging objects outside of a layer creates a new layer containing that object.
Grouping objects places them on a sublayer.
To replace a file, you drag the new file from the File Browser to the object on the Layers tab.
You can crop the edges of an object in the Dashboard or the Inspector.
You can turn layers and objects on and off on the Layers tab by checking or unchecking the Activation check box.
Each layer has a disclosure triangle that you can use to hide or show the contents of the layer.
You can apply behaviors to objects, layers, and sublayers.
Opacity refers to the amount of transparency of an object. Changing the opacity of an object or layer allows you to see through it to the objects and layers below. Opacity of 100 percent means no transparency; 50 percent opacity means 50 percent transparency; and 0 percent opacity means completely transparent.
Blend modes represent mathematical calculations for combining layers and objects and are always applied to the upper layer.
A layer or object can have only one blend mode applied to it.
Blend modes can be applied to objects or sublayers, but not to objects within the same layer.
