Importing Motion Projects into the Canvas

Not only can you import media files and particles into a project, but you can also import a Motion project file. When you import a Motion file into your project, all the elements in the project remain intact and can be adjusted in the new project.

To import a Motion project, you can either drag it to the Canvas or select it and click the Import button. If you drag it, you can place the file contents anywhere on the screen. If you click the Import button, the file contents will maintain the same positions as in the original project.

In this exercise, you'll import a Motion project into the current project. The Motion project you'll be adding includes a moving white square that turns into a moving image of clouds wrapped in a delicate black framecompliments of the Motion content in the Library.

1.	Click the File Browser tab or press Cmd-1 to view the File Browser.
2.	Locate the Animated square Motion project icon.
3.	Click the Animated square project icon to select it.
4.	Press the spacebar to begin playback in the Canvas, if the project isn't already playing.
5.	At the top of the File Browser window, click the Import button to import the file to the project. A white square slowly moves onscreen and continues toward the center. Notice that the white square doesn't really compete for our attention until the image inside changes to clouds. This also coincides with the yellow circle's exit at frame right. Notice that because the bubbles are behind the square image, they act more as accents than distractions. That's because the Animated square object was added after the bubbles, so it is above the previous objects, including the background, yellow circle, and bubbles. You'll work more with object order and layers in the next lesson.