Motion 4. Intuitive Real-Time Design Environment.

Motion 4 allows you to animate in real time — and even make changes during playback. Press a key or slide a fader. Drag a behavior, then drag another one on top of it. Work quickly and fluidly. If you want, you can fine-tune your animations with precise keyframe curve editing.

Real-time design engine

Work in real time, using intuitive tools that let you set objects in motion with drag-and-drop ease. Motion 4 lets you enjoy the creative freedom of rapid iteration. Tools for precise refinement and completely custom effects are only a click away, including controls for timing adjustments, keyframe editing, and parameter settings. For final output, you can even render in GPU-accelerated 16- and 32-bit floating-point color.

Behaviors for instant animation

Behaviors are used to produce natural-looking motion and realistic simulations of interactions among objects. Just drag a behavior — such as Gravity, Repel, Throw, or Vortex — onto the Canvas to set objects bouncing, spinning, or orbiting. Choose from more than 100 behaviors that let you instantly set objects in motion.

Behaviors can also be used to trigger sets of parameters. For example, the Audio parameter behavior can synchronize your animation to a soundtrack, and the new Link parameter behavior lets you link the animation of one object to another.

Linking Parameters

Use the movement of one object to drive another.

Watch the video

Keyframe Editor

The full-featured Keyframe Editor in Motion 4 makes it easy to draw animation curves. Squish, stretch, and reposition groups of keyframes using the flexible transform box. You can even use time-saving keyboard shortcuts to call up curves for position, opacity, rotation, scale, shear, and anchor point.

Multi-Touch gesture support

Navigate faster with gestures using the Multi-Touch trackpad on your MacBook Pro. Quickly browse tabs and navigate the Timeline with two-finger scrolling. You can pinch to resize icons or to adjust zoom levels in the Timeline and Canvas, and use the Rotate gesture to scrub the Timeline. A three-finger swipe toggles the Timing and Project panes and lets you move forward and backward in the Library and File Browser.

Apple-designed graphic elements

Jump-start your creativity with an extensive library of royalty-free motion graphic elements designed by Apple. Select from a large set of particle systems, including smoke, fire, rain, bubbles, clouds, snow, glittering sparkles, and more. Pick an elegant animated shape — such as a calligraphic flourish. Instantly create a hypnotic pattern with one of the Replicator options or select from a library of stunning high-resolution textural photographs. You can use combinations of elements as building blocks for your own creations and easily modify any element.

Integration with Final Cut Studio applications

Final Cut Pro sequences sent to Motion retain editable cuts, layers, retiming effects, and more for maximum flexibility.

You can also save any Motion project as a master template for use in Final Cut Pro. A master template includes video drop zones and editable text fields, allowing you to swap out content and update text without leaving Final Cut Pro.

You can drag any Motion project into Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro without having to export or render it first. Changes you save in Motion are instantly reflected in the other applications.

You can also send audio directly from Motion to Soundtrack Pro for editing and mixing, then see the audio update in Motion the moment you save the project in Soundtrack Pro.