# Welcome to Motion Studio **Version 1 is here.** *Monthly Updates.*

{% content-ref url="/pages/Nbz67kZ2jDtTpR3BAcxt" %} [Upgrading from Motion 4](/general/upgrading-from-motion-4) {% endcontent-ref %} # Installation ## Summary After you purchase a License, your download will be available in two locations. 1. A order confirmation will be sent to the Checkout Email with a Download link and License Key 2. On our website: ## Finalize installation **Mac** On Mac, you'll run a .dmg installer. Mac will likely prompt you to add Motion Studio to your Applications folder. *This is necessary to ensure you continue to get updates to your application.* After that, you can run Motion Studio from your Applications folder, and pin it to your taskbar. **Windows** Unzip the downloaded file, and run the .exe installer. We'll create a start menu shortcut for you. # Activate License When **Motion Studio** is first installed a **License Key** is required to activate and finalize the process. You can **log in** and **out** of your License Key and easily switch to a different workstation. {% hint style="info" %} Motion 4 licenses will not work with Motion Studio. See [here](/general/upgrading-from-motion-4) for more info. {% endhint %} ### Get license key You can get your License Key from your Checkout Email.\ If you forgot your License Key, you can recover it on our [License Recovery page](https://mtmograph.com/pages/license-recovery) ### Multiple Seats If the License Key is valid, but the Seat Count is reached. Motion Studio will prompt you with a license manager screen where you can log in or out of workstations using your License Key. ### Failed license check If the License Key check fails, a couple of situations may have happened: 1. The License Key isn't real, or entered incorrectly 2. The workstation has no internet connection to verify the license {% hint style="warning" %} For more information, or for assistance please [**Contact Us**](https://mtmograph.com/pages/contact-us) {% endhint %} # Troubleshooting ### Lost License? Recover it on our [License Recovery page](https://mtmograph.com/pages/license-recovery) ### Extension Install Issues? To install the Motion extensions from your Motion Studio application, please be sure to have Creative Cloud installed and up-to-date. We utilize the [Unified Plugin Installer Agent](https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/working-from-the-command-line.html) that is packaged with CC. It should exist at the following paths: *macOS:* `/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Desktop Common/RemoteComponents/UPI/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent` *Windows:* `C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe Desktop Common\RemoteComponents\UPI\UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent` ### Contact us Please send us an email describing your problem to [
](https://app.gitbook.com/o/-M2FyvEIoJGThj8YtoIc/s/sRQNQ2Cc2Y124wMEUr94/general/sound-packs) # Clearing Configuration Data Motion Studio stores your license key and other preferences in a configuration folder. Some of these files might have gotten corrupted in an update to Motion, or from Adobe which could cause Motion to work incorrectly. {% hint style="info" %} This issue usually presents as a random, repeatable, "crash" of the extension window, or a "blank" window when you attempt to open the extension {% endhint %} ### Configuration location By removing the configuration folder, you will get a 100% clean installation. Please note you will also lose things like saved palettes, easing curves, and tool defaults. If you would like to keep these, create a backup of the respective files in the `motion-studio-stable/db/...` folder. You may have to "Show Hidden Items" to see this folder on Windows. **Delete** the folder, and restart your extension. ### On **Windows**, the folder is: `C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME_HERE\AppData\Roaming\motion-studio-stable` ### And on **macOS** it is: `/Users/YOUR_USERNAME_HERE/Library/Application Support/motion-studio-stable` # Upgrading from Motion 4 ### What is Motion Studio? Motion Studio is a new standalone desktop application + extension bundle, representing 10+ years of development at Mt. Mograph. ### Is upgrading to Motion Studio required? Upgrading to Motion Studio is completely optional. If you already own a license for Motion 4, that license will continue to work. We will continue to support Motion 4 with bug fixes and compatibility updates. ### Is Motion Studio included in with the Motion 4 license? No, Motion Studio is a separate product from Motion 4. While many of the features in the extension are from previous iterations of our Motion products, Motion Studio is a standalone application with numerous features that extend outside the Adobe ecosystem {% hint style="info" %} If you are a previous customer of ours who owns Motion 4 (or any previous Motion), keep an eye out in your email for a massive discount. We want upgrading to be easy and cost-effective for our community members who have supported us in the past. {% endhint %} ### What do you get with Motion Studio? {% hint style="success" %} **See** [**here**](/general/whats-new) **for a full list of exclusive features!** {% endhint %} * A new desktop application * Our brand-new Motion Mini extension * Advanced Easing screen for DaVinci Resolve Studio * Motion Color extension for Adobe Illustrator * Explodable extensions panels for Motion Color, Focus, and Easing. * Access to [Futures Lab](https://futures.mtmograph.com/) - Our community roadmap and requests board where you can submit and vote on what we work on next! A large number of requests from Futures Lab have already been included in our initial release of Motion Studio, with more in the works. * Monthly Releases. Our goal in transitioning to a subscription model is to have a sustainable source of funding to work on what we love. We're committing to constantly updating Motion Studio, incorporating our new ideas and your requests, to give you a tool that evolves and works for you. ### Do you offer a free trial? Absolutely! See here: # What's New? ## Coming June 2026 * [Linked Color Palettes](/ae-extension/color/linked-color-palettes) * Splash Screen Modder ## May 2026 * [Sketchpad](/sketchpad) * New Tool: [Align](/ae-extension/tools/align-new) * New Tool: [Distribute](/ae-extension/tools/distribute-new) * New Tool: [Arrange](/ae-extension/tools/arrange-new) * Text Break to [Text Layers](/ae-extension/tools/text-break) * Backup & Restore option for Motion Studio (*Settings -> Backup*) ## March 2026 * Custom [Scripts Library](/libraries/scripts)! ## January 2026 * Color Designer + Color Matrix ## October 2025 * New Tool: Key Cleaner * New Tool: Copy Comp ## Past... * New Tool: [Re-Key](/ae-extension/tools/re-key-new) * Save keyframe presets to apply any time to new layers * New Tool: [Key Assist](/ae-extension/tools/key-assist-new) * New Tool: [Grids](/ae-extension/tools/grids-new) * Overlay modern grids on your AE Compositions * New Tool: [Trim Comp to Layers](/ae-extension/tools/crop-to-layer-new) * Resize your composition to the size of your selected layer(s) * New Extension: Motion Mini * Organize and run your favorite tools, palettes, and easings with one click, from a minified UI. One of our most-requested features. See [Motion Mini](/motion-mini) for more. * New Extension: Motion Video for Premiere Pro * Dedicated extension in Adobe Premiere including Switchboard, Grids, Sort, and Easing. See [here](/premiere-pro-extension/easing) for more. * New Extension: Motion Color extension in Adobe Illustrator * [Advanced Easing](/davinci-resolve-easings) in DaVinci Resolve * Explodable Panels * Highly requested feature that allows you to split your Motion extension into multiple separate panels including the Main extension, Color, Easing, Focus, and Motion Mini. * Image to Color Palette * Generate color palettes from images with the new “Create Palette from File” button. Drop an image to the window, and Motion Studio will generate a range of color palettes. * Vector Library * We’ve added a huge new vector library, giving you access to over 24,000 high-quality vector assets. You can drag them straight into your projects or export them for use in any design software. * Native AE Commands * Add native After Effects commands to your Motion Mini to run with a single click * Stagger keyframes within layer groups * Stagger now offers the ability to stagger keyframes between groups in the same layer. * Sort Subfolder support * The Sort tool can now create subfolders. Simply specify your folder structure in the format `root/subFolder1/subfolder2/...` * Bulk-Edit Composition * On the Composition screen, you can now select multiple Comps, and bulk-edit their dimensions, FPS, and duration * Access to [Futures Lab](https://futures.mtmograph.com/) - Our community roadmap and requests board where you can submit and vote on what we work on next! A large number of requests from Futures Lab have already been included in our initial release of Motion Studio, with more in the works. # Extensions Page The Extensions page showcases the numerous Adobe extensions that can be installed within Motion Studio. Motion Studio comes packaged with 5 After Effects panels, and 1 Illustrator panel. Each panel can be individually installed, but as a group will always be contained in a *single* folder in your Adobe extensions path.

Clicking "Install All" will download and install the extensions to your machine. You can also pick-and-choose the extension panels you'd like to see in your applications ### Prerequisites For the installer to run, you must have Adobe Creative Cloud installed and running. We utilize the [Unified Plugin Installer Agent](https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/working-from-the-command-line.html) that is packaged with CC. It should exist at the following paths: *macOS:* `/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Desktop Common/RemoteComponents/UPI/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent` *Windows:* `C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe Desktop Common\RemoteComponents\UPI\UnifiedPluginInstallerAgent`

Once installed, the extensions will show up in After Effects or Illustrator under *Window -> Extensions.* ### Updates Any extension updates will be pushed to your Motion Studio application, and can be immediately installed. You will also get notified in your extension panels if an update is available.

# Libraries The Library page centralizes all of your Easing Libraries and Color Palettes. {% content-ref url="/pages/rOZuxoIxtg7qo4d5SKya" %} [Color](/libraries/color) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/0VkVb98D3Z1Q8Cb3pKd2" %} [Easings](/libraries/easings) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/IC4zutj1sRrT9XXHEIEG" %} [Re-Keys](/libraries/re-keys) {% endcontent-ref %} # Color ## Library The Color library is where you build, organize, and refine color palettes for Motion Studio and your Adobe extension panels. Every change you make here syncs immediately to the After Effects and Illustrator color panels, so the palette you edit on the desktop is the same one you use inside Adobe. The library page lists all of your palettes as previewable swatch tiles. You can drag tiles to reorder them, group them into folders, rename a palette by clicking its title, and use the search bar to filter by name. Selecting one or more palettes (Cmd/Ctrl-click to multi-select, Shift-click for ranges) gives you access to export, delete, and "Create Mini" actions in the footer and right-click menu.

Your color palettes can be used in the Motion Studio base panel, and color panels in AE and ILST. All changes will be immediately reflected in your open Adobe extension panels:

Double-click a palette to open the Palette Editor, which has two views: **Designer** and **Matrix,** toggled from the page header. *** ## Creating a palette There are three ways to create a new color palette: 1. New empty palette — use the "+" button in the library footer. You get a blank palette with no colors. Add new colors from the Designer view. 2. Create from image — drop a PNG or JPG (or click to pick a file) onto the Create Palette from Image modal. Motion Studio extracts the colors from the image. The Color Variation slider controls how tightly colors are grouped: drag toward the right for fewer, more distinct hues; drag left for more granular variations. 3. Import — see [#importing-palettes](#importing-palettes "mention") below. Once created, click the palette name to rename it. Right-click any palette tile for the context menu (export, delete, duplicate, create mini, move to folder, etc.). *** ## Designer The Designer is the default editor view. It's split into three regions: * The color wheel with the harmony selector * The color picker / sliders for the selected color(s) * The swatch grid of every color in the palette

### Color wheel The wheel shows every color in the palette as a draggable cursor. The position is based on the color's hue (angle around the wheel) and saturation (distance from the center). Brightness is shown as a dark overlay across the whole wheel. When you select a color, the overlay updates to that color's brightness. * Drag a cursor to move that color around the wheel. * Hold Shift while dragging to lock the hue. * Hold Cmd/Ctrl while dragging to lock the saturation. * Click an empty spot on the wheel with a single color selected to snap it to that hue/saturation. * Locked colors show a dimmed cursor and cannot be dragged. Dragging behaves differently depending on the active harmony — see the next section. ### Harmony types The Harmony Type dropdown above the wheel constrains how colors relate to each other. When you drag one cursor, the others move with it according to the rules of the active harmony:

Harmony	Behavior
Monochromatic	All colors share the same hue. Dragging a swatch varies the hue together. Saturation differences are preserved with a "mirror". When saturation hits the edge of the wheel it bounces back rather than clamping, so the other cursors keep their visual relationship.
Analogous	Colors are spaced within a 60° arc on the wheel. Hue offsets between cursors are preserved as you drag.
Complementary	Two opposing hues 180° apart, with saturation variations on each side.
Split Complementary	Three hues: the base, plus the two colors 150°/210° from it.
Triadic	Three hues evenly spaced 120° apart.
Tetradic	Four hues evenly spaced 90° apart (two complementary pairs).
Custom	No constraint — each color is independent. Dragging only moves the one you grab.

Switching from Custom to any constrained harmony will regenerate the unlocked colors in the palette to fit the new rule. Lock colors you want to preserve before switching (lock toggle is on each swatch tile). When you press **Add Color**, the new swatch is generated to fit whatever harmony is active — it inherits brightness from the existing palette so it sits visually with the others. ### Color picker and sliders Below the wheel is the picker for the selected color(s): * With one color selected, edits apply to just that color. * With multiple selected, the picker shows "Apply to N colors" and edits are applied to all selected at once. * With none selected, "Apply to all colors" — the picker edits every unlocked color in the palette. Use the mode dropdown at the top of the picker to switch between color spaces: * Wheel - Hex input + 2D HSL picker. Single-color only. Type a hex value or click/drag the gradient. * RGB * HSL * HSB * CMYK * LAB Each slider can be typed into directly, dragged, or scrolled. Conversion between modes is non-destructive — switching from RGB to LAB and back gives you the same color. The picker color mode is persisted per session, so the editor remembers which space you prefer. ### Swatch Actions Each color in the palette has a tile showing the color, its name, and four actions on hover: * Rename: Click on the title to rename the swatch. The default name is the HEX value, but this can be renamed to anything ("Light Blue", "Scene 02 - Grass", etc.) * Edit: opens the per-color picker as a popover. * Select: toggles selection. Selected colors get a checkmark; the wheel cursor gets a highlighted ring. * Lock: locks the color so harmony regeneration and bulk edits skip it. Shift-click the lock to lock or unlock a range up to the previous color with the same lock state. * Delete: removes the color. #### Other Actions: * Drag tiles to reorder them in the palette. * Click a tile to toggle its selection (single-select). * Cmd/Ctrl-click to multi-select. * Shift-click to select through a range. * Press 1–9 to select the color at that position. * Press Cmd/Ctrl + 1–9 to toggle lock on the color at that position. ### Saving The Designer holds local pending edits until you press Cmd/Ctrl+S or click Save. *** ## Matrix The Matrix view evaluates every pair of colors in the palette for WCAG contrast compliance. This is useful for designing accessible UI, captions, lower-thirds, or any motion graphic that has to be legible. Every color in the palette is both a row header (foreground) and a column header (background). Each cell shows what the row color looks like sitting on top of the column color, along with the contrast ratio and pass/fail status.

### Content type The content type dropdown (top right of the Matrix) sets which WCAG thresholds are applied. The same color pair can pass at one size and fail at another, because the standard demands more contrast for small text: | Content type | AA threshold | AAA threshold | | ------------ | ------------ | -------------------- | | Body Text | 4.5 : 1 | 7 : 1 | | Large Text | 3 : 1 | 4.5 : 1 | | Graphics | 3 : 1 | 3 : 1 (capped at AA) | ### Reading a cell Each cell shows: * The color pair — the cell is filled with the column color (background) and renders the row color as the foreground sample. * The contrast ratio (top-left badge) — e.g. 4.7 means 4.7:1. * The grade (top-right badge) — AAA, AA, or a fail icon. * A blue ring highlights any header whose color is currently selected. Click the foreground sample to select the row color; click the cell background to select the column color. Right-click any cell to open the same per-color context menu as the Designer. ### Filters Three filters (Fail / AA / AAA) toggle which cells stay at full opacity. Disabled grades fade into the background. With nothing toggled, all three are treated as active. ### Visible Matrix Colors Not every color in a palette is one you'd use for foreground/background. Right-click a color tile (in the Designer) and toggle Include in Matrix to keep it out of the matrix grid without deleting it. Excluded colors still appear in the Designer; they just don't form rows or columns in the Matrix. You can also toggle Matrix Colors in the info panel on the right. *** ## Importing palettes Use Import Palette (footer button on the library page) and drop or pick a file. Two formats are supported: ### JSON Palettes exported from Motion Studio are saved as .json with the palette name as the filename (e.g. brights.json). They import directly with no further options — colors, names, and the harmony method are all preserved. ### ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) ASE files are Adobe's interchange format and are most often used by Illustrator, Photoshop, or third-party palette tools. Dropping a .ase file opens the Import ASE Palette modal, which asks for two things: * **CMYK Profile** — many ASE palettes store colors in CMYK. Converting them to screen RGB requires an ICC profile to know which press conditions the original colors targeted. The dropdown lists every CMYK ICC profile installed on your system. The default is USWebCoatedSWOP (the standard for North American magazine print). * **Rendering Intent** — how colors are mapped during conversion: * Relative Colorimetric (w/ BPC) — default; preserves in-gamut colors exactly and uses Black Point Compensation to remap the darks. Best for most logos and brand palettes. * Perceptual — preserves the visual relationship between colors at the cost of exactness. Best for photographic or gradient-heavy palettes. * Saturation — keeps colors vivid; sacrifices accuracy for punch. Good for charts and infographics. * Absolute Colorimetric — exact in-gamut mapping with no white-point adjustment. Used for proofing. ASE files with only RGB values skip this modal and import directly. *** ## Exporting With one or more palettes selected, choose Export (footer or right-click menu) to open the export modal. Two formats: * JSON — Motion Studio's native format. Round-trip safe (re-importing reproduces the palette exactly, including harmony and lock states). * ASE — for handing off to Illustrator/Photoshop users or other DCC tools. Multi-selecting palettes and exporting writes one file per palette to the folder you choose. *** ## Info panel Open the Info panel from the header to see detailed info about the current selection on the right side of the screen: * With a palette selected: Name, a swatch list, and any notes you've added to the palette. * With a single color selected: the HEX, RGBA, CMYK, and HSL — click any value to copy it to the clipboard. You can also delete colors and copy/paste them between palettes from the Info panel. *** ## Folders Drag a palette onto another palette's folder, or use New Folder to organize. Folders nest, can be color-coded, and can be given an icon from the vector library. *** ## Create Mini Right-click a palette and choose Create Mini to create up a Motion Mini panel from its colors. See [Motion Mini](/motion-mini) for more info. # Easings

Your easing libraries can be used in the Motion Studio base panel, and easing panel in AE. The list of palettes can be re-ordered by dragging the blocks. All changes will be immediately reflected in your open Adobe extension panels:

With an easing library selected, you have a number of options:

1. **Export Easing Library** * This opens a save dialog where you can export your library in json format. The file will be named with the name of the palette - e.g. *client\_easings.json* 2. **Import** Easing Libraries * Easing libraries exported from Motion Studio can then also be imported. This is useful for sharing across workstations and between colleagues and clients. * Currently, easing libraries can be imported into Motion Studio, or the extension panels. 3. Delete Easing Library * Deletes library from Motion Studio, and all extensions 4. Info Panel * When the info panel is opened on the right side of the screen, it will show more detailed information on the selected library. When individual easings are selected, you get the following information: * Name - a custom name to easily identify the easing. This will also show up as a tooltip when a pinned easing is hovered in your panel:

* Cubic Bezier - Easing values in cubic bezier format * Influence Out - The influence value applied exiting a keyframe * Influence In - The influence value applied entering a keyframe * Individual easings can also be deleted, as well as copied and pasted between libraries.

5. Create Mini * Clicking on the context menu for an easing library also allows you to create a Mini from the library. See [Motion Mini](/motion-mini)for more details # Re-Keys Your Re-Key Library houses all of your re-keys, organized into folders

Each Re-Key can be further customized with an Icon, Color, Name, and Notes, as well as duplicated, exported, or added to folders for organization. # Scripts March 2026 Create and execute custom After Effects scripts in one click, from the new Scripts Library in Motion Studio. ## Scripts Library This page stores all your created scripts:

Start by creating a script from the footer actions. This brings you to the Scripts Edit Page, which provides a built-in editor to write your script. For assistance with After Effects' scripting language and functions, open the "Snippets" window, where you can search, copy, and/or inject snippets straight into the editor. You can also cmd/ctrl+z to undo actions taken on this page.

Rename and add notes to your script in the side-panel, to keep track of its purpose. Once finished, you can "Return to Scripts" to see the new script in the Library. There are a number of actions you can perform on a new Script: * Export Script, so you can share it with colleagues or transfer it to a new machine * Duplicate - duplicates a script so you can iterate on it without losing the original version * Add to Mini - shows a list of all your Minis that you can add the script to, for execution within AE. We also show the current active mini (below, "Mini 1"), for ease of reference. * Delete Script

Once a script is created and added to a Mini, it will show up as a "Linked Mini" in the side panel. A script can be added to multiple Minis.

Here, you can "Unlink" the Mini, removing the script from the Mini. You can also click on the name of the Mini to navigate to the Mini itself and change how the Script shows up in the Mini panel:

You can change the name, icon, and color of the Script inside the Mini. By default, the Script is "Linked" to the Scripts page. Meaning - any changes you make to the script inside the Mini will be made on the Scripts page as well. Clicking the "edit" button will enable you to edit the script from the Scripts page. If you want to completely unlink the script from the Scripts Library, you can click the "unlink" button. This makes the Script a separate entity that can be edited directly within the Mini:

Editing an Unlinked Script within a Mini

Once in an Active Mini, your script will show up in the Mini panel in AE, where you can one-click execute the script.

#### Important Notes * Changes made to Scripts are *immediately synced* to your Mini, so you can edit and test quickly * Any errors caused by your script will be propagated to the UI * Scripts are automatically wrapped in an "Undo Group", which allows you to undo the action of the script in AE. You can also add your own Undo Group in the Script, in which case it will override our default Undo Group. * We provide an initial script called **animationCompare,** that gives an example of how one could write a script # Vector The Vectors library is Motion Studio's searchable icon and shape catalog. Every vector lives in a pack, and can be dragged straight into After Effects or Illustrator, exported as a file, or attached to other Motion Studio assets (folders, Re-Keys, palettes) as their identifying icon.

{% hint style="warning" %} *If you see "No Vectors! Please install or update your Motion Studio extension."* The Adobe extension hasn't been installed yet. The vector library ships with the extension package. {% endhint %} ## Browsing ### Packs The Packs section in the side panel lists every installed vector pack with its item count. *All Packs* is the default and shows everything you have. Click a pack name to filter the grid to just that pack. The count next to each pack reflects the current search query. Type a term in the search bar and the counts update to show how many vectors in each pack match ### Collections Above the Packs list are two collection tabs that draw from across every pack: * Favorites — vectors you've starred. Click the star icon (or right-click → Favorite) on any vector to add it. Favorited vectors get a small filled star in the top-right of their tile. Click again (or Unfavorite from the right-click menu) to remove. * History — vectors you've recently used. Anything dragged into an Adobe panel, exported, or attached as an icon shows up here, newest first. Right-click → Remove from History to clear individual entries. ### Searching The global search bar at the top of the app applies across packs. Searches are matched against vector names, tags, and pack metadata via the in-memory VectorSearchIndex. Clear the search bar to return to the full grid. ### Selecting * Click a tile to select it. * Cmd/Ctrl-click to toggle additional tiles into the selection. * Shift-click to extend the selection through a range. \ The selected vectors are reflected in the right-side Info panel (when open) and become the targets for footer actions and keyboard shortcuts. ### Right-click actions Right-clicking any vector tile opens its context menu: * Info — opens the Info panel pinned to this vector * Favorite / Unfavorite — toggles the favorite star * Remove from History — appears when the vector is currently in your History * Export — opens the Export Vector modal (see below) ### Dragging into Adobe The fastest way to use a vector is to drag the tile directly out of Motion Studio and drop it into your After Effects or Illustrator document. The drag uses your saved export settings to render the file on the fly — so an SVG drag drops in a vector layer, while a PNG drag drops in a rasterized one at the dimensions you've configured. The default drag folder is your system temp directory, but you can point it at a project folder, Dropbox share, or anywhere else. See [#export-settings](#export-settings "mention"). ### Export To save a vector to a specific location with one-off settings, right-click → Export (or use the footer button). The Export modal opens with the active vector preview and a format tab bar at the top. ### Formats Motion Studio exports vectors in four formats: SVG, PNG, JPG, HTML ### Export settings The Export Options modal sets the defaults used by: \- The Export modal's initial values \- All drag-to-Adobe operations Options: * Filetype — SVG / PNG / JPG / HTML. This is the format used when you drag a tile into an Adobe panel. The Vectors page header has a quick-access dropdown for this same setting so you can switch formats without opening the modal. * Width / Height — default raster dimensions (100–10000 px each). * Background Color — default background for rasters. Click the striped tile for transparent. * Vector Drag Folder — the destination for temp files written during drag. Pick a directory the Adobe app and your OS can both reach; the default is the system temp folder. ## Using vectors elsewhere in Motion Studio Vectors aren't just for export. They're also used as icons across Motion Studio: * Folder icons in any library (Color, Scripts, Easings, Re-Keys, Vectors, Sketchpads, Minis) — open a folder's info panel and pick a vector for its icon. * Re-Key icons — pick an SVG to represent a recorded key sequence. * Mini palette icons — Minis use vectors on their tile. # Motion Mini Motion Mini brings a brand new workflow to your suite of Motion tools. Customize your most-used tools in a compact extension panel. Manage presets, names, icon colors, and more from the Motion Studio application.

### Mini Library Here, view all of your created Minis in a grid layout. On first install, we provide you with a list of default minis you may find useful. You can use them as-is, modify them, or remove them.

### Set as Active Mini The "Active Mini" is the mini that will show up in the "Motion Mini" After Effects panel. You can set the active mini at any time by clicking on the desired mini, and using the "Set as Active Mini" button in the header. Your active mini will also be shown in the "Active" library tab on the left-hand side. ### Export Mini This opens a save dialog where you can export your Mini. The file will be named with the name of the mini. ### Import Mini Minis exported from Motion Studio can then also be imported. This is useful for sharing across workstations and between colleagues with Motion Studio. Imported minis will show in the "Imported" library tab on the left-hand side. ### Create Mini Clicking "Create Mini" will create an empty Mini and bring you to the Mini Builder page:

* The title can be changed by clicking the title in the main window, or in the sidebar. * Clicking the

icon or the "Add Tool +" button, will bring up the Tools modal. From here, click any of the tools to add them to your Mini. You can remove any of these tools by hovering the mouse over the tool in the Mini bar, and clicking the trash icon. * In addition to tools, you can also add individual easings, palettes, and custom color swatches

* Once you have tools in your Mini, the tool parameters will be displayed beneath the Mini bar. This is where you can set the default parameters for each tool, that will be applied when the tool is clicked in the Mini Extension panel.

* The Mini icons in the top bar, as well as the Mini Parameter blocks can all be dragged to re-order the mini tools. * The sidebar enables you to change the color of the icon for each of your tools:

* You can also change the display name of each of the tools, making it easier to keep track of the parameters you selected, or distinguish between different versions of the same tool.

Any and all changes to your mini will be immediately reflected in your After Effects extension:

# DaVinci Resolve Easings The Resolve Easings page is a brand new integration that gives you more control over easings in DaVinci Resolve. {% hint style="info" %} This feature will only work with DaVinci Resolve Studio, on the Fusion page. {% endhint %}

### Get Keyframes With DaVinci Resolve Studio open to the Fusion page, you can poll the keyframeable properties from your selected Nodes. Each time you select a new node or change the values in Resolve, you'll need to click "Get Keyframes" to update Motion Studio. Alternatively, you can turn on keyframe polling in Motion Studio to continuously poll Resolve for keyframe data at an interval between 1-10 seconds. {% hint style="info" %} Keyframe polling is a new feature, and with complex compositions may introduce some lag if the interval is low (\~1s). If you notice a slowdown with polling turned on, try increasing the interval, and let us know about it! {% endhint %}

### Graph View The Easing page gives you a full-screen graph to maximize your interactions with the bezier curves. ### Keyframed Properties * On the left is a mini-graph of all keyframed properties on your selected Node. The colors of the graphs will match the colors of the curves in resolve. Hovering over the mini-graphs will expand the list and show the names of each of the properties. Clicking on each of the graphs will show only that curve in the graph editor. You can also `ctrl/cmd + click` the graphs to select multiple simultaneously.

The graph itself will default to having all of the properties selected. To drill down on a single property, click one of the expanded mini-graphs.

When only a single property is selected, the bezier handles for each of the keyframes will be shown. These are draggable, and changes to the bezier handles will be immediately reflected in DaVinci Resolve. ### Selecting Keyframes Keyframes can be selected by clicking on the keyframe squares in the graph, or clicking and dragging a marquee the graph to create a marquee over the desired keys. With 2+ keys selected, you will see an influence slider appear in the lower-left section of the graph.

You can change the influence values of the selected keys using this slider. Clicking and dragging the 'center' circle of the slider will mirror the changes to both influence-in and influence-out. #### Copy/Paste From the influence slider, you can also copy the influence values, and paste them on other keyframes. ## Easing Library This easing page also seamlessly integrates your Motion easing libraries for use with Resolve. Your active easing library will be displayed in the bottom-right corner of the graph (or in the sidebar if the side panel is open). With two or more easing libraries in your collection, you can click the edit icon to select your active easing library. You can also minimize the easing library to clean up your graph view. ### Applying Easings With 2+ keyframes selected (irrespective of the number of active curves), you can apply any easing from your easing library by double-clicking the easing. The easings in the library apply to the curve between two keyframes. So, if you have more than 2 keyframes selected, the easing curve will be applied to each set of keyframes in the selection.

When the Side Panel is open, the easing library will be displayed there instead. There are a number of additional features here:

1. Easing Library * Your active easing library will be displayed at the top ("Default Easings", above) * With a selected easing curve, more details will be displayed directly underneath the library. The Name, as well as values for cubic bezier, influence in, and influence out will be displayed. The name can be changed here as well, by double clicking the value. * Clicking twice on an easing will also apply it to the selected keyframes in the graph * Clicking the trash icon will delete the selected easing from your library 2. Graph Easing * With 2+ keyframes selected in the graph, the easing values for those keys will be displayed under the "Graph Easing" section in the info panel. * You have the option to add this easing curve to the active library by clicking the "+ Add to Library" button. An image representation of the curve will be added. You can then change the name to more-easily identify the ease curve. ## Graph Interactions There are a number of graph interactions and shortcuts worth noting: 1. **`ctrl/cmd + drag` bezier handles -** This action will mirror the bezier handle at a specific key, making for smoother transitions at keyframes. Specifically, the influence value will be mirrored, and the speed in/out at that keyframe will be normalized and mirrored.

2. **`Shift + drag` bezier handles** - This action will lock the speed at a particular keyframe to zero, allowing you to just change the influence values. This is great if you are not looking for any overshoot. It mimics the action of the influence sliders.

{% hint style="info" %} These actions can also be combined, i.e. **`ctrl/cmd + shift + drag`** {% endhint %} 3. **Hold `D` For Dive Counters** * Holding the `D` key will display keyframe times and values, as well as times and values for bezier extrema (overshoot max and min) * This only works when there is a *single* active graph in the graph view (to not clutter the graph)

4. **`C + Click` to grab CTI** * On this page you can also interact with the Resolve CTI. It is represented as a red line with triangle marker on top. The Triangle marker is draggable, and dragging the CTI will directly update the CTI in Resolve as well. * By holding `C`and clicking anywhere on the graph, it will "grab" the CTI to that point. This is useful if the CTI is off-screen and not visible. 5. **`Spacebar` to play / pause** * Along with modifying the CTI, you can press the `Spacebar` to play and pause the current active composition. This is useful for previewing your bezier curves. {% hint style="info" %} Coming soon is a "Work Area" concept, that will loop your animation between keys or a custom timeframe, to preview your easings. {% endhint %} You can always view the shortcuts by clicking the shortcut icon in the header:

## Graph Zoom In the top-right corner of the graph are some zooming functions:

The + / - will zoom the graph in and out The expansion icon below that is **Keyframe Zoom**. This icon becomes active when there are 2 or more keyframes from the same curve selected. This can be very useful when a particular tool has many keyframes, making the graph scale hard to read. Clicking Keyframe Zoom will zoom the graph to the selected keyframes (example below).

Once zoomed, you can still zoom in and out to center your curve. You can also use the `L` and `R` buttons on top of the graph to navigate to the previous or next set of keyframes, respectively. {% hint style="info" %} Keyframe zoom, L, and R, also work with more than two keys selected, simply centering the graph on the selected keys. {% endhint %} ## Easing Toolbar (v1.2.5) The right-side toolbar contains every timing operation. Most operations work on the currently selected keyframes — select keys in the graph first, then click the tool. Operations that need a specific number of keyframes will surface a tooltip if your selection isn't valid. {% hint style="warning" %} Keyframe operations do not work with Resolve's Undo Groups. So, we added built-in Undo functionality in Motion Studio. At any time, you can undo keyframe operations with the shortcut cmd/ctrl-z, in Motion Studio. **Redo** with cmd/ctrl + shift + z {% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %} All keyframe operations work with selected keyframes *in Motion Studio*. Click and drag your marquee to select keys in the graph. These tools do not work with keyframe selections in Resolve. {% endhint %} ### Offset Shifts selected keyframes forward or backward in time by a fixed number of frames. Use the right/left arrows to nudge in either direction. If an offset would push a selected key over a stationary one, the operation is blocked with a warning rather than silently overwriting the existing keyframe. ### Stagger Adds an incremental time delay to each successive selected keyframe. With a stagger value of 4 frames and three selected keys, the first stays in place, the second moves +4 frames, and the third moves +8. Stagger is the fastest way to create cascading motion across a selection — useful when several properties or layers should animate one after another rather than simultaneously. Negative values stagger in the reverse direction. Like Offset, Stagger won't overlap keys it isn't moving. ### Scale Stretches or compresses the time between selected keyframes by a percentage, anchored to a pivot point. Choose the pivot from the dropdown: * From first — the earliest selected key stays put; later keys move * From last — the latest selected key stays put; earlier keys move * From CTI — distances are scaled relative to the current time indicator Use values above 100% to slow animations down and below 100% to speed them up. Scale is also blocked from overlapping unselected keys. ### Distribute Spaces three or more selected keyframes evenly between the first and last selected keys. Useful for cleaning up a sequence where the spacing has drifted, or for converting hand-placed keys into a standard interval. ### Reverse Flips the time order of two or more selected keyframes around the midpoint of the selection. The values reverse but the keys stay within the same time range — handy for quickly reusing animation forward and backward. This will also flip the bezier curve. ### Excite Generate overshoot and decaying oscillation between two or more selected keyframes. The amplitude is a percentage of the value change between the first and last selected keys, and decay\ controls how quickly the wobble dies out. Apply Excite to a property that already animates between two values to add overshoot, without redrawing the curve by hand.

### Jump Generates a bouncing motion between two or more selected keyframes, simulating gravity and elasticity. Height controls how far the first bounce overshoots, and elasticity controls how much energy is preserved between bounces. Higher elasticity yields more, smaller bounces; lower elasticity dampens quickly. Like Excite, Jump computes its size from the value change between the first and last selected keys, so it scales naturally to whatever property you apply it to. ### Delete Removes the selected keyframes from their curves. The trash icon at the bottom of the toolbar turns red when one or more keyframes are selected. ### Undo Keyframe operations do not work with Resolve's Undo Groups. So, we added built-in Undo functionality in Motion Studio. At any time, you can undo keyframe operations with the shortcut cmd/ctrl-z, in Motion Studio. **Redo** with cmd/ctrl + shift + z.

#### Blog Post Check out our latest post: [Easing Curves in DaVinci Resolve Fusion](https://mtmograph.com/blogs/tools/easing-curves-in-davinci-resolve-fusion-a-motion-designers-guide) # Sketchpad Sketch assets instantly available as a PNG Sequence, GIF, or MP4

## Sketchpad Library Find Sketchpad under Workflow -> Library in your navigation panel. The Library shows all of your created Sketches. Motion Studio ships with a few example sketches as well:

## Sketchpad Editor Clicking "Create Sketch" will bring you to the editor. Here, you can specify a number of canvas and drawing options, and record a sketch. #### Info Panel * Canvas Size: Includes a number of presets, or custom size * Background: Draw on a transparent, white, black, or custom background * FPS: The fps that the sketch is exported as #### Brush Overlay * Brush Size: size in px of your drawing brush * Brush Color * Decay: Fade out your brush stroke, with a slider denoting time-to-fade #### Canvas Zoom * Select zoom level from a number of presets, or cmd/ctrl + scroll to zoom the canvas directly. * Fit to Screen: Resets the zoom level and centers the canvas #### Shortcuts * X: Clears the canvas * Cmd/Ctrl + Scroll: Zooms the canvas * Hold Spacebar: Pan the canvas * R: Starts or stops recording of the canvas #### Creating a Sketch Once you selected your brush and canvas settings, you can start a recording. When recording, draw your sketch on the canvas, and when complete, stop recording. You'll be brought to a preview of the sketch asset. From here you can scrub the asset, discard, or save. Once saved, you'll see the asset in your Sketchpad Library ## Exporting Sketches You can export a sketch by right-clicking on the sketch, and choosing "Export". You'll have the option of a PNG Sequence, GIF, or MP4, as well as the directory you'd like to save it to. You can also quick-export a PNG Sequence by dragging the icon under the sketch. You can drag straight to After Effects, or a program of your choosing.

# Tools # Align (New!) Snap layers to composition or selection edges, centers, and (for 3D layers) depth. {% hint style="info" %} Click the save icon at any time to save your current parameters as the new defaults. {% endhint %}

## Composition * Aligns each layer to the edges and center of the composition. **Group Option** * Treat the selection as a single block. The whole group is moved together to the chosen edge or center, preserving relative positions between layers. ## Selection * Aligns each layer to the combined bounds of the current selection. **To First Option** * Lock the first selected layer in place and align all other selected layers to it. ## Depth (3D) When at least one selected layer is 3D and **Selection** mode is active, the alignment grid switches to a cube with depth controls along the Z axis. **Front** * Align layers to the frontmost edge of the selection. **Center** * Align layers to the Z-center of the selection. **Back** * Align layers to the backmost edge of the selection. **Z = 0** * Snap layers to the composition's Z = 0 plane. # Arrange (New!) Arrange layers in a grid pattern {% hint style="info" %} Click the save icon at any time to save your current parameters as the new defaults. {% endhint %}

Select two or more layers, configure your grid, and click Apply — or enable Auto (lock icon) to re-run Arrange every time a parameter changes. ## Direction * Horizontal: Layers fill rows left-to-right, then wrap to the next row. * Vertical: Layers fill columns top-to-bottom, then wrap to the next column. ## Layout * Count: Specify a fixed number of items per row/column. * Fit to Comp: Auto-fit as many items per line as the composition width or height allows. * Custom Size: Auto-fit as many items per line as a custom pixel size allows. ## Items per Row / Items per Column * Number of items per line. Only used when Layout is set to Count. ## Custom Size * Pixel size used to fit items per line. Only used when Layout is set to Custom Size. ## Gap * Pixel gap between items in the grid. ## Bounds * Cell: Each grid cell is sized to the *largest layer* in the selection. Layers are centered inside their cell — useful when items have different sizes but should sit on a uniform grid. * Layer: Each layer occupies only its own size, end-to-end with the gap between them. ## Auto * Re-run Arrange whenever a parameter changes, so you can dial in spacing visually. # Distribute (New!) Distribute layers evenly {% hint style="info" %} Click the save icon at any time to save your current parameters as the new defaults. {% endhint %}

Select three or more layers (Auto) or two or more layers (Manual), then click the horizontal or vertical distribute target to evenly space them. ## Type * Auto: Distributes layers evenly between the first and last layer in the selection. Requires three or more layers. * Manual: Spaces layers using a fixed pixel gap between each layer's bounds. ## Spacing * The pixel gap between layers when Type is set to Manual. # Re-Key (New!) Create and save keyframe presets to apply across projects. ## Description Create and save keyframe presets to apply across projects. Take any layer with keyframed **properties**, **Layer Styles**, and/or **Effects**, and save them to a custom "Re-Key". This Re-Key can then be applied to any other layer in any composition or project. It can also be exported to be shared with colleagues. ## Usage Once open, you'll see that Motion Studio comes with 6 Re-Key presets to demonstrate functionality. Feel free to use, or delete, these presets.

## Creating Re-Keys To create a Re-Key, click the "Create button". This opens a modal dialog that polls your selected keyframes. If you re-select different keyframes you can click the "Refresh" button. The selected Keyframes will be shown in the preview:

You can input a custom name for this Re-Key, and Save to your library. Motion Studio will auto-pick a custom Icon for your re-key as well. With the New Re-Key selected, you have the option to **Apply** or **Apply Initial**. * **Apply**: Applies the saved keyframes to a new layer or layers. All of the keyframe values, easings, colors, styles etc., will be passed on. Notably, Apply will copy the keyframe values exactly as they were when they were saved. * **Apply Initial**: This mode applies the Re-Key taking in to account the initial property values of the new layer. For example, if you have a Re-Key that rotates 90 degrees (0 -> 90), and use "Apply Initial" on a layer that is already rotated 90 degrees, then it will apply the rotation starting at 90 degrees, and the new layer will rotate from 90 to 180 degrees.

## Customizing Re-Keys Customization of Re-Keys can be done easily in the Motion Studio Application, by clicking the Edit icon in the top-right corner.

For now, you have the option to give your Re-Keys custom names, colors, and icons. Click on a Re-Key and open the side panel to customize:

Re-Keys are also draggable, and can be rearranged. ## Adding to Mini Re-Keys can be added to a Mini by right-clicking the Re-Key and choosing which Mini panel to add it to. Once added, you can choose to apply this Re-Key as Relative or not. You can also assign a modifier key (e.g. cmd+click) to Apply Relative.

Once in your Mini, you can one-click apply your Re-Key to any selected layer!

## Carousel Example Let's walk through how we would create and apply a "Carousel" Re-Key. #### 1. Animate your Carousel We'll add some position and scale keyframes to create a carousel effect for some text

#### 2. Save Your Re-Key Open Re-Key with your keyframes selected, and save as "Carousel"

#### 3. Set up a new project We're setting up a new project to apply the Re-Key in. Here, we'll have an animation that cycles between three different text blocks in the same carousel pattern:

#### 4. Apply Carousel For each layer, apply the carousel Re-Key. Once applied, we can also use "Trim to Keys" to trim the layers to the in and out keyframes. Then we can use the Stagger tool to apply a short overlap between each layer:

Stagger our Re-Keyed layers with 14f overlap

#### 5. Final Content

# Key Assist (New!) Auto-set bulk keyframes. # Grids (New!) Create composition grid layer(s). ## Description Overlay modern photography-style grid layouts on your AE composition. Add and combine rules like Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, or V Arrangement and find balance while animating.

## Usage Open the "Grids" tool, and select the grid you'd like to add. You can multi-select by cmd/ctrl clicking the grids. Then, click Run Grids and the grid will be overlayed on your composition. Select grids have options to flip or change the column count Click or drag the opacity, color, and stroke width boxes to live-change the grid appearance To remove all grids on your composition, click "Remove Grids" # Crop to Layer (New!) Resize composition to selected layer(s). ## Description Resize composition to layer size ## Usage Select one or more layers, and run "Crop to Layer". The composition will resize to fit the bounds of the selected layers. # Anchor Adjust selected layer anchor point(s). ## Description Anchor is a quick utility tool to reposition a layer's anchor point without affecting its visual position in the composition. This tool is essential for setting up proper rotation and scaling pivot points. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you'd like to adjust the anchor point for 2. Run the Anchor tool and choose your desired anchor point position ## Options **Center**\ Centers the anchor point to the layer's center **Average**\ Positions the anchor point at the average center of all selected layers **To First**\ Positions the anchor point at the first layer of all selected layers **To Last**\ Positions the anchor point at the last layer of all selected layers **Rotation Lock**\ Maintains the layer's current rotation when repositioning the anchor point **Include Masks**\ Considers mask paths when calculating anchor point position {% hint style="info" %} Add to your Motion Mini for quick access! {% endhint %} # Animo Merge and unify keyframes together. ## **Description** **Animo** is a great tool to use when trying to edit a set of keyframes easily. Animo will merge any selected keyframes into one unified keyframe set that is built onto an Animo Controller. This Animo Controller is helpful because it binds properties with multiple parameter pairs into one easy-to-work with ease curve. Additionally, this Animo curve converts an animation into a percentage (0-100%) so, the Animo Controller can be used to reverse, or stutter through an animation. When paired with Delay or, other time-based tools can cause animations to look different when reversed etc. ## Setup 1. Select any animated properties with 2+ keyframes. 2. With the keyframes selected, click Animo 3. on the Animo options screen, add a Controller name and select if you'd like to Shy the selected layers (*which can be helpful, if you plan to work with the Animo Controller curve*) or, if you'd like to add a Keyframe to the Animo curve at the current CTI (*helpful if you use the shortcut 's' to Show Animated Properties in After Effects*) 4. click the Animo button again to create the Controller. ## Effect Control The Animo system is controlled through a single Effect Control; although multiple Animo controllers can be placed on a single Layer. On the general level, you can Enable or Disable the Animo effect (which is helpful if you want to preview the original animation, or change keyframe values) and change the Animo playback percentage. ### Spectre **Spectre** might be the most interesting tool in Motion (so far). This layer creates a "ghost" that can overlap other Layers and the overlap percentage is converted to animation "playback." Through this option, animations can literally affect and move themselves leading to very unique and visually exciting animations. 1. Setup a Trigger by choosing a layer that you would like the Animo Controller to look for and read 2. Select the option to also calculate Effects & Masks if you'd like to interpret every part of the animation 3. Increase/decrease the Multiplier to scale up the Output % (*for example: if you'd like a small object to have a big impact on the Animo playback*) ### Loop Since Animo binds keyframes sets together, they can be easily Looped as a group either as a Cycle, or Ping-Ponged. What is cool about this kind of Loop, is if there were any changes to the Animo Curve those ranges will also be pushed into the Loop. # Blend Soften and smooth keyframe values and paths. ## **Description** **Blend** is a helpful tool to make your keyframe values more "*smushy*" and have a generally more soft appearance. This Blend effect is most noticeable on the Position property, but works across any property type. As the Smoothness is increased the Blend effect is increase and can even affect the temporal start-stop of an animation. All keyframes on a Property will be affected by Blend. Blend can be a great option for a Tracked animation, or properties with many keyframes. ## Setup 1. Select any property that can be animated 2. click the Blend tool ## Effect Control The Blend effect has three options Enable, Smoothness and Precision. **Enable** is straightforward and will Turn On / Turn Off the Blend affect *(which can be helpful if you want to add more keyframes, or check the original animation*) **Smoothness**, is the amount Blend will affect the keyframe set. As it increases the blending will become more pronounced. **Precision** is a secondary control to the **Smoothness** effect and will help refine the animation closer to the original animation. # Break Split vector layer(s) into individual shape layer assets. ## **Description** **Break** is tool to automate the slow process of separating vector shapes from a Layer Group into individual layers. This is a great option to have if an asset like EX: vector emoji needs more refined animation. ## Setup 1. Select any vector layer(s) 2. click the Break tool ## Options The Blend effect has two options Delete original and Break All. # Burst Create simple radial burst rig. ## **Description** **Burst** is tool to create quick little "animation accent" rigs. These burst layers have tons of Effect parameters to refine, or individualize the burst effects. ## Setup 1. Select an Active Composition 2. click the Burst\` tool ## Effect Control Each Burst run will create it's own layer with a Effect Control to customize the attributes and animation. ### Global Position The center of the Burst ring. Just click the 'compass' button and select a spot in a Composition. The Burst layer will align to the selected point. ### Copies **Count**\ Increase or decrease the amount of objects that make up the Burst effect. **Burst Offset**\ This will change the "stagger" or uniform Burst of the paramters like Distance from Center and Revolution. **Dist from Center**\ This is the general property to adjust to animate the "burst" and movement from in to out. **Revolution**\ Will increase the range off the "burst" radius. For example, the ring starts with 360 degress and can be increased to 500 degrees; which would cause the objects in the Burst to appear staggered. **Revolution Offset**\ Randomize or offset the individual Copies in the Burst ring on non-averaged degrees. ### Properties **Link**\ When enabled, locks Width and Height to the same value. **Height**\ Vertical size of each shape. **Width**\ Horizontal size of each shape. **Roundness**\ Corner radius of each shape. Higher values create more rounded corners. **Stroke Width**\ Thickness of the shape outline. ### Color **Fill** * Enable: Toggle fill visibility * Color: Fill color for each shape **Stroke** * Enable: Toggle stroke visibility * Color: Stroke color for each shape ### Sequence **Link**\ When enabled, locks Width and Height sequencing to the same value. **Height**\ Offsets the height progressively across copies. Creates tapered or varied size patterns. **Width**\ Offsets the width progressively across copies. {% hint style="info" %} Add to your Motion Mini for quick access! {% endhint %} # Canvas Interact & record particle field. ## Description Canvas is a drawing tool that allows you to create assets directly within After Effects by drawing on a canvas. ## Setup 1. Select an active composition 2. Open the Canvas tool 3. Click record 4. Draw on the canvas 5. Add the recorded asset to the timeline ## Options **Brush Size**\ Controls the diameter of the brush stroke **Spacing**\ Distance between the particles on the canvas **Impact**\ Affects the pressure or intensity of the brush stroke **Gravity**\ Adds a downward pull effect to brush strokes **X Margin / Y Margin**\ Sets canvas boundaries and padding **Brush Down / Brush Up**\ Toggle brush behavior on press and release # Clone Duplicate all selected keyframe(s) to CTI. ## Description Clone can duplicate an entire set of keyframes across multiple properties, and across multiple layers. Typically, After Effects can't understand keyframe copy/pasting over multiple layers and will duplicate the layer. So Clone is a fantastic tool to make this process more automated. ## Setup 1. Select any amount of keyframes 2. move the CTI to a location on the Timeline 3. set the Clone options and Run Clone 4. the keyframe set will be pasted to CTI position ## Options When running Clone there are a couple different modes you can select to Clone the keyframes. **Standard**\ This option will simply paste the keyframe set to the CTI position **Reverse**\ Will reverse each set of keyframes independently on each property. **Mirror**\ Will flip the entire keyframe group order together "reversed as a group" # Cloth Convert puppet pins to soft body system. ## Description Cloth is a system-based tool to create a soft-body object. Similar to a physical simulation in a 3D program and physics engine. In order to run Cloth, the selected Layer requires Puppet Pins. The Puppet pins are pushed through a Delay system, that connects all the Puppet Pins together and essentially creates a "soft-body" layer that can be rippled, waved and shook with a proper delay and bend. This rig can be used to mimic hair, paper, trees, bending limbs and more. ## Setup 1. First add Puppet Pins (*CNTRL+P, or CMD+P to switch to the Puppet Pin tool*) to the selected Layer 2. Add Puppet pins strategically on the Layer (*without adding too much clutter*) 3. With the Layer still selected, set your options and run Cloth ## Effect Controls The Cloth tool has two types of three types of Effect Controls. A Global option, a Parent option, and a Child option. With the correct setup, almost any realistic looking movement can be achieved *(if you don't have access to a 3D program for a quicker simulation\*\*)* ### Global **Delay**\ With this option enabled you can affect all the Child delays universally with one % value that is pushed out. **Drag**\ Is an option to Randomize the Delay value (under the Global option that means each property would be delayed, but not each layer). By setting a Range value, the Delay+Drag amount can be further narrowed/expanded and a Seed is available to randomize the randomization again. **Color**\ By enabling this option all the Child layers can Cycle through different color schemes (also with a Seed and randomization available) this is a great way to distinguish, or even use the Pin layers.
**Cloth**\ Since the whole tool Cloth is driven through Puppet Pins being assigned Delay layers (luckily all automated with code and M⁴) there are a couple options on the Cloth system to get more unique setups. On this Option you can change Control visibility, color and size, Enable a Parent object (so the system can be attached to a layer ex:character hair), and the Child guide layers can also be hidden. ### **Parent** Also, on the "main" layer is a second Control to affect each Property being pushed into the Delay system (*which is the backbone for Cloth*) **Delay**\ With this option enabled you can affect all the Layers with linked properties delays universally with one % value that is pushed out. **Drag**\ Is an option to Randomize the Delay value each Layer being affected by the Parent property. By setting a Range value, the Delay+Drag amount can be further narrowed/expanded and a Seed is available to randomize the randomization again. **Scatter**\ For systems that may require more unique looking relationships, you can Enable the Scatter option which can randomize the 'starting\` value of children layers (ex: different stars start and end at different degrees of rotation when Scatter is enabled) **Advanced**\ Even more customization is available in this option. To preview how the Cloth system will look with Delays, Drags, and Children mirrors etc. you can Enable Dynamics to automate layer movement. You can Ignore the Global Controller under the Advanced too. This feature is helpful when you have a large collection of Properties (like Position, Opacity, Scale, Distortion, Skew Angle all connect to single Parent layer). If a specific Property should have it's own custom Value instead of using the Global Delay value. Storage is also seen under this Advanced; however this data just stores some important values to help the Cloth system work. It is not recommended to adjust the Storage values. ### **Child** The Child layer gets their own individual set of Effect controls to uniquely control, or separate this property differently. Disable/Enable the Delay effect entirely; or add/minus extra Delay to the Layer **Magnetism**\ This option can give the entire Delay system a completely different feeling and interaction to the Parent value changes. By enabling Magnetism you can multiply the "scale" of change. **Advanced**\ Outside of the Storage property (which holds important values for the Delay system to work) there is the ultra-experimental Soft Force option that can help create an "ideal" animation based of the Parent change. This feature is being explored for some new tools in the works. # Composition Edit the aspect ratio, duration and FPS of current composition. ## Description Composition is a utility tool for quickly creating and managing After Effects compositions with preset sizes and settings. ## Setup 1. Open the Composition tool 2. Select or input your desired composition settings # Copy Comp Edit the aspect ratio, duration and FPS of current composition. ## Description Copy Comp duplicates a composition and its entire hierarchy. Cloned expressions are automatically updated to point to the new copies instead of the originals. ## Setup 1. Select a composition in the Project panel 2. Open the Copy Comp tool 3. Configure the options below 4. Click Run Copy Comp ### Options **Prefix**\ Text added before the original composition name. Leave empty for no prefix. **Suffix**\ Text added after the original composition name. Defaults to `_copy`. **Folder Name**\ Name of the project folder where the duplicated compositions will be placed. Keeps your project panel organized by grouping all cloned comps together. **Updated cloned expressions**\ When enabled, expressions in the duplicated compositions are rewritten to reference the new cloned layers and comps instead of the originals. Turn this off if you want the cloned comp's expressions to continue pointing to the source. **Open top-level cloned Comp**\ When enabled, the newly created top-level composition opens in the Timeline and Composition panels after duplication. # Delay Universally control and stagger values. ## Description Delay is a system-based tool to build up complex relationships through Parent-to-Child layer relationships. Any property that is key-framable can be put into a Delay system, and values can be staggered and universally controlled in a huge variety of powerful ways. ## Setup 1. Select a Property, or select Properties that you would like to affect. 2. On a single Layer choose all the Parent Properties that you would like to use in a Delay system. 3. With the Properties still selected, next select any amount of Children layers (*no need to select more properties)* 4. The selected Properties will now be pushed through the Parent and Delayed into the Child properties. Change the Effect Control settings for even more customization or unique setups. ## Effect Controls The Delay tool has two types of three types of Effect Controls. A Global option, a Parent option, and a Child option. With the correct setup, literally any type of animation can be built through a single set of keyframes. ### Global **Delay**\ With this option enabled you can affect all the Child delays universally with one % value that is pushed out. **Drag**\ Is an option to Randomize the Delay value (under the Global option that means each property would be delayed, but not each layer). By setting a Range value, the Delay+Drag amount can be further narrowed/expanded and a Seed is available to randomize the randomization again. **Color**\ By enabling this option all the Child layers can Cycle through different color schemes (also with a Seed and randomization available) this is a great way to distinguish, or even use the Pin layers.
**Cloth**\ Since the whole tool Cloth is driven through Puppet Pins being assigned Delay layers (luckily all automated with code and M⁴) there are a couple options on the Cloth system to get more unique setups. On this Option you can change Control visibility, color and size, Enable a Parent object (so the system can be attached to a layer ex:character hair), and the Child guide layers can also be hidden. ### **Parent** Also, on the "main" layer is a second Control to affect each Property being pushed into the Delay system (*which is the backbone for Cloth*) **Delay**\ With this option enabled you can affect all the Layers with linked properties delays universally with one % value that is pushed out. **Drag**\ Is an option to Randomize the Delay value each Layer being affected by the Parent property. By setting a Range value, the Delay+Drag amount can be further narrowed/expanded and a Seed is available to randomize the randomization again. **Scatter**\ For systems that may require more unique looking relationships, you can Enable the Scatter option which can randomize the 'starting\` value of children layers (ex: different stars start and end at different degrees of rotation when Scatter is enabled) **Advanced**\ Even more customization is available in this option. To preview how the Cloth system will look with Delays, Drags, and Children mirrors etc. you can Enable Dynamics to automate layer movement. You can Ignore the Global Controller under the Advanced too. This feature is helpful when you have a large collection of Properties (like Position, Opacity, Scale, Distortion, Skew Angle all connect to single Parent layer). If a specific Property should have it's own custom Value instead of using the Global Delay value. Storage is also seen under this Advanced; however this data just stores some important values to help the Cloth system work. It is not recommended to adjust the Storage values. ### **Child** The Child layer gets their own individual set of Effect controls to uniquely control, or separate this property differently. Disable/Enable the Delay effect entirely; or add/minus extra Delay to the Layer **Magnetism**\ This option can give the entire Delay system a completely different feeling and interaction to the Parent value changes. By enabling Magnetism you can multiply the "scale" of change. **Advanced**\ Outside of the Storage property (which holds important values for the Delay system to work) there is the ultra-experimental Soft Force option that can help create an "ideal" animation based of the Parent change. This feature is being explored for some new tools in the works. # Dynamics Automate random change in value(s). ## Description Dynamics automates random changes in property values. It can be described as a "smart wiggle" that lets you apply these randomizations across layers and properties with a single click. ## Setup 1. Select a Property, or multiple Properties that you would like to affect. These properties can be across multiple layers. 2. With the Properties selected, open the Dynamics tool. Choose whether to randomize the seed, which will apply different dynamics if there are properties selected across multiple layers. 3. Run dynamics. This will crete an Effect Control for each property that was selected. The Effect Controls can be modified to change how the dynamics is running. ## Effect Controls The Dynamics tool has the following effect controls: **Enable**\ Enables the dynamics **Type**\ Choose between *Smooth* or *Hold*. Smooth will smooth the motion between the different dynamics values, while Hold will not interpolate the values in between and result in a more "frame-by-frame" movement **Frequency**\ The speed with which the values change **Amount**\ The magnitude of the range that dynamics will apply to the property values **Seed**\ On this Option you can change Control visibility, color and size, Enable a Parent object (so the system can be attached to a layer ex:character hair), and the Child guide layers can also be hidden. ## Options **Randomize Seed**\ This option can be used if you apply dynamics to multiple layers or properties at once. It will randomize the dynamics that are applied to each layer, instead of applying the same dynamics to each layer # Echo Bulk duplicate and control selected layer(s). ## Description Echo will duplicate selected layers, preserving property values and keyframes. Once duplicated, you have a large number of Effect Controls at your disposal to modify and control the echoed layers. ## Setup 1. Select a layer you would like to Echo, as well as the Properties that you would like echoed. 2. Open the Echo tool. Choose the number of copies you would like, as well as the options listed below. 3. Run Echo. This will crete a Global Effect Control, as well as a Control for each property that was selected. The Effect Controls can be modified to change the echoed layers, as explained below. ### Options **Copies**\ Specify the number of copies to create **Keyframes**\ Will add keyframes to the controller layer that is created. Not required for Echo to function, but helpful if you would like to add easing or retiming to the keyframes afterwards **Precompose**\ Precompose the newly created Echoed child layers in a separate composition. **Shy**\ Shies the echoed layers after creation. ## Effect Controls The Echo tool has the following effect controls: ### Global **Delay** * Enable: Activates delay across all echoed layers * Delay: Percentage of delay between each copy. Offsets the timing of property values progressively. **Drag** * Enable: Activates position drag * Seed: Randomization seed for drag variation * Range: X and Y offset range for position drag across copies **Color** * Enable: Activates color gradient across echoed layers * Seed: Randomization seed for color variation * Cycle: Controls how the color cycles across copies ### Property Each selected property gets its own control with these parameters: **Delay**\ Enables delay on the individual property. Overrides the global delay setting for this property. **Drag**\ Offsets the property values progressively across copies. **Scatter**\ Randomizes property values across the echoed layers. **Advanced - Dynamics**\ Adds dynamics movement to the property values. # Emitter Generate & record particles. ## Description Emitter is a drawing and particle emission canvas that creates animated particle systems as you draw. Unlike the Canvas tool, Emitter generates particles that emit and animate from your brush strokes. ## Setup 1. Open the Emitter tool 2. Adjust emission settings 3. Click record 4. Draw on the canvas 5. Add the recorded asset to the timeline ## Options **Count**\ Number of particles generated per emission **Distance**\ How far particles travel from the emission point **Distance Variation**\ Randomizes the distance each particle travels **Lifetime**\ Duration each particle exists before disappearing **Scale Up Duration**\ Time it takes for particles to reach full size after emission **Initial Size**\ Starting scale of emitted particles **End Size**\ Final scale of particles at the end of their lifetime **Birth Rate**\ Speed at which particles are emitted **Color Variation**\ Randomizes particle colors with seed control **Color Burn**\ When enabled, it equalizes the color burn over the layers **Easing**\ Easing curve applied to particle motion and scaling # Excite Automatically overshoot property values. ## Description Excite is a great tool to help with overshooting property values. ## Setup 1. Select a Property, or multiple Properties that you would like to affect. The properties should be keyframed, but keys can also be added *after* running Excite. 2. With the Properties selected, open the Excite tool. Modify any of the Overshoot, Bounce, and Friction presets, and run Excite. 3. An effect control for each selected property will be created, allowing you to modify the overshoot animation ## Options The Excite options allow you to set preset values that will be applied to the Effect Controls after running the tool. You can set and save these presets for future runs. ## Effect Controls The Excite tool has the following effect controls: **Enable**\ Enables the overshoot **Overshoot**\ Affects the magnitude of the property value oscillation **Bounce**\ Affects the frequency of the property value oscillation. **Friction**\ How quickly the overshoot will decay. A Friction value of 0 will continue oscillating and never stop. A very high friction value will stop the overshoot oscillation very quickly. # Falloff Manipulate properties with spatial attenuation. ## Description Falloff is a complex tool that allows you to affect property values based on the position of a "falloff controller" ## Setup 1. Select all layers you would like to affect with the falloff controller. With all layers selected, now select one or more properties on **a single layer** that you would like affected across all layers. E.g., if you want to affect Opacity and Position, you should only select those properties on a single layer. If you select them across all layers, a new effect control will be created for each one of the layers, rather than a master control that affects all at once. 2. Run Falloff, and modify the corresponding effect controls {% hint style="info" %} You can add new properties to an existing Falloff controller by also selecting the Falloff control layer before running the tool {% endhint %} ## Effect Controls ### Master **Enable**\ Enables falloff **Invert**\ Invert the affected property values when in the falloff zone **Falloff**\ Changes the radius of the inner circle on the falloff controller. By doing this, it changes the "smoothness" by which the falloff controller changes the intended property values. ### Falloff - Property Control **X Amount**\ Affects the first dimension property value of the intended property **Y Amount**\ Affects the second dimension property value of the intended property **Z Amount**\ Affects the third dimension property value of the intended property ## Video Resources {% embed url="" %} # Flip Mirror selected layer(s) across axis. ## Description Flips one or multiple layers across predetermined axes. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you would like to flip 2. Open the Flip tool. Select the axis you would like to flip around 3. Run the tool ## Options **Axis**\ Specify the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal axis to flip around **Group**\ If you have multiple selected layers, you can choose to flip them as an entire group. This will flip all the selected layers around the average point of the selected layers. # Grab Select all same property type(s). ## Description A tool to grab all of the same properties on any number of layers. {% hint style="info" %} Very useful when you have a large number of layers, or want to select deeply nested properties! {% endhint %} ## Setup 1. Select all of the layers you would like to grab properties on. 2. On **one** of the layers, select the properties you would like to grab 3. Run grab, and those properties will be selected on all of your layers {% hint style="info" %} Pro tip: Add to your Motion Mini for quick access {% endhint %} # Jump Automatically bounce property values. ## Description Automatically bounce property values ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers and properties you'd like to bounce. 2. Run the Jump tool with the desired presets ## Options **Stretch**\ Maximum amount the property value will jump to **Gravity**\ Amount the jump will decay over time **Max Jumps**\ Limits the number of bounces ## Effect Controls **Jump In/Out**\ Toggles an outward jump **Stretch / Gravity / Max Jumps**\ Explained above # Key Clean Remove redundant keyframes on selected layer(s). ## Description Key-Clean is a utility to remove unnecessary or redundant keyframes from selected layers. This tool analyzes keyframe values and removes any that don't contribute to the animation to clean up your timeline. ## Setup 1. Select properties with keyframes you'd like to clean 2. Run Key-Clean 3. The tool will automatically remove redundant keyframes {% hint style="info" %} This tool is especially useful after using motion tracking or other automated keyframing processes that can create excessive keyframes {% endhint %} # Kinetic Trigger animation with velocity. ## Description Kinetic is similar to Animo, but specifically driven by position velocity. It creates animation controllers based on the velocity of position movement, allowing you to build complex motion systems from simple position keyframes. ## Setup 1. Select any animated properties with 2+ keyframes. 2. Run the Kinetic tool 3. In the controller, select a layer that will serve as the velocity layer for the animation 4. Update the position of the velocity layer and the animation will play based on that velocity ## Options **Preserve Timing**\ Maintains the original keyframe timing when creating the Kinetic controller **Shy**\ Automatically hides the source layers after creating the controller # Null Create invisible control object and parent selected layer(s). ## Description Perhaps the most-used quick tool in Motion, Null will add a null to your timeline with a centered anchor point. If you have one or more layers selected, the null will parent the layer(s). ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers - not required to select any layers however 2. Run Null # Orbit Automatically satellite around layer. ## Description Automatically satellite around a layer. ## Setup 1. Select the layer you'd like to orbit 2. Run the Orbit tool 3. Select the target layer in the resulting Effect Control ## Effect Controls **Enable**\ Enables the tool **Target**\ Specify the layer to orbit around **Reverse**\ Reverse the direction of orbit **Speed**\ Specify the speed the layer orbits around at **Distance**\ Specify the distance from the target layer **Calibration**\ Specify a starting point for the orbiting layer # Parent Iteratively chain parent selected layers. ## Description Iteratively chain parent selected layers. ## Setup 1. In the order you want the Parenting chain to be applied, select the layers in the timeline. 2. Run Parent # Pin+ Automatically convert puppet pins to null objects. ## Description Convert puppet pins to null objects, and tie the pin position to the null anchor point. Pin+ will also create a Null Controller layer which parents each of the individual puppet pin null layers. ## Setup 1. Apply puppet pins to a layer 2. With the layer selected, run Pin+ ## Options **Null Size**\ Specify the size of the resulting null layers # Rename Batch edit and serialize layer names. ## Description Takes layer names and renames them using specified presets. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you'd like to rename, in the order you'd like them serialized 2. Open the Rename tool and run Rename with the presets ## Options **Prefix**\ The prefix applied to the new layer name **Name**\ The name that will apply to each layer **Suffix**\ The suffix applied to the new layer name **Seperator**\ Custom character sequence to separate the prefix/name/suffix and serialized number **Serialize**\ Whether to apply the serialized number before or after the resulting layer name # Reverse Inversely re-order selected layers. ## Description Reverse the order of selected layers. ## Setup 1. Select the layers you'd like to re-order 2. Run the Reverse tool to reverse their order in the composition {% hint style="info" %} Add to your Motion Mini for quick application! {% endhint %} # Separate Separate position and preserve easing. ## Description Separate is a quick tool to separate the position into individual X, Y, and Z components while preserving the original easing. ## Setup 1. Select the layer(s) you want to separate 2. Run the Separate tool {% hint style="info" %} Unlike After Effects' native separation, Motion's Separate tool preserves your easing curves {% endhint %} # Shapes Collection of geometric primitives. ## Description Apply primitives to your composition

## Setup 1. Open the Shapes tool 2. Specify if you want the shape to have a fill and/or stroke 3. Double-click the desired shape, and it will be added to your composition with a centered anchor point # Snapshot Save current frame as image. ## Description A utility tool that saves the current frame as an image to your preferred folder. ## Setup 1. Select an active composition 2. Run Snapshot to save the current frame # Sort Automatically order and categorize project items. ## Description A very handy tool to sort your entire After Effects project files ## Setup 1. Open the Sort tool interface 2. Specify all of the presets for the resulting folder structure 3. (optional) save the presets for quick application in the future {% hint style="info" %} Any of the folder names below can contain a slash ("/") character to tell Sort to create nested folders! {% endhint %} ## Options **Compositions**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Composition items **Audio**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Audio items **Video**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Video items **Images**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Image items **Old**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the folders that no longer have items contained in them **AI & PSD**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Illustrator and Photoshop items **Nulls & Solids**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Null and Solid layers **Missing**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the missing source items **Remove old Folders**\ Toggle on to remove folders that no longer have items contained in them **Remove Unused**\ Removes unused footage **Ignored Files/Folders**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the missing source items **Sort only selected folder**\ Toggle on to only sort the files in the currently selected project folder # Spin Automatically revolve layer. ## Description Spin a layer and control its speed ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you'd like to spin 2. Run the Spin tool ## Options **Degrees per second**\ Speed at which the layer will spin ## Effect Controls **Enable**\ Turns on the spin expression **Reverse**\ Reverses direction of the spin **Calibration**\ Change the initial value of the spinning layer **Spins/sec**\ Change the degrees per second at which the layer is spinning # Stagger Align and shift layers and keyframes ## Description Stagger is a full-page workflow designed to help you stagger both layers and keyframes. It offers tons of customizable parameters and modes for every scenario ## Interval Page

### Options **Type**\ **-** *Layer*: Stagger individual layers\ \- *Keyframe*: Stagger keyframes across or within layers **Mode**\ \- *In-point*: The stagger interval will be calculated based on the in-point of the layers.\ *- Out-point*: The *interval* becomes *overlap*, and the stagger is calculated based on the out-point of the layers, and how much they overlap. **Direction**\ \- *Ascending*: Stagger will apply in ascending order\ \- *Descending*: Stagger will apply in descending order **Alignment**\ \- *CTI*: Stagger will start aligning layers at the CTI\ \- *Layer*: Stagger will start aligning layers at the in-point of the first layer in the sequence **Start Index**\ \- *Top*: This specifies that the alignment of the layers will start with the topmost layer\ \- *Bottom*: The alignment of the layers will start with the bottom layer **Interval/Overlap**\ \- *Interval*: Specifies the frames or seconds that the layers or keyframes will be staggered\ \- *Overlap*: Specifies the amount of overlap that the layers will have when staggered **Grouping**\ \- Staggers layers in groups **Randomize**\ \- Randomly stagger the selected layers ## Graph Page

### Options **Type**\ **-** *Layer*: Stagger individual layers\ \- *Keyframe*: Stagger keyframes across or within layers **Alignment**\ \- *CTI*: Stagger will start aligning layers at the CTI\ \- *Layer*: Stagger will start aligning layers at the in-point of the first layer in the sequence **Grouping**\ \- Staggers layers in groups **Duration Type**\ \- *Custom*: Enables the *Duration* option, with which you can specify the duration of time over which the graph will stagger your layers or keyframes\ \- *Work Area*: Sets the duration of the stagger to span your current work area. Will disable the *Duration* and *Alignment* options, since the stagger will be aligned with the work area. ## Video Resources {% embed url="" %} # Stare Automatically orient layer towards target. ## Description Automatically orient layer towards target. The layer will continue to "stare" at the target throughout any motion path or animation ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you'd like to apply Stare to 2. Run the Stare tool 3. In the resulting Effect Control, specify the stare target ## Effect Controls **Enable**\ Enable the stare **Target**\ The layer to orient towards **Calibration**\ Any initial adjustment to make for the stare orientation # Text-Break Split text layer(s) into individual characters/words. ## Description Split up text blocks and create shape layers for each letter, word, or line. ## Setup 1. Select one or more Text Layers you'd like to break up 2. Run Text-Break ## Mode **Letters**\ Break each letter into its own Shape Layer **Words**\ Break entire words into their own Shape Layers **Line**\ Break entire lines into their own Shape Layers ## Break Into **Shapes**\ Breaks into Shape Layers **Text**\ Breaks into Text Layers # Texture Collection of image patterns. ## Description Apply textured image patterns to layer backgrounds as a mask. Choose from a library of presets, or select your own Texture.

## Setup 1. Open the Texture tool 2. Choose the texture you'd like to apply, or upload your own 3. Double-click the desired texture, and it will be added to the selected layer ### Effect Controls **Image - Position / Scale / Rotation**\ Change the initial PSR properties of the texture image **Delay - Enable**\ Enables delay for the texture **Delay - Amount**\ Percentage that the texture is delayed relative to the source layer **Dynamics - Enable**\ Enables dynamics for the texture. See [Dynamics](/ae-extension/tools/dynamics) for more info # Timeline Scrub and edit current composition and work area. ## Description Timeline provides quick access to common timeline functions and shortcuts, streamlining your animation workflow without leaving the Motion panel. ## Setup 1. Open the Timeline tool 2. Input your desired timeline settings # Trace Create fluid path rig and track selected layer(s). ## Description Add a tracer to a moving layer ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers and properties you'd like to add a Trace to. 2. Run the Trace tool 3. Modify the Tracer Effect Controls if you want to tweak the effect ## Effect Controls **Tracer**\ Built-in effect controls for the Tracer effect # Trash Remove unwanted effects and linked expressions. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you want to remove expressions from 2. Run the Trash tool {% hint style="info" %} Add to Motion Mini for quick access! {% endhint %} # Trim Add trim path to selected layer(s). ## Description Automatically adds a Trim Path to your layer. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers and properties you'd like to add trim paths to. 2. Run the Trim tool ## Alternative: Re-Key Our new Re-Key tool offers a better alternative to the older Trim tool. With Re-Key, you can not only add Trim Paths, but specify start/end/offset keyframes, as well as durations. {% content-ref url="/pages/IC4zutj1sRrT9XXHEIEG" %} [Re-Keys](/libraries/re-keys) {% endcontent-ref %} # Trim to Keys Trim layer in and out points to first or last keyframe. ## Description Trim-to-Keys automatically trims selected layers to start and end at their first and last keyframes. ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers with keyframes 2. Run Trim-to-Keys 3. Layers will automatically trim to their keyframe range ## Options **In Point**\ When enabled, trims the layer's in-point to the first keyframe **Out Point**\ When enabled, trims the layer's out-point to the last keyframe {% hint style="info" %} Add to your Motion Mini for quick access! This tool pairs perfectly with Stagger for creating sequential animations {% endhint %} # Vector Create network of lines attached to selected layer(s). ## Setup 1. Select one or more layers you'd like to connect. 2. Run the Vector tool with the desired options ## Options **Connect**\ Connect all layers in order of selection **Connect and Close**\ Connect all layers in order of selection, and also connect the last and first layers to close the loop **Connect All**\ Connect each layer to every other layer ## Effect Controls **Color**\ Change color of vector lines **Color - Variation**\ Vary the color of each vector line according to the seed and cycle values **Stroke**\ Change stroke width of vector lines **Stroke - Variation**\ Vary the starting and ending stroke width of each vector line **Write-on**\ Vary the time and length of each vector line {% hint style="info" %} You can also manage the effect controls for each individual vector line by clicking in to the Vector composition and looking at each vector layer {% endhint %} # Vignette Create a softened frame outline. ## Description Vignette is a quick Tool effect to add the classic outer "burn" to a Composition. This effect is great to pull viewer attention further into an animation, or change the tone of a scene. ## Setup 1. Select an Active Composition 2. Click Vignette ## Effect Controls On the first level of the Vignette control, the Effect can be Enabled/Disabled and the Shape can be toggled between an Ellipse or a Circle. ### Properties Some general properties can help shape the Vignette appearance; adjust the Feather, Position, Scale and Intensity to increase the contrast of the Vignette to the Composition. # Warp Create and morph optical trail of selected layer(s). ## Description Warp is a fun effect to add trails of layers behind an object. This affect using an interesting stack of Effects to smooth out the edges of a Layer and create Echos of the original layer. ## Setup 1. Select a Layer(s) 2. Run Warp # Focus # Focus Tools Specialized functions to work with focus. ### Create Group Create new group with selected layer(s). ### Focus to Group Temporarily isolate and control selected group(s). ### Focus Type Toggle focus isolation mode. #### **All** Isolate viewer and timeline panels. #### **Composition** Isolate the composition panel (visual view). #### **Timeline** Isolate the timeline panel (sequential view). # Focus Actions Mini toolbox of generic focus functions. ### Select Toggle group layer(s) active selection state. ### Visibility Toggle group layer(s) visibility state (hide in composition). ### Lock Toggle group layer(s) lock state (prevent from being edited). ### Shy Toggle group layer(s) shy state (hide in timeline). ### Grab Select all same selected property types in group layer(s) . # Focus Groups Custom collections of user-specified layers. ## Focus Group Actions ### Add Layer Include selected layer(s) to group. ### Remove Layer Exclude selected layer(s) from group. # Color ### Description Color provides quick access to fill and stroke controls for selected layers. Preview adjustments in real time, sample colors from anywhere on screen, and apply changes with sliders or direct input. ### Tools **Fill**\ Set or adjust the fill color of selected layers. **Stroke**\ Set or adjust the stroke color of selected layers. **Eyedropper**\ Sample color values from anywhere on screen. Works outside After Effects. **Copy Color**\ Store selected layer color properties to clipboard. **Paste Color**\ Apply copied color properties to selected layers. **Swap**\ Exchange fill and stroke color values. ### Sliders **Hue**\ Shift the color around the color wheel. **Saturation**\ Adjust color intensity. **Vibrance**\ Adjust perceived color intensity. **Opacity**\ Control layer transparency. **Stroke Width**\ Adjust stroke thickness. ### Palettes Access saved color palettes directly from the Color panel. Palettes sync with the Motion Studio application and can be shared across workstations. {% hint style="info" %} Palettes can be managed in the Motion Studio app under Library > Color. {% endhint %} # Linked Color Palettes April 2026 # Easing

# Easing Panels Influence Panel, Speed Panel, and Easing Library

## Overview There are currently 3 easing panel categories: **Influence**, **Speed**, and **Library.** You can navigate to each of these by clicking the category icon on the left-hand side. If your screen has enough space, you can *cmd+click* (*ctrl+click* on Windows) the categories to show multiple at the same time (shown below). If your extension window is wide enough, these panels may also flow next to each other.

You can also *cmd+click* the last active category icon to *hide* all of the panels. This is useful to maximize the space for the graph view. You can re-show the panels by clicking the hoverable bar that took their place.

{% hint style="info" %} The selected panel state will be saved upon navigating away from the Easing page, so when you navigate back, you can pick up where you left off. {% endhint %} ## Influence Sliders

The influence slider is the same one you're used to from the Home Screen.

* Adjusting the left and right 'pills', adjust the influence out of, and in to the selected keyframe(s). * Clicking the middle 'pill' will apply the current influence values * Clicking and dragging the middle pill will adjust both influence sliders simultaneously ## Speed Sliders

The speed slider is a new design catered specifically for adjusting speed values of keyframes. Some animators prefer to adjust influence only, and some use speed as well.

It works similarly to the influence slider, as there is one slider for 'speed in' and one for 'speed out'. We chose to make these sliders full width, since - unlike influence - these values are not capped from 0 to 100. They can be much larger or smaller, so more slider space was necessary. The large pill on the left works the same as influence. Clicking it once will apply the Speed values to selected keys, and clicking and dragging will adjust both Speed sliders simultaneously. The Speed sliders also contain a few convenience functions. Namely, **Reset**, and **Max**. * **Reset** will reset the values of speed-in and speed-out to 0. This is convenient, since the 0 value can sometimes be in the middle of the slider track and hard to target by dragging. * **Max** will set the maximum (and minimum) value that the slider range can cover. Clicking this button will cycle through the values \[500,. 1000, 2000, 5000]. If you're working with smaller speed values, using 500 will make the sliders easier to work with, as it eliminates much of the possible range of values. ## Digit Inputs There are also other ways to adjust the values of speed an influence. First, clicking inside any of the IN, OUT, or BOTH text-boxes will allow you to type a number. Clicking on any of the **IN, OUT,** or **BOTH** text-fields (next to the input boxes) will open up a 'Digit Input' panel.

This panel also has a slider, but further allows for fine-grained incrementing and decrementing of specific values. These values immediately reflect in the graph view and preview, allowing you to get instant feedback on how discrete changes to influence or speed affect the easing curve. ## Easing Library

The third panel allows you to view any one of your Easing Libraries on this page.

Here, there are multiple options at your fingertips: * Cycle through each of the libraries using the arrow icons next to the library title * Hover your mouse over any of the easing presets for a tooltip displaying its name * Click on any of the presets to immediately apply to selected keyframes * Click the

button to add the current easing to the library * Click the Library icon

to open up the Easing Library overlay, where you can manage your easing libraries. Note that with the introduction of the **Value Graph**, we have introduced a new type of easing preset: #### The Cubic Bezier Preset Traditionally, your easing presets were **blue**, and showed an image of the speed graph for the values associated with that preset. Cubic Bezier Presets are **yellow**, and show a cubic bezier curve representing the values associated with the preset. When you're on the Library Panel on the Easing Page, and are using the Value Graph, or Cubic Graph, the button to add an easing to your library will automatically update:

Add button shows a yellow cubic bezier curve

You can add these presets so that you have mixed presets in your libraries now:

Easing Library with both Speed and Cubic Bezier Presets

Hovering over any one of these presets will show the name of the preset, which corresponds to the cubic bezier values of the curve (x1, y1, x2, y2). If these are confusing to you, you can always change the name of individual presets on the Easing Library overlay. {% hint style="info" %} Note that because the preset is a Cubic Bezier value, it always requires 2 keyframes to be selected. If there is only one selected, you will not be able to add a preset:

{% endhint %} # Speed Graph

{% hint style="info" %} There is one key difference between interacting with the Speed Graph on the Easing Page, vs. on the Home Page. On the Easing Page, the speed graph reflects **both influence and speed values**. However, on the Home Page, the speed graph reflects **only influence**, **and assumes speed is 0**. Why? In all Motion versions up to 4.3.0, we only dealt with influence. That means if you changed the speed graph, it would update the influence of your selected keyframes, and reset the speed to 0. We decided that keeping this functionality on the Home Page would be less confusing, and allow users to use the speed graph the 'classic' way. To use the new functionality, all you'd need to do is go over to the Easing Page. {% endhint %} ## Usage The Speed Graph is meant to show the speed of an object between **two** keyframes. From left-to-right, it shows the speed of a layer coming out of the first keyframe, easing in to the second keyframe. {% hint style="info" %} While the speed graph is meant for easing between two keyframes, it will also display a graph when a single keyframe is selected. In this scenario however, the graph will not reflect an accurate representation of the speed at that keyframe. {% endhint %} Dragging the speed graph functions the same as on the Home Page. It adjusts the influence of the keyframes. When you stop dragging, these values are applied to your selected keys. Now that we are incorporating keyframe speed (in addition to influence), the speed graph may show some more interesting curves than what you're used to. For example, the first screenshot on this page shows the speed crossing into the negative area as it eases in to the second keyframe. If this was for X Position, for example, it would show some overshoot. # Value Graph

## Usage With Motion v4.3.0, we introduced an easing Value Graph. Over the years, this has been one of the most requested features from users writing in to us. Keyframes are represented as squares on the graph, with their keyframe time and value shown on the X and Y axis, respectively. The shape of the graph, or 'bezier curve' can be modified using the bezier handles attached to each keyframe. If there is any overshoot on the easing graph, we will also show at what value the overshoot peaks. ### Usage - 2 Selected Keyframes With two property keyframes selected, the value graph shows how the selected property's value changes over time, in between the two keyframes. If more than 2 keyframes are selected (on the same, or different properties), the graph will show the easing between the first 2 selected keys. The curve of the graph represents the easing **out** of the first keyframe, and **in** to the second. ### Usage - 1 Selected Keyframe You can also view the value graph for a single selected keyframe. The selected keyframe will appear in the middle of the graph, and each surrounding keyframe (if they exist) will appear in grey on either side. The bezier handles represent the easing into and out of the single keyframe, and both of the pre and post curves are shown as well.

## Graph Interactions In both single-keyframe mode, and in normal mode, there are a few interactions to make your life easier: 1. SHIFT+DRAG the bezier handles to lock the speed at 0. This is pretty self-explanatory, but useful when you don't want any speed in or out at your keyframe. 2. CMD+DRAG the bezier handles to mirror the speed at the keyframe. This interaction 'smooths' out the easing at a keyframe, setting the speed out and speed in to be mirrors of each other. You can also combine the above interactions to both lock the speed at 0, and mirror it as well. ## Easing Preview Above the graph is an easing preview. In the case of 2 keys, this shows the easing between the two. For a single key, this shows the easing into and out of the single keyframe, if applicable. # Cubic Graph

This graph view will show the cubic bezier curve for 2 selected keyframes. Cubic bezier curves are used extensively in CSS animation, making it easy to apply these eases to your AE keyframes. At the top of the graph are the bezier values, of the form **\[x1, y1, x2, y2]**, which represent the coordinates for the first and second bezier handles, respectively. The cubic bezier graph always assumes the first keyframe is at point (0,0), and the second keyframe is at point (1,1). Because of this, the cubic bezier graph will not always 'look like' your value graph. Chances are, if your keyframe values are increasing, (key1 < key2), then the graphs will look the same, but if they are decreasing (key1 > key2), then the graph will look flipped:

Value graph with decreasing keyframe values

### Editing Values The bezier values in the header are a text box, and can be edited directly. They can also be copied to your clipboard.

### Single Keyframe Note that the Cubic Bezier graph always requires at least 2 keyframes to be selected. If there is only one selected, you will see this error:

# Utility Functions

Copy, Paste, Focus, and Unfocus Functions

## Easing Gate

This is a quick utility allowing you to maximize screen space on the Easing Page. Clicking the *Gate* will hide the header and footer navigation, allowing you to see more of the easing page graph and panels on smaller screens. Simply click the *Gate* again to de-activate it. ## Options

* **Keyframe Polling** - The menu option in the top-right corner allows you to specify whether live polling of keyframe data is turned on or off. If *on*, **Keyframe Polling** will constantly poll the selected layers, properties, and keyframes in your timeline, and display the corresponding ease curve. If **Keyframe Polling** is **off,** a polling icon will appear overlayed in the graph, which will allow you to one-time poll your selected layer. * **Tips and Tricks** - Opens up an overlay showing some keyboard/mouse shortcuts for interacting with the graphs and categories. * **Submit Feedback** - Opens the 'Requests' page with a pre-filled subject, allowing you to submit feedback on our new Easing Page. ## Keyframe Display On the left is a display of the number of selected keyframes, and an icon indicating the type of keyframes that are selected (linear, hold, auto-bezier, etc.). Clicking on the box will bring you to an overlay in which you can change the color of the selected keyframes, as well as change their type:

## Property Display On the right is a display of the property that is being reflected in the graph. In the case of Position, this display becomes a button menu, in which you can use the **Separate Position** tool. This tool will separate your position property into X Position and Y Position (and Z, if 3D). Unlike AE, it will also *preserve the easing of the original Position property*.

## Previous / Next Keyframe Surrounding the keyframe and property displays are left and right arrows. These are convenience functions that will select the previous or next set of keyframes in your timeline for you. E.g., if you have a single keyframe selected, you can iterate across all of the keyframes of your property in this manner. If you have two keyframes selected, you can easily select the next or previous 2 keyframes on your property. Same for 3, 4, etc. ## Copy and Paste

Across the bottom of the screen are the Copy and Paste functions. The leftmost button is Copy. Clicking this will copy the **easing data that is currently displayed on the easing page.** If **Keyframe Polling** is turned **on**, this will also be the selected easing data in your timeline. If **Keyframe Polling** is **off**, the data that is copied may be different than what is selected in your timeline. The copied data will be the Influence In/Out, Speed In/Out, and Cubic Bezier data shown on the easing page. Once copied, you can apply this data to any number of keys by selecting them, and clicking the Paste button.

The Paste button shows a number of options: 1. Influence - This will paste the copied influence data, while preserving the keyframes current speed values. 2. Speed - This will paste the copied speed data, while preserving the keyframes current influence values. If you want a bunch of layers to all start off at a speed of 600px/sec, regardless of where they end up, it may be beneficial to use this option. 3. Influence & Speed - This will paste and overwrite the selected keys' influence and speed values. 4. Cubic Bezier - This option pastes the actual cubic bezier curve, rather than the raw influence and speed values. In many cases this is preferred as opposed to using raw values. For instance, a "Speed In" value of 500px/sec can look much different when applied to a layer moving 5000px over 3 frames, as opposed to a layer moving 200px over 120 frames. When standardizing easing curves across layers that have different timing and distances, it is best to use cubic bezier. {% hint style="info" %} Note that since Cubic-Bezier describes a curve rather than discrete values, this option can only be applied to 2+ selected keyframes {% endhint %} When pasting data, note the following: * For a single keyframe, the data will be pasted to that keyframe only. As in, the influence and speed will be applied to the influence in and out, and the speed in and out, of that keyframe * With 2+ selected keyframes, the data will be applied *in between* the selected keys. * **Influence Out** and **Speed Out** will be applied to the **first keyframe** * **Influence In** and **Speed In** will be applied to the **last keyframe** * If more than 2 keys selected, Influence In/Out and Speed In/Out will be applied to all of the intermediate keys. ## Focus and Refocus Clicking **Focus** will give you two options: **Layers** and **Keyframes.** **Focus Layers** is the same as a normal Focus - soloing your selected layers in the timeline. **Focus Keyframes** takes this a step further to assist in easing keyframes. This will first focus to your selected layers, and then set your workarea to span your selected keyframes. From here, you can loop-preview your easing in the timeline, or use the previous/next keyframe buttons to go to the previous or next set of keyframes. When in this focused mode, your workarea will also move with you. **Refocus** resets the focus state, as normal. # Default Easings If you accidentally deleted the default easings that come with Motion 4, you can download those here, and import them from the Easing Library overlay:

{% file src="/files/Y3leRj97QygfY4c9Iczi" %} # Easing Advanced easing controls for Premiere Pro

Easing in Premiere Pro is a little different than what we have implemented for After Effects. Limitations of Premiere's API force us to interpolate ease curves using a large number of additional keyframes, rather than just adjusting the speed and influence of two keyframes. * First, select a TrackItem that has two or more keyframes on one or more of its properties. * The available properties to apply easings to will appear at the top of your Easing panel. You can only apply easings to one of these properties at a time. * The keyframes that are on the selected property will also appear in your panel. By default, none of the keys are selected. This means that any easing in the panel will apply to **all** of the keyframes on that property. * To apply easing to a subset of the total number of keys, click and drag the marquee selector in the Keyframe Timeline to select the keys you wish to ease

* Once selected, you can apply easing in a few different ways * Drag the Speed graph to adjust the speed curve * Adjust the Cubic Bezier graph handles in the Cubic display * Paste cubic bezier values in the Cubic display * Drag the influence or speed sliders * Apply an easing preset from an existing easing library

Once applied, you'll notice the interpolated keyframes added by Motion Studio:

In the panel, we don't show these additional keys, to keep things nice and clean:

To remove any keys added by Motion Studio, you can click the "Clean Keys" icon in the top-left corner

You can also apply **Auto-Bezier**, **Linear,** and **Hold** keyframe interpolation from the panel:

# Sort Automatically order and categorize project items

{% hint style="info" %} Sort supports *nested folders*. Simply add a `/` in between each folder you'd like to nest. {% endhint %} The sort parameters above would result in something like this:

## Undoing Actions Because Premiere Pro's scripting API has limited support for Undo Groups, we hacked together an alternative. After performing any sort from the Sort panel, you can undo that action by clicking the Undo button in the top-left corner. ## Options **Sequences**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Sequence items **Audio**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Audio items **Video**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Video items **Images**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the Image items **Old**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the folders that no longer have items contained in them **Missing**\ Name of the resulting folder containing all of the missing source items **Remove old Folders**\ Toggle on to remove folders that no longer have items contained in them **Ignored Files/Folders**\ Name of a folder to ignore from Sorting **Sort only selected folder**\ Toggle on to only sort the files in the currently selected project folder # Grids Overlay modern photography-style grid layouts on your Premiere project. Add and combine rules like Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio, or V Arrangement and find balance while animating.

Open the "Grids" page, and select the grid you'd like to add. You can multi-select by cmd/ctrl clicking the grids. Then, click Run Grids and the grid will be overlayed on your composition. For select grids, you can mirror horizontally and/or vertically

To remove all grids on your composition, click "Remove Grids" Change the opacity, color, and stroke width using the properties bar at the top. The **Opacity** and **Stroke Width** fields support click+drag to change the values

# Switchboard Visualize and edit multi-camera production

{% hint style="warning" %} ### Notice This tool started as an internal experiment to test Motion Studio x Adobe Premiere. The early test showed big potential for quick multi-cam editing, so we named it Switchboard and kept building. *** ### ! Warning Switchboard pushes what is possible with the current Adobe API. This is an EXPERIMENTAL PREVIEW that works; mostly... please don’t use this on non-backed up, important or, deadline driven commercial projects. Yet. *** ### Plans We feel Switchboard is a potential game-changer for multi-cam editing and hope you enjoy this alpha build.We will showcase more ideas for Switchboard in the next build with support for Ripple Edits, Sub-Clips and Scenes (crazy). Please let us know how Switchboard could improve — the good, the bad, the glitchy. Shoot us an in-panel message or, post feedback on the [Futures](https://futures.mtmograph.com/) community board. {% endhint %} ### Overview Switchboard is a new tool that enables multi-camera editing within Premiere Pro. Clips in a Sequence's video tracks will populate the Switchboard. Click on each track to toggle its enabled state, and set it as the active clip at the CTI. Other clips at the CTI will be disabled, and razored accordingly. ### Video In / Out Points

View all of the in-point and out-point edits in the timeline at the top of the screen. Toggle between "All", "In Points" and "Out Points". Click the left and right arrow icons to go to the previous or next edit point, respectively. Alternatively, click directly on the edit point to go to that particular edit. In-Points are colored blue, while Out-Points are colored red. ### Video Timeline and Frame Snap

A timeline replica is at the bottom of the page. Click and drag the timeline to scrub the CTI. Enable Frame Snap, to scrub the timeline in Frame increments. Use keys `a` and `d` to go previous or next on the timeline. Press the `spacebar` to toggle playback. ### Menu

**Clean Tracks** Removes all disabled clips from your Sequence. Useful after editing. **Create Placeholder** Adds a placeholder Black Video to the first track, that you can cut to like any other clip. **Full Screen** Toggle full-screen mode for the Switchboard page **Frame Snap** Enables the Frame Snap functionality for the timeline. If disabled, frames default to 1 **Zoom** Zoom In/Out for the clips on the Switchboard page ### Tracks

Clips (videos and images) in the Video Tracks at the current CTI will populate the Switchboard page. Active clips receive a Green border, while disabled clips have a default grey border. Hovering each clip will reveal the Track number it is in. Below is a simple multi-cam edit sequence:

Go to Previous Edit - Swap Track 2 to active (Clip on Track 1 is merged)

In Between Edits - Set Track 1 Active. Clip is active up until next edit point.

### Undoing Actions Because Premiere Pro's scripting API has limited support for Undo Groups, we hacked together an alternative. After performing any action in the Switchboard panel, you can undo that action by clicking the Undo button in the top-left corner.

# Color ### Description Color provides fill and stroke controls for selected objects in Illustrator. Sample colors, adjust values with sliders, and apply palettes synced from Motion Studio. ### Tools **Fill**\ Set or adjust the fill color of selected objects. **Stroke**\ Set or adjust the stroke color of selected objects. **Eyedropper**\ Sample color values from anywhere on screen. **Copy Color**\ Store selected object color properties to clipboard. **Paste Color**\ Apply copied color properties to selected objects. **Swap**\ Exchange fill and stroke color values. ### Sliders **Hue**\ Shift the color around the color wheel. **Saturation**\ Adjust color intensity. **Vibrance**\ Adjust perceived color intensity. **Opacity**\ Control object transparency. **Stroke Width**\ Adjust stroke thickness. ### Palettes Access saved color palettes directly from the Color panel. Palettes sync with the Motion Studio application. # Day 1 ★☆☆☆☆☆☆ In this welcome series, we’ll get you up to speed as a power motion designer. {% hint style="info" %} Skip Ahead: Day 2 {% endhint %} ## Speed Graph + Speed Sliders Preview and adjust keyframe speed by dragging your cursor in the graph, or using mirrored slider controls.

Drag your cursor up-and-down in the center margin to unify In and Out keyframe speed.

Enable Poll Selected to live preview the speed graph of keyframes.

Drag slider handles to bulk adjust keyframe speed.

Enter specific speed values.

Further control is on the Ease page for multiple advanced graph types, custom libraries, visual previews and timeline navigation.

Anchor Snap layer Anchor Points to bounding box margins in one-click.

Bulk change layer anchor points.

Existing keyframes are translated.

Shape Layer groups and Masks are supported.

Center anchor point and layer to composition with CMD+click.

Deeper control is found in the Anchor workflow, for special tools and bulk actions.

Pinned Tools Tools and workflows can be pinned, re-ordered and removed in two special groups. By default, Motion Studio pins common workflows in the middle group, and favorite tools bottom group.

Customize the Home screen as you discover your favorite tools for fast access. We’ll take a closer look at individual tools later this week. ## Palettes + Swatches Pin, save and re-use keyframe ease curves and color swatches with your own custom libraries.

For powerful library tools and management, use the Motion Studio app for complete palette control.

## Focus + Refocus Visually isolate selected layers in your timeline and composition.

Non-destructive return to original layer states.

To manage Layer Groups and refined Focus preferences and tools, we’ll go over the Focus page on [Day 2](/learning-series/day-2). {% content-ref url="/pages/3bVqEkME2A00rlkefF3H" %} [Day 2](/learning-series/day-2) {% endcontent-ref %} # Day 2 ★★☆☆☆☆☆ Today we’ll look at the remaining four pages in Motion Studio: **Color**, **Ease**, **Tools** and **Focus**. {% hint style="info" %} Skip Ahead: Day 3 {% endhint %} ### Color Preview and manipulate color space with sliders and expanded controls.

Preview before and after color adjustments

Use the universal eyedropper colors from anywhere on the screen.

Swap, change, reset, copy and paste your Fill and Stroke values.

Use intuitive sliders for Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Opacity — or, change stroke width on the fly.

### Ease Edit and manipulate keyframe speed, influence and value without visiting the Graph Editor. Enable the Gate to maximize the Ease page.

Toggle your Graph visualization and type.

Preview your animation curve and timing.

Jump to the Next and Previous keyframe(s).

Customize keyframe(s) label colors and interpolation types.

Use sliders, text-fields or, value tickers to refine key influence and speed.

Save speed, value and cubic graph values to custom libraries.

Open multiple controls by holding CMD while clicking icons.

### Tools The library of all the tools and workflows in the Motion Studio extension. Many icons have deep sub-flows that will expose relevant extra tools and options, or apply Effect Controls and expressions.

Re-order and pin your favorite tools to Home.

Hide unused tools from Search.

### Focus Isolate and control layers and groups. Create custom New Groups of selected Layers.

Change Focus Type to All, Timeline or, Composition.

Focus to single Groups, or multiple Focus Groups.

Select groups, change visibility, lock, shy switches, grab properties, change Group layer labels and Add and Remove layers.

### Search Find and launch tools, settings, preferences and browse your Recent Tool runs.

*** This Motion Studio series continues on [Day 3](/learning-series/day-3) looking at Workflows, and a few user favorites. {% content-ref url="/pages/1WsxB7X1DeUnWeCs2HRa" %} [Day 3](/learning-series/day-3) {% endcontent-ref %} # Day 3 ★★★☆☆☆☆ Today we will look at Workflows, which are the larger tools in Motion Studio. {% hint style="info" %} Skip Ahead: Day 4 {% endhint %} ### Workflows In Motion Studio tools with large sub-menus and frequent interaction are called Workflows. Workflow sub-menus stay open to assist you, while Tools close after a run and add expressions and layer effect controls. ### Composition Preview and change Comp Settings with modern controls.

Swap comp dimensions.

Resize comp to layer(s).

Save and Apply custom Comp presets.

### Timeline Manage your Work Area and preview animation in a new scrub method.

Use a lightweight trick to leap X custom amounts through your timeline with Frame Snap.

Drag and adjust the Work Area handles using your custom Frame Snap value.

### Emitter Generate and record simulation assets, no rendering and instant playback.

Change Emitter type from draw to burst, enable background colors for Mattes.

Record a live performance, or track an existing layer Motion Path and Add to Timeline.

Explore a range of Emitter properties, from Birth Rate to Color Burns.

Refine property values with text-fields, sliders and proportional value tickers.

Hold CMD and click the side Categories to Randomize and find interesting combinations.

Save default settings on any Workflow and Tool. ### Re-Key Save, re-apply, re-time and share keyframes.

Select keyframes and Create a new Re-Key. Default icons are automatically added.

Use Re-Keys to apply anything from Layer Styles to Effects

Re-Keys can be customized and organized in Motion Studio, or added to a Motion Mini. We’ll go over Mini’s later this week (or, you can skip ahead and visit the Guide.)

### More Explore other Workflows like Key Assist, Canvas, Grids, Snapshot and Stagger. Have ideas? Send an in-panel request or, post, vote or comment on the Futures community board. On [Day 4](/learning-series/day-4), we’ll go over a couple fan-favorite Tools, like the all-powerful Animo, Delay, Shapes and Falloff. {% content-ref url="/pages/Ytsm1suAx1YaITtdvgCB" %} [Day 4](/learning-series/day-4) {% endcontent-ref %} # Day 4 ★★★★☆☆☆ {% hint style="info" %} Skip Ahead: Day 5 {% endhint %} Tools The core of Motion Studio is the Tools library. Automate tedious actions, and literally, supercharge keyframes to do more. Tools have a variety of flavors; automating actions, building complex layer expressions, or giving entirely new ways to create motion.

### Animo {% content-ref url="/pages/he8HlNSGkyeRkqd2506K" %} [Animo](/ae-extension/tools/animo) {% endcontent-ref %} Merge and unify keyframes together, preserve timing, loop and trigger animation sequences from other layers. Change Animo sub-menu options to name controllers, add keyframes, shy original layers and preserve specific timing. Save custom default tool Options for any Tool and Workflow. Custom expressions and Effect Controls offer near limitless combos. Use the Animo > Spectre control to have layer overlays trigger keyframe sequences. Add Loop options for Cycle and Ping-Pong. ### Null {% content-ref url="/pages/uu5VUu3WLgBSZ0WauAZ5" %} [Null](/ae-extension/tools/null) {% endcontent-ref %} Add an invisible parent controller, or “null object” layer to selected layer(s) Null auto Parents and centers the null object to selected layers(s)

Tip: use a temporary Null to move, transform and scale sets of keyframes. Delete after use.

### Delay {% content-ref url="/pages/xhaRN9nFU71BLOnYTZFY" %} [Delay](/ae-extension/tools/delay) {% endcontent-ref %} Control layers and share keyframes from universal parent keyframes to child layer(s).

First, select the layer and properties you’d like to be the parent, then second — select other layer(s) to control and run Delay.

Use options to add Keyframes, Precompose selected layer(s), Shy child layers, or create a Guide parent layer duplicate.

Use Global Delay effect controls to Drag (randomize) delay values and overlay color variation. Use individual property Parent Delay effect controls, to Delay, Drag, Scatter initial values, add Auto Dynamics and more. For tricky setups, use individual property Child Delay effect controls to tweak specific Delay values, or enable Magnetism to create a different value relationship to the Parent Layer. ### Sort {% content-ref url="/pages/bpKWR904n09oAA0alOvH" %} [Sort](/ae-extension/tools/sort) {% endcontent-ref %} Automatically sort and organize the Project panel and all media content and folders.

Customize auto-folder names and actions.

Isolate and Sort selected folders. Ignore custom folder names.

### Shapes {% content-ref url="/pages/94zcAwQXVp0TQ7XT31R5" %} [Shapes](/ae-extension/tools/shapes) {% endcontent-ref %} Instant library of primative vector shapes.

Toggle initial Fill and Stroke runs and Save default preferences.

### Falloff {% content-ref url="/pages/1ba6f6y1BY3142JVAtmU" %} [Falloff](/ae-extension/tools/falloff) {% endcontent-ref %} Manipulate bulk layer properties with spatial layer overlap.

Select a set of layers to use with Falloff, and select the properties to interact with. Only one instance of a property needs to be selected\*

*** The Tool library is always getting new releases, like Re-Key, Grids and Key Assist — so, you can always have a new method to explore animation. On [Day 5](/learning-series/day-5), we’ll take a first look at the Motion Studio application and how it helps manage your libraries, create custom Mini’s and more. {% content-ref url="/pages/8YKa98xxFpQlIu11aGxb" %} [Day 5](/learning-series/day-5) {% endcontent-ref %} # Day 5 ★★★★★☆☆ {% hint style="info" %} Skip Ahead: Day 6 {% endhint %} ## Extensions Motion Studio can be installed as a single panel, or opened as multiple extension panels. New extensions, like the upcoming Motion Video for Adobe Premiere, will automatically become available to your license on release.

## Colors Organize, sort and manage all your Color palettes.

Use the Info drawer to Copy and Edit Hex Codes, RGBA, CMYK and HSL values.

Sample images to import custom palettes.

All library Folders and Palettes can be exported and shared.

## Easings Manage and re-order all your Ease palettes and create folders. Easings is expanding with larger create and control abilities in upcoming releases.

## Re-Keys Manage and re-order all your Re-Keys, rename and add custom icons. Delete properties, preview keyframes and add Notes in the Info Drawer.

## Vectors Use a massive library of royalty free and open source vectors in any program. Drag and drop everywhere, export to folders, copy + paste, with multiple export types (`svg`, `png`, `jpg`, `html)`

Vectors is expanding to support Snapshots, multiple media types, custom media and more in an upcoming release. ## Minis Create and customize minimal companion panels for Motion Studio tool, swatches, palettes, system commands and more.

Add tools, set custom icons and colors.

Add Modifier Keys for alternate tool functions on-demand.

Change the active Mini through Motion Studio or, the Mini extension panel.

Export and Import Mini’s to your team, company or, fellow designers.

## Resolve For DaVinci Resolve + Fusion users, enjoy an enhanced graph editor and easing toolset. Use improved graph visuals to animate easier in Resolve.

## Create Motion Studio is expanding to an entire suite of interactive simulation tools with instant renders and complete library. We’re not ready to Preview the full-screen, but added a placeholder for Create when it syncs out.

You can see hints of what Simulations could come to Create with like the Emitter and Canvas tools; although the new tools are more full featured. ## Preferences / Settings As usual with Mt. Mograph software, there are complete Preferences and Settings to customize.

*** On [Day 6](/learning-series/day-6), we’ll dive into the advanced portions of setup for Re-Key, Minis and System Commands, and Key Assist. {% content-ref url="/pages/UyCDUpVoPaj2n4aZK6QI" %} [Day 6](/learning-series/day-6) {% endcontent-ref %} # Day 6 ★★★★★★☆ Re-Key Save and re-apply keyframes in a custom library.

Select keyframes and create a Re-Key.

Customize icons and colors.

Re-use and apply your Re-Key in three ways, Apply exactly the same, Apply Initial to translate values, or Apply on an Animo control.

Supports all keyframeable properties, re-adds effects and masks to your layers.

Use Motion Studio to edit, organize and customize Re-Keys.

Key-Assist Auto-set bulk keyframes with a “property listener assistant.” Select properties and Start to keyframe all changes. Key-Assist ensures complex timing is exact.

Navigate through the timeline and property set. Leap defined ranges in the timeline with Frame Snap. Use to preview playback, set the work area, or step equal distances for new keyframes.

Bind all active layers and properties, into a combined Animo to wrap huge sequences into a unified non-linear control.

Minis Customize a lightweight companion extension of your favorite tools, libraries and After Effects system commands.

Use Motion Studio to setup unlimited Minis.

Set Minis to Active in Motion Studio or, the extension.

Customize Mini tool colors, icons, layout, note tooltips and more.

Mini’s can run tools, swatches, library items, custom Re-Keys and thousands of After Effects system commands.

Shortcut tool runs with custom options, or add a modifier for alternate functions.

Import and export Mini’s to colleagues, collaborators and your changing workspaces.