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It is time to bake groups in Motion 3. When you ?bake? in Motion 3 you are essentially rendering files that you may be done with in your layers. Since Motion 3 projects can be very deep with layers consisting of effects, particles, filters, video and more, baking will help you save on CPU speed and memory. Baking will make all of us who crave our CPU speed much happier.
If you are new to Motion 3 it is a tremendous program. You can really create visually stunning motion effects on the fly. Some of the stock templates are so nice your clients with be awestruck at how fast you were able to create such masterpieces. Little did they know you just did a few tweaks to the master template.
Coming from After Effects, ?baking? to me is like ?pre-composing.? They are very similar processes. I can create a complex scene in Motion, just like After Effects, and then add it to an even bigger scene. The big problem here is as you go deeper into the project your master file will begin to bog down due to so many animations, whether they are text or graphics. So free up some memory and bake.
Preparing your project
In Motion 3, press F5 to open the Layers area. If you are new to Motion 3 this is where all your layers will be. You are able to select them, turn the visibility on and off, make them 3d enabled, and much more. When working in Motion 3, shortcuts are gold. Remember F5 allows you to get to the layers area fast.
Build your layers
As you work on your project always rename your groups in the layers area. It?s good practice and will save you a lot of headaches later when you are sifting through the madness looking for that amazing text effect you did. Remember the check marks on the left turn the visibility of the group or layer on and off. This is great to see the changes you are making step by step. If you turn off a layer and like the way the group is better, you can simply delete that layer or keep it off in case the client wants to see that effect or transition later.
Going Deep
During the process of a Motion project you will start to see you have made many groups and your computer is not playing the project back at full speed. I have to say I hate when this happens. I have a pretty powerful MacPro and I want speed! When this happens I know I better start to bake.
Baking for speed
Baking is relatively easy to do. Simply select the Group you want to bake. Then go to File > Export Selection. When the options dialogue window opens keep all the default settings except where it says After Export. Use the drop down and select Import into Project. Make sure the file you are going to render is saved to the project folder.
Baked
Ok why did you just bake? It was because that specific part of the project was done with your creativity. You added the test and transitions. The Trapcode Glow is there. You wanted speed again. Well now you can have it. Simply create a new group, use the same name as the group you baked, but add ?baked? or something clever to the end of it. Next, turn off your original group. You will see the newly baked video running smoothly. When you need to make changes, you can return to the pre-baked group and make changes and bake again. Add the new file to the baked folder and turn off the first one.
Now I?m baked
Motion is a great and fun program to create motion graphics with. By baking you will improve the speed of your playback and really see how your project is going. For some great Motion guidance I highly recommend reading Mark Spencer?s Motion 3.
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David Basulto is an independent filmmaker in Los Angeles. After 17 plus years, David is well versed in all aspects of filmmaking from development to distribution. He produces, directs, edits, and now is addicted to motion graphics and 3d. His last film, Death Clique is in Blockbusters nationwide. David is also the host of the www.filmmakingcentral.com. In his spare time David is an avid gamer and can be found slaying monsters in the world of Vanguard. For more info visit www.davidbasulto.com Related Sites: Creative Mac , Digital Producer , Audio Video Producer , Digital Post Production , Presentation Master , Oceania , MacVideoPro , Motion
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