In the last tutorial, we started a new Motion^R project from the Blank Motion Project template. As in Photoshop, we will build our project from the bottom up in the Layers pane. At this point, this project has a transparent bottom, as we can see from the checkerboard pattern on the Canvas.

As we look at the Layers panel, we can see that our empty project has a Project and a Group layer. When we have the Project layer selected, we can control the properties for the overall project.

Our first step will be to add a bottom to the project. Don’t confuse this with a background layer that will be the first of many layers that we will add to the Layers pane. These layers will contain the design elements for our project. At this point, we are still working with the project properties. Think of this as the foundation for our project.

Project Foundation

To set a bottom for the project, we will use the Inspector to make a change to the project properties.

1. Select the Project layer in the Layers pane, if not selected already.
   
   
2. Click the Inspector tab on the left column and then Properties.
   
   As you can see, the properties listed are the same as we encountered when we started our empty project, such as the Preset, Aspect Ratio and Duration. Below these you will see the control for setting the Background properties.
   
   The Background property is set to Transparent. We made this choice in the last tutorial. Open the popup menu to see the other choices that we have for the bottom and how these choices will affect the project.
   
   Transparent: The bottom background is not rendered when we publish or render our project.
   
   Solid: This creates an alpha channel that will be under all the layers in the Layers panel.
   
   Environment: This option is used for 3D projects.
   
   
3. Click on the pop-up menu for Background and set this option to Solid. You will see the Canvas turns black to reflect the change.
   
   
4. We can use any color for this bottom layer. Click on the box next to Background Color to open the color picker. Choose any color to see the color change in the Canvas.
   
   

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