Now that we have finished the preflight decisions made for our Motion craft template, we need to decide how we will use the Layers pane to organize our video project. As this template contains nine drop zones for our product images, along with the layers that will contain the background image and the imported opening and closing .mov clips, naming and organizing these layers is important.

Usually, it’s a good practice to work from the bottom upward in the Layers pane. This is because any object on a layer will obscure what is on the layers below. So if we want something, such as the copyright text to be visible throughout the video, we will need to place that text on a layer at the top of the Layers pane. Another practice is to place all drop zones for the product images in one group in the Layers pane.

Intro and Background Group

In our template, we have our first (bottom) layer which contains the drop zone for the background image that covers the entire 1920 x 1080 pixel screen and remains on the timeline throughout the video. Because the moving objects in our video will be displayed in front (on top) of this layer, this background layer is a design element which the audience will only see in glimpses, as the objects move over the screen. Therefore it will be our bottom layer in the Layers pane.

The template will open with a logo reveal that lasts 10 seconds. If you remember, we left the first 10 seconds of the timeline empty in our template for this purpose and will use a drop zone so that we can easily change the opening .mov clip for each product trailer. Because the intro will not be needed after the first 10 seconds, we can place this on the next layer just above the bottom layer and place both of these layers into a group which we will call “Intro and BG”.

Dropzones Group

Moving up the Layers pane, we will have our second group, named “Dropzones”, that contains all the drop zones to which we will be adding our product images. This group will be just above the Intro and BG group and we will be adding these drop zones to the timeline in ascending order. That is, the image 1 drop zone will be under the image 2 drop zone which will be under the image 3 drop zone and so on. As we discussed, these drop zones will be 1920 x 1080 pixels. In case any of our product images are smaller than the size of the drop zone, the empty area around the image will be transparent and the viewer will see the background graphic.

Closing Group

Our last group, named “Closing”, in the Layers pane will contain an imported closing logo .mov clip. You might also remember that we left the last 9 seconds of the timeline empty for this drop zone. Because this .mov clip will be at the top of the Layers pane and we need the copyright text to be visible throughout the video, we will place both within this group named "Closing".

Finished Project Trailer

Apple, Motion, iBooks Author, GarageBand, TextEdit, Pages, iMovie and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. BellaOnline is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Screenshots used by permission.