Tips for color management in Motion

The following tips can help you streamline or improve your HDR workflow:

HDR colors may not appear as expected on an SDR display. To view the wider range of colors in an HDR project accurately, use an HDR display, such as an Apple Pro Display XDR or a MacBook Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR display.
If you’re mixing SDR and HDR elements, set your project’s Color Processing setting (in the Project Properties Inspector) to Automatic to have Motion inverse tone map SDR elements (expand their range of brightness) or to tone map HDR elements (narrow their range of brightness) to match the project’s render color space. See Manage automatic color processing in Motion.
When a project’s color processing is set to Automatic, an HDR White Level slider becomes available in the Project Properties Inspector. Use the slider to adjust the brightness levels of SDR elements (such as images or titles, shapes, and other graphics created in Motion) to better match the brighter levels of HDR media when Render Color Space is set to HDR Rec. 2020 HLG or HDR Rec. 2020 PQ.
Adjusting the HDR White Level slider affects all SDR elements in the project. If you don’t want the slider to affect a certain SDR image or clip, you can change its conversion type.
When adjusting the brightness of SDR elements using the HDR White Level slider in projects with Automatic color processing, make sure to review the elements’ appearance against any underlying clips. Varying luminance levels in different HDR clips may appear to change the brightness of the SDR elements.
In general, adjusting the HDR White Level slider doesn’t affect the brightness of HDR media in the project. For example, in a project that contains text and particles that use an HDR image as the particle cell source, adjusting the HDR White Level slider affects the brightness of the text, but doesn’t affect the brightness of the particles.
However, if you apply a filter that contains a color well to HDR media (or use certain blend modes), adjusting the HDR White Level slider may affect the brightness of the HDR clip. In the particles example above, if you apply the Tint filter to the particles using the HDR image as a cell source, the slider affects the brightness of the particles. See About filters and color processing.
Although the HDR White Level slider is primarily used to increase the brightness of SDR elements (clips, images, shapes, and so on) to better match the brightness of HDR clips in a project with Automatic color processing, you can also use the slider to decrease the brightness of an HDR element in an SDR project. For example, in an SDR project that’s set to Automatic color processing, set the conversion type of an HDR clip to Use White Level (75%), then change the project’s render color space to Rec. 709. In the Project Properties Inspector, drag the HDR White Level slider right to decrease the clip’s HDR brightness (at 100 percent, the HDR clip’s brightness matches peak SDR white levels and looks like other SDR clips in the project). Drag the slider left to increase the clip’s HDR brightness (at 50 percent, the HDR clip’s brightness matches peak HDR white levels, and therefore looks blown out).
Note: In most cases, an Automatic project will correctly tone map any SDR or HDR media in the project, so there’s no need to change the conversion.
Use the HDR Tools filter to convert images, clips, and Motion elements between color spaces and HDR standards, or to limit the brightness of a clip to a specific level. See HDR Tools filter in Motion.
Note: Using the HDR Tools filter is usually unnecessary in projects with Automatic color processing because you can change conversion types in the Properties Inspector.
You can fix missing or incorrect color space metadata using the Color Space Override pop-up menu in the Media Inspector. See Adjust HDR media in Motion.
Generally, your render color space should match your output color space (the color space you’re required to deliver the project in). If you’re rendering to multiple output color spaces, your render color space should match the output color space with the largest gamut.
When adjusting the blend modes of SDR media in Automatic projects with Render Color Space set to HDR HLG, effects may appear dimmer than expected. To increase the brightness of the effect of the blend mode, increase the HDR White Level slider in the Project Properties Inspector.
Changing a project’s Color Processing setting (in the Project Properties Inspector) can change an image’s luminance or color space. This may affect the appearance of blended images or groups. See About color space.
If you’re unsure of an imported clip’s format (HLG, PQ, and so on), select the clip in the Media list, then check its metadata in the Media Inspector.
To determine the nits value of an image or clip, you can display HDR luminance values in the Motion canvas.
When creating templates for Final Cut Pro for Mac, you can ensure parity between your Motion template’s color space and your Final Cut Pro project’s color space in two ways:
- Set the template’s Color Processing (in the Project Properties Inspector) to Automatic to conform the template to the color space of the Final Cut Pro project. See Create templates that automatically conform to the Final Cut Pro color space.
- If the template’s Color Processing is set to Standard Gamut HDR or Wide Gamut HDR, use the Override FCP Color Space checkbox in the template’s Project Properties Inspector. See Set a template to override the Final Cut Pro color space.
To avoid losing HDR data when transferring HLG video clips from iPhone to Mac, use Air Drop, Image Capture, or the Photos app (to import video using iCloud or by connecting your device to your Mac or to export video).
Motion is optimized to provide maximum HDR luminance and color accuracy on the Apple Pro Display XDR for playback, making the display the ideal professional reference monitor.
If you’re working in a Standard Gamut SDR or Wide Gamut HDR project on a system with an SDR display, you can use the Show HDR as Tone Mapped setting to reduce the apparent dynamic range of the image to fit the display’s viewable range. See View HDR media in the Motion canvas.
If you’re working in an Automatic project, tone mapping is handled automatically.

For more information HDR industry standards and practices, see the following white papers:

Best Practices for Mapping BT.709 Content to HDR10 from MovieLabs
Inverse Tone Mapping: Upscaling SDR Content to HDR from Dolby
Guidance for operational practices in HDR television production from ITU-R

Download this guide: Apple Books | PDF

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Motion User Guide

Tips for color management in Motion