Working with text and titles is a fundamental role of motion graphics. Almost every show opener, lower third, or bumper is embellished with some type of 2D or 3D text. Motion gives you tremendous creative control over how that text is presented and manipulated.
Creating text is one of the simplest functions in Motion. Treat it like word processing: type first, then format.
Be sure to press the Escape (or Enter) key to exit text entry mode. To return to text entry mode for additional editing, double-click the text you want to change.
To display the Title Safe area in the Canvas, choose Safe Zones from the View & Overlay Options pop-up menu.
Although you have several ways to modify text in Motion, doing so in the Inspector tab provides you with the most control.
There are three panes for text: Format, Style, and Layout.
In addition to making adjustments in the Text tab and its three panes, you can also adjust position and other basic parameters in the Properties subtab.
The Format pane contains parameters to change font families, point size, tracking, kerning, position, scale, and rotation.
In the Style pane, a text object’s appearance can be changed using the Face, Outline, Glow, and Drop Shadow options.
Almost any parameter in the Inspector can be copied to another object. Simply drag the parameter’s name from the Inspector to the object in the Canvas or Layers tab.
The Layout pane permits complete control of a text object’s layout, including the ability to place and animate text on a path, type on text, and modify parameters such as Justification and Line Spacing (leading). You can also choose whether or not the text will face the camera when repositioned in 3D space.
You have an almost unlimited number of animation possibilities when placing text on a path. When combined with behaviors or the Record Animation feature (which automatically records keyframes for any changes made to parameters over time), text can travel nearly anywhere.
The HUD provides quick access to some basic text properties to modify the selected text object or selected glyphs.
The Adjust Glyph tool’s Transform Glyph attribute allows you to modify the position and rotation of individual characters in the Canvas.
You can also access the Adjust Glyph tool by Control-clicking (right-clicking) a text object in the Canvas and choosing Transform Glyph from the shortcut menu.
Option-click to choose multiple glyphs at once. You can then manipulate them simultaneously using the Transform Glyph attribute.
Motion contains four text generators: File, Numbers, Time Date, and Timecode. You’ll find the text generators in the Library tab’s Generators category.
While each generator has unique parameters and applications, all are used to create text that changes information or values over time. The parameters of a text generator are located in a fourth Generator subtab. The following sections show examples of the four generators.
Motion’s extensive collection of text behaviors can be applied to any text in a project and permits a wide range of ways to animate type.
One such behavior is the Scroll Text behavior. To create simple, scrolling credits, follow these steps:
The majority of text behaviors were built using the Sequence Text behavior. It is the basis for creating and animating almost any parameter of a text object.
To fade-in the text glyphs while scaling them down from a larger size, do the following:
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