How to Apply Motion 4 Behaviors to Text and Titles - Apple Motion 4 Tutorial
Motion 4 Text Behavior Tutorial
As Live Type was discontinued in the Final Cut Studio, much of what Motion 4 is used for is creating innovative text. This can be used for a whole host of things in your digital video project, including titles, labels, active content, or credits. With Motion 4 you can really add effects and filters to enhance your text and give it real personality and life. In this way Motion 4 can allow you to create text that is in line with the content and aesthetics of your digital video project. One of the main ways that you do this in Motion 4 is by adding behaviors to the text items themselves, which will make them act in a certain way. Here is an easy tutorial on how to add behaviors to your text in Motion 4.
Setting Up Your Text
You can choose to create and alter text with effects and behaviors at different points in the project. This all depends on whether you just want simple text without any other motion graphics, or this is part of an entire sequence you are creating in Motion 4. Go into the main project area, called the canvas, and go up to Create, which is toward the upper left hand corner. Select the “T” button for text and then move back into the canvas pane. Create the text box you want and enter your text before clicking on Hud to bring up basic options for altering it with things like Font, Size, Tracking, Line Spacing, and others.
Adding Motion 4 Behaviors
Once you have finished your text and it looks generally the way you want it to appear go over to Library in the left hand panel, and its tab is in between File Browser and Inspector. Select Behaviors from the left hand list, which is the top option above Filters. Go to the right hand list and you will see a host of categories of Motion 4 behaviors you can choose from. These include things like Basic Motion, Camera, Motion Tracking, Retiming, Text Animation, Particles, and more. Select the behaviors category you want and then go to the list below, which shows specific behaviors from the category. Find one that sounds interesting and select it. Go up to the top of the left hand Library panel, above the lists, and you will be able to see a preview of the behavior before you apply it by pressing play. Once you find a Motion 4 behavior that you want to use go up into the project pane and find Add Behavior option. Pull down this menu and find the behavior you want to apply and select it. This behavior will then be applied to your text box that you had selected, which can then be deleted from the text box by selecting it in the Timing and deleting it. You can also begin the application of layers at this point, or earlier if that is you plan.
This post is part of the series: Motion 4 Tutorials
Here are some tutorials and tips for working with Apple’s Motion 4.
