Motion Behaviors are drag and drop animations that you can apply to images, graphics, text and even imported videos. You will find these pre-built animations in the Motion Library, including a preview of each behavior. To apply a behavior takes a simple drag and drop and then you can customize the animation’s parameters in the HUD or Inspector to suit your project. Let’s take a look at the Behaviors section of the Library.

Once you select the Motion^R Library tab, you will see a list of it’s contents in the Sidebar. Click on Behaviors to open that list of behaviors, which are categorized by type. As you can see, the first folder contains all of the over 200 behaviors, separated into folders. We can’t discuss all 230+ behaviors but let’s check out each category. Of course, you can mix and match behaviors to get some very nice special animations.

Audio - These behaviors help you to control the playback of an audio file, such as your basic fade in/out behavior.

Basic Motion - These are animations from the simple move and shrink to motion paths. Most can be customized in the Inspector.

Camera - One of the best features in Motion is the camera which lets you add some great effects to your project. This category contains many drag and drop camera movements such as dolly, focus and sweep.

Motion Tracking - These behaviors include the Analyze Motion, Match Move, Stabilize and Unstabilize behaviors.

Parameter - These behaviors create an animation by changing the value of a parameter over time.

Particles - Two simple particle animations that scale or spin particles.

Replicator - Sequential animation of replicated elements.

Retiming - Many simple playback controls such as looping, reverse and replay.

Shape - Simple animations for paint strokes and shapes.

Simulations - These behaviors simulate gravity and other real-life animations.

Text Animation - These simple behaviors are specific for animating text elements including scroll, sequence, tracking and type on.

Text Sequence - More complex behaviors for text animation in subcategories for Basic, Continuous, Energetic, Glow, Highlighter and Subtle.

One of the first elements that is noticed in a Motion project is the text, including lower thirds, titles and more. The last two behavior categories are the best place to start when animating text elements.

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