In this tutorial, we will build the second half of our text animation for our holiday Motion^R project. We will continue to use the 3D Transform tool in Motion to move our text graphic in 3D space.

At this point our text is standing vertical at the 2 seconds position on the Timeline. We will animate the text to fall backward a little and then rise upward to the upright position. This part of the animation will take 2 seconds on the Timeline. The text will move backwards for 1 second, upwards for 1 second and the animation will end at the 4 seconds position on the Timeline.

1. Turn on the Record button again and move the Playhead to the 3 seconds position on the Timeline.
   
   This is the position on the Timeline where the text will be flat against the snow. We will use the 3D Transform tool again to move the text backward.
   
   
2. Select the text layer and the 3D Transform tool. Drag upward on the red line to move the text backward until it is almost flat.
   
   
3. As we did in the first part of the animation, switch to the Distort tool and adjust the text to match the shape of the shadow text.
   
   As before, we will move the text back to the vertical position.
   
   
4. Set the Playhead at the 4 seconds position on the Timeline. This is where/when the animation will end. Use the 3D Transform and Distort tools to put the text back to the upright position.
   
   
5. Turn off the Record button.
   
   That finishes the text animation. You should have four keyframes under the Text layer's Object Bar.
   
   But we have one more thing to add to the Timeline. Our next step is to add a fade in transition to the text on the Indent layer. We will again start at the beginning of the Timeline.
   
   The text on the Indent layer will be invisible at the beginning of the Timeline and start fading on to the Canvas on the third frame. The fade in transition will end on the 10th frame.
   
   
6. Lock the Text layer and unlock the Indent layer. You may want to turn off the visibility of the Text layer, in order to better see the indentation in the snow.
   
   
7. Turn on the Record button.
   
   
8. With the Playhead at the beginning of the Timeline and the Indent layer selected, open the HUD (Window - Show HUD). Set the Opacity slider control to 0%.
   
   
9. Move the Playhead to the 3rd frame on the Timeline. In the HUD, move the Opacity slider to 100 % and then back to 0%. This will add a keyframe to this frame on the Timeline while keeping the current value of 0% Opacity.
   
   
10. Move the Playhead to the 10th frame on the Timeline and set the Opacity back to 100% in the HUD.
    
    
11. Turn off the Record button. You should see three keyframes under the Indent layer's Object Bar. Because the indentation in the snow will not move when the text moves, we are done with this layer.
    
    

Next we will work on the Shadow layer.

Tutorial Example:


Copyright 2018 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe, Photoshop, Photoshop Album, Photoshop Elements, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Acrobat, Cue, Premiere Pro, Premiere Elements, Bridge, After Effects, InCopy, Dreamweaver, Flash, ActionScript, Fireworks, Contribute, Captivate, Flash Catalyst and Flash Paper is/are either [a] registered trademark[s] or a trademark[s] of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
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.