As we continue our review of the Working With Text module, which is part of the Motion^R 5 video course from macProVideo, Michael Wohl moves on to more complex text techniques.

Creating Text On a Path
Now it's time for simple animation with the Text on a Path feature. Wohl starts with a line of text and demonstrates how to use this text with the Path option for the Layout Method, which automatically creates a manipulatable path for our text. He shows the many ways on the Canvas to align and manipulate this path and the text along that path. He also demonstrates how to use the Path Type, Wrap Around, Align to Path and Path Offset parameters in the Path Options pane to animate the text along the path.

Shape Options

Wohl already demonstrated Text On A Path, which is an Open Spline Path Shape, and now he moves on to the Closed Spline setting for the Path Shape. This Closed Spline setting for the Path Shape in the Path Options section of the Layout tab gives us more parameter options such as placing the text inside or outside the path. He also demonstrates the Circle Path Shape and what happens when you change the characteristics of the circle such as radius and size. Next he discusses other Path Shape choices and their parameters including the Amplitude, Frequency and Damping attributes of the Wave Path Shape. He also demonstrates how to set a freehand drawn shape as the source for the Geometry Path Shape.

Now that you have the basics, Wohl moves on to demonstrating some easy to use preset text behaviors for animating the text.

Layout Methods and Animating Text
For the first preset behavior, Wohl demonstrates how to use the Scroll Layout Method to set up a text box for scrolling credits. He creates tabs along the text box ruler to create two columns of text and then animates these columns using the preset Scroll Text - Text Animation behavior. For the next demo, Wohl switches the Layout Method to Crawl. Again he walks the viewer through the set up for this Layout Method and how to control the direction of the crawling text. Finally, Wohl demonstrates how to use the Start and End controls for the Type On option in the Layout tab and how it is similar to using the preset Type On behavior. Finally, he demonstrates how to set the Rate and End Offset controls for the Text Tracking behavior from the Behaviors menu.

Text Sequence and Continuous Text Behaviors
In the next few videos, Wohl discusses some of the most popular text sequence and continuous text behaviors that are available in the Text Behavior menu. He demonstrates how to set the beginning and ending attributes for these behaviors and how to adjust the duration bar to control the speed of the animation.

Customizing Text Sequence Behaviors
The next step in learning to create your own behaviors is to learn how to customize a preset behavior. Wohl uses a simple example of the Blur In/Out behavior demonstrating how to set the start settings in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector and the end settings in the Style tab.

Creating Text Sequence Behaviors
At this point, you are ready to build your own custom text behaviors, one parameter at a time. Beginning with a generic Sequence Text behavior, Wohl demonstrates how to add parameters to this behavior in the Behaviors tab of the Inspector, HUD and on the Canvas.

← Part One

https://www.macprovideo.com/tutorials/motion-application

Disclosure: I was given free access to the video training for the purpose of this review article. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.