One of the most common uses for Apple^R Motion^R is to create templates for use in Final Cut Pro^R. In this video training from macProVideo entitled Creating Final Cut FX Templates, Ben Balser introduces the types of templates one can make in Motion and how to apply them to your project in Final Cut Pro. During each lesson, he also gives some tips as to best practices.

Balser first discusses transition templates and shows you where they are stored on your hard drive. Moving to Motion, he gives a short tour of the Final Cut Pro templates in the Project Browser. Next, he discusses an example clip and what criteria to use when deciding what transition works best.

Now that you have been introduced to transitions, Balser jumps into the first workshop and demonstrates how to create a custom transition in Motion. Starting from a blank Final Cut Transition template, he discusses the default drop zone layers in the Layers pane and builds a transition from scratch by keyframing distortion filters and applying them to the in and out clips. Finally, he demonstrates how to save the project as a template for Final Cut Pro.

The next template discussed is the Effect template. Again, Balser shows where these templates are stored and discusses the criteria for choosing the best effect for your project. In Final Cut Pro, he demonstrates how to use the Effects menu to preview the results when an effect is applied to the clip in the Canvas. He then moves back to the Motion Project Browser to start the Final Cut Effect template workshop.

As before, Balser begins in the Layers pane by discussing the default layers for the template. He demonstrates how to create an effect from scratch using distortion filters and to save as a Final Cut Pro template.

The third template to be discussed is the Generator template and Balser discusses two examples in Motion; a static lower third generator and an animated background generator. He also discusses the criteria for choosing the best generator for your project.

For the Generators workshop, Balser demonstrates how to modify a copy of a Final Cut Pro generator in Motion and how to save the changes as a new generator for Final Cut Pro. Next, he builds a gradient generator from scratch in Motion starting with a Final Cut Generator template and demonstrates how to publish the color parameters for the gradient so that they can be customized in Final Cut Pro.

The last type of template that Balser covers is Titles. He begins by discussing what titles are used for and best practices for font and styles. In the Titles workshop, he creates a title from scratch in Motion, beginning with the Final Cut Title template. He discusses safe zones and how to apply a text sequence animation and a text style from the Motion Library. Next, he adds a rectangular background and demonstrates how to keyframe a simple color change animation. He closes this section of the training by discussing how to use Themes in Final Cut Pro to build a collection of common assets for your project.

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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.