In this tutorial, we will animate in Apple Motion^R the shooting star graphics they we drew in Illustrator for our Children's Storybook Template Series project.

We have already copied the shooting star graphics from Illustrator in to Photoshop. Each shooting star is now on its own layer, making it easier to import and animate in Motion.

The animation will begin with the words “Children’s Storybook Template” moving in from the right on to the screen. At this same time the purple spider, which is a reoccurring character in the series, drops on to the screen. Next the shooting stars will animate. As each star animation will begin on a different frame, the animation will extend over a duration of 4 seconds. Finally, a speech bubble with the subtitle (which is the topic or lesson for the rest of the how-to video) will appear.

We will start a new Motion project with the Preset Broadcast HD 720, Frame Rate 29.97 fps and Duration 10 seconds. This will give a Resolution of 1280 x 720, which is good for YouTube.

1. Start a new project and rename the default Project layer at the top of the Layers panel to "Shooting Stars Intro".
   
   
2. Rename the default Group layer to "Background".
   
   
3. Using the Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle over the entire screen. In the Inspector, set the Fill to white and turn off the Outline.
   
   Now that we have a solid white background for our animation, we can import the .psd file that contains the eleven shooting stars and our purple spider.
   
   
4. Click File - Import to import the .psd file. In the dialog box, choose All Layers to maintain the individual layers.
   
   
5. Rename the new Group layer to "Image". Let's lock the image layer and uncheck the visibility. This will make working with the text much easier.
   
   Let's add the "Children's Storybook Template" text just under the spider. Set the text color to #A04AC0 and we will use the same Chalkboard SE font that was used in the Children's Storybook Template.
   
   
6. Add a new layer and name it "Text1" and add the text with the Text tool.
   
   
7. In the Text - Appearance tab of the Inspector, set the Face Fill color to #A04AC0.
   
   
8. In the Format tab, set the Font to Chalkboard SE and the Alignment to Center.
   
   Now let's add the Motion Path Behavior which will move the text on to the screen from the right.
   
   
9. With the text selected and on the first frame of the Timeline, drag the text to the outside of the screen on the right. From the Library - Basic Motion folder, add the Motion Path behavior.
   
   You will see the red motion path added to the screen. Let's make an adjustment so that the text spots at the center of the screen at 1 sec.
   
   
10. Move the Playhead to the end of the Timeline, so that the text is at the end of the animation. Drag the red dot to the center of the screen.
    
    
11. To set the duration to 1 second, drag the end of the Motion Path Object Bar from the end of the Timeline to 1:00.
    
    

Continue

Finished Project