Start up Motion and in the Select Project Preset dialog box, choose NTSC DV from the pop-up menu. A new 10-second/300-frame project will open. Or, if Motion is already open, choose File > New from the menu bar and then follow the steps above in the Select Project Preset dialog box. Once your project is open, save your project.

Though it’s really easy to create your own particle systems in Motion, there’s a large library of pre-baked Particle Emitters that can be used in your projects. Let’s pick one: Go to the Library tab in the Utility window and then choose Particle Emitters > Abstract. Then choose Cool from the list below and click on the Apply button at the top of the Utility window. This will place the Particle Emitter into the project and center it in the canvas. Press the spacebar to start playing back the project. Leave it looping from now on. The last thing to do in this step is to make sure the Dashboard is visible ( hit D on your keyboard if you don’t see it), and then change the Scale parameter of the Emitter to about 150 (using the slider). It doesn’t have to be exact, just pretty close.

Now that your Particle Emitter is in place and you’ve tweaked your parameters, it’s time to add some text to the project. Press the T key on your keyboard to activate the text tool and then click on the center area of where your Particle Emitter is. Type blend modes and hit the Escape key to get out of text entry mode. In the Dashboard choose Center from the alignment pop-up menu and drag the type so it’s centered in the screen. You can use the dynamic alignment guides to make sure it’s perfectly centered. Then choose a different font from the default Geneva. Try something like Gill Sans and make it bold. You should also bump up the point size by dragging the size slider to the right. Somewhere around a 50-point size should work.

Hit the F5 key on your keyboard ( Function F5 on a laptop) to open up the Project Pane and access the Layers tab. Select the Layer that your Text and Particle Emitter objects are in. Next, with your layer selected, go up to the Toolbar above the Canvas and choose Add Behavior > Basic Motion > Fade In/Fade Out. Then, in your Dashboard, change the Fade In to 30 Frames (just drag to the right in the highlighted area), and do the same for the Fade Out (but drag to the left). This will apply the Fade In/Fade Out behavior to the entire layer (affecting everything inside it).

Now it’s time to make things a little more interesting and start playing with stuff. Things are still weird and the animation is pretty much unusable right now. Let’s fix that by making sure the text is selected (choose the text object in the Layers tab). In the Dashboard, select the Blend Modes pop-up menu and choose Stencil Luma. Now things are starting to work!

Parameter Behaviors are extremely powerful and often overlooked. Let’s add a couple to finish off the project. With your text selected, click on the Inspector tab in the Utility window. Now choose the Text tab and click on the Format option. Under Format, Control Click on the word Scale and the Parameter Behavior pop-up menu will appear. Choose Ramp. Once applied, the Ramp Parameter Behavior will become visible in the Behaviors tab in the Inspector. Now drag the End Value slider up to about 60 (you can also double click the parameter’s value and type in the exact amount). This will now take the text and ramp its scale over time. Pretty cool. Next, go back to the Text tab in the Inspector and choose the Style option/button. Control Click on the word Blur in the Style tab and choose Ramp from the pop-up menu. Once the Parameter Behavior becomes available ( Ramp 1), drag the Start Value slider up to 10. Then manually enter -5.00 as the amount for the End Value. This will start the text at a blur of 10 but will make sure it’s no longer blurred before the end of the animation.

Now that the basic project is complete, save the sucker and start to experiment. Hit F5 to open up the Project Pane and then start selecting project elements ( Objects), going to the Inspector to tweak. Play with parameters, add additional parameter behaviors, customize your text parameters, add a filter, whatever! Have fun and just remember to do a Save As if you come up with something you really like.

Jem Schofield
Producer/Creative Director/Apple Master Trainer
Buttons Productions

Jem Schofield is the president of Buttons Productions, a creative company specializing in video, DVD, audio and post production. Clients include Apple Computer, Isaac Hayes Entertainment, PineRock, Poolside and Rutgers University. Jem consults and teaches around the country and is an Apple Certified Trainer in DVD Studio Pro, Motion and Final Cut Pro.

Motion is like a big playground and is actually a very deep application. Take the techniques in this tutorial and apply them to other parts and content in your project. Using blend modes on objects composited over the pre-baked Replicators can result in very interesting wipes and effects. Just play with the parameters and you’ll come across some happy accidents that just might make it into your next project. There are many ways to accomplish the same or similar effects in Motion. This is one approach that might take you in some new directions.

Buttons Productions
www.buttonsproductions.com
189 Wyckoff Avenue
Wyckoff, NJ 07481
ph. 201.444.4639
create@buttonsproductions.com

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