Apple Motion features a wide array of text effects and it’s very useful in almost any production. But all these rotating, fading, glowing, and sliding effects are a product of one feature: Sequence Text behavior. For any animator or motion video enthusiast, this is the trick to master.
Learning It
You can find the Sequence Text behavior in the Text Animation folder in your Motion’s library.
Drag it over to the text, but don’t be surprised that it won’t do a thing at first. You’ll have to add parameters, which you can find in the Inspector > Behaviors pane. The drop-down list will show you different options: format, face, outline, glow, and drop shadow. It’s up to you to decide which ones you’ll use, so feel free to play around.
You can modify the position of the text and its movement during playback. This is where you’ll have to adjust the three axes represented in different arrows. The red arrow is your x-axis (horizontal movement), green for the y-axis (vertical), while the blue arrow is for the z-axis (closeness towards the viewer). Note that the arrow turns yellow when you select it. You can also insert numerical values in the behaviors pane for a more calculated effect.
Sequence Text will go through the screen per character. By default, it will affect only one letter and move to the next ones until it finishes the line. You can adjust this in the behaviors pane under the option spread. Modify the values in the loop option if you want to speed up or slow down the effect.
There are also many other effects to try out, such as adding a timed glow to the text, or changing the typeface’s color during playback. What’s important is that you know how to play with the different parameters and its options.
A Powerful Tool
Sequence Text behavior is the most powerful text effect you can use in Motion. It allows you to create completely random effects from simple text movements to complex effect patterns.
Motion’s animation features are amazing, as they open a lot of possibilities when you’re editing. Learning the sequence text behavior, however, ensures that you won’t run out of styling and animating tricks because you have the one effect that rules them all.