Animated text overview

After you create 2D or 3D text, you can apply dynamic animation effects using behaviors, keyframes, or a combination of both.

Although you can animate text using standard behavior types (Basic Motion, Parameter, or Simulation behaviors), two behavior categories in Motion are designed specifically for text:

• Text Sequence behaviors are preset behaviors that apply specific effects with no further customization necessary (although you can easily adjust them if you want to modify their effects). There are dozens of expressive presets to choose from, including Blur In, Frightened, Shock, Inflate Out, and Squish.

• Text Animation behaviors are highly customizable animation effects that allow you to create:

  • Scrolls and crawls for titles, credits, and lower thirds

  • Animated text tracking, which makes characters spread apart or compress together

  • “Type-on” effects, which make characters pop into view sequentially)

  • Powerful custom sequencing effects that animate color, outline, opacity, scale, and other attributes character by character

You apply a text behavior to a text object the same way you apply standard behaviors to any object in Motion. And after you apply and customize a text behavior, you can save it to the Library for future use.