Apple Motion 4 - Manual (Page 753)

In motion graphics, typography communicates much more than just basic
information—titles, dates, and tag lines. Visual and kinetic type on the screen can also
provoke an immediate and often powerful emotional response. A title sequence can set
the mood for the film it introduces. A specific combination of text and animation can
instantly identify a broadcast network. And a clever television interstitial can forestall a
bored viewer from flipping channels during a commercial break. Type design is an art
form. Just look at the opening title sequence by Friz Freleng for Blake Edwards’ The Pink
Panther. Freleng’s animated titles—featuring a design and graphics style that holds up
even today, more than 40 years later—not only set the comic tone for a film franchise,
but launched the (virtual) career of an animated icon (with a little help from Henry
Mancini’s suave theme music).
Although trends in type design change, the balanced use of type and graphics remains
the key to achieving the right effect in commercials, documentaries, television and film
titles, broadcast logos, corporate presentations, or your own personal video projects. No
matter what style your project requires, Motion provides unique text animation tools that
offer immediate results.
This chapter covers the following:
• About Text in Motion (p. 754)
• Setting Motion Preferences for Text (p. 755)
• Adding Text (p. 756)
• Using the Text Tools (p. 768)
• About Fonts (p. 769)
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Creating and Editing Text 13