Motype 2

Motype 2 is a unique title generator that renders text with trails and particles in 3D space for stunning results.

Motype 2 supports dense paragraphs just as easily as bold, large titles. It lets you restrict aspects of the animation (such as trails and particles) only to specific portions of your text. You can easily define these portions by appling a familar text style, such as underlines or outlines. For example, Motype 2 lets you have particles emitted only by characters with an outline, and trails created only by text you have underlined. Apply animations in 3D and effects to individual characters, words or lines.

All this, and much more, to help you deliver stunning titles at blazing speed. Take advantage of the large number of included presets to discover all the amazing looks made possible by Motype 2.

Compatibility

Motype 2 is compatible with Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Parameters

Presets

Presets contain a snapshot of your effect configuration. 306 built-in presets are available.

When you save parameter configuration to a file on disk, this file can later be loaded to recreate the same effect configuration. Presets generated in one video application can be used by the same plug-in running in a different video application.

How do I use the presets browser?

Text

Lets you edit stylized text used by the effect. Set to the following by default:

 ⮐ motype.2 ⮐ — ⮐ Motion Titles accelerated by Metal

Click the Edit button to modify the text through a separate window.

Text Editing Window

This parameter does not support inline images. When importing existing styled text files, inline images are omitted.

Characters

Enables the rendering of characters.

Trails

Enables the rendering of trails.

Particles

Enables the rendering of particles.

Background

Adds a solid background color behind the output. Disable this option to render with transparency and overlay Motype on top off any footage.

Background Color

Defines the background color.

Characters

Parameters in this group let you configure the appearance of text rendered on-screen.

Font Scale

Adjusts the global text scale by applying a multiplication factor to the font sizes defined in the Text Editor. Text is rendered in 3D Space and Z Position set in the Transformation Group can also influence the final scale appearance of the text. Font resolution is adjustable in the Rendering Group. Most of the time the default Medium resolution is sufficient for proper antialiasing. When you need to create extreme close ups, you can increase the rendering resolution with this setting.

Tracking

Manipulates the global character spacing. To adjust the space between individual letters, adjust kerning through the text editor.

Color Source

Defines how the characters are colored.

The following options are available:

  • Text Editor
    Text colors are defined by the settings made in the text editor.
  • Color Picker
    Applies a global solid color to all the text overriding the color defined in the text editor.
  • Hue Gradient
    Applies a color gradient to all of the text.
  • Hue Gradient (Underlined text only) — initial selection
    Use this setting to apply a color gradient to the text you underlined in the text editor.

Color

The Color Picker is available when Color Source is set to ignore colors set in the Text Editor.

Hue Cycle

Defines the amplitude of the gradient. The Hue Cycle can be positive or negative to determine the gradient direction.

Opacity

Sets the raw text opacity. This setting also allows to perform multi-pass rendering by creating separate layers with trails or particles only.

Layering Order

Sets the rendering order between the raw text and effects.

The following options are available:

  • Over Particles — initial selection
  • Behind Particles

Always Fill Outlines

When enabled, any text that has been assigned an outline in the Text Editor is drawn as if no outline had been applied.

This option effectively asks the plugin to ignore the outline as a style. This allows the outline to take on a different meaning.

Any outlined text may instead be used to drive features in the Motion Mixer, Trails and Particles groups.

Certain features can be enabled only for text that has been outlined. Another use of this setting is to allow rendering trails or particles as character outlines, while keeping the original text filled.

Stroke Thickness

Adjusts the outline thickness.

Homogenous Stroke

Stroke Thickness is generally proportional to font size but for aesthetic reasons you may want a homogenous thickness irrespective of the font size.

Layout

Parameters in this group let you configure how your text is laid out and aligned.

Layout Method

Controls whether text is laid out naturally or constrained to a given area.

The following options are available:

  • Free — initial selection
  • Rectangle

Bounding Box

This option is convenient to display the rectangle contours and help in the text box placement. Disable this option when rendering final output.

Overflow

The text overflow options let you automatically adjust the text size to fit into the rectangle or let it continue outside the bottom of the box.

The following options are available:

  • Visible
    Overflow is visible and escapes the bottom of the rectangle.
  • Shrink to Fit — initial selection
    The text is scaled down to fit in the rectangle.
  • Scale to Fit
    The text is scaled down or up to fit or fill the rectangle.

Padding

Adds an uniform padding to the text inside the rectangle.

Leading

When disabled, the gap between lines defined in the text editor is not respected and the distance between the lines is based on the glyph bounds. Use the line spacing parameter to add homogenous spacing.

Line Spacing

Increases or decreases the line spacing in proportion to the one defined in the text editor. This setting applies within paragraphs.

Paragraph Spacing

Increases or decreases the paragraph spacing. Paragraphs are defined by line breaks, sometimes referred as “carriage returns”.

Horizontal Alignment

The following options are available:

  • Text Editor
    Alignment is based on the settings defined in the Text Editor. It is possible to mix different alignments by applying them in the text editor. Notice this option is only available with the Rectangle Layout mode.
  • Left
    Aligns text to the left edge of the rectangle or based on the option defined in the Text Anchor Menu when the Layout Method is set to Free.
  • Right
    Aligns text to the right edge of the rectangle or based on the option defined in the Text Anchor Menu when the Layout Method is set to Free.
  • Centered — initial selection
    Horizontally center the text in the rectangle or based on the option defined in the Text Anchor Menu when the Layout Method is set to Free.
  • Justified
    Adds space between words or characters so that both edges of each line are aligned to the rectangle.
Set the horizontal text alignment.

Vertical Alignment

The following options are available:

  • Top
    Aligns first line with the top of the rectangle, or aligns it based on the current Text Anchor parameter value when the Layout Method is set to Free.
  • Centered — initial selection
    Vertically centers the text in the rectangle, or aligns it based on the current Text Anchor parameter value when the Layout Method is set to Free.
  • Bottom
    Aligns the last line of text to the bottom of the rectangle, or aligns it based on the current Text Anchor parameter value when the Layout Method is set to Free.
Sets vertical text alignment.

Suppress Indentation

Removes any indentation added to lines in the Text Editor. This forces all lines to be aligned left.

Note that this option also removes the typographic indentation of the first glyph for each line.

Text Anchor

Defines the text alignment anchor point when the Layout Method is set to Free.

The following options are available:

  • Canvas
    The alignment anchor is based on the canvas properties.
  • Control Point
    Alignment is anchored to the Position of the text control point.
  • Centered on Control Point — initial selection
    Text is horizontally formatted then centered on the control point Position.

Position

The text control point position when Layout Method is set to Free.

Point 1

First rectangle control point when the Layout Method is set to Rectangle.

Point 2

Secondary rectangle control point when the Layout Method is set to Rectangle.

Motion Timing

Parameters in this group let you adjust the timing of animations that apply to your text. While Trails and Particles are linked to the same timing, their animation is also affected by other parameters under those respective groups.

Animate

Defines how the animation affects the text elements.

The following options are available:

  • Characters — initial selection
    Animation is applied to each character of the text.
  • Characters Per Line
    Animation is applied to each character starting each line at the same time.
  • Words
    Animation is applied to each word.
  • Words Per Line
    nimation is applied to each word starting each line at the same time.
  • Lines
    Animation is applied to each line.

Sequencing

This menu lets you choose between a build-in animation (text is reconstructed) or a build-out animation (text is deconstructed).

The following options are available:

  • From — initial selection
    Text is reconstructed coming from the position defined in the Motion Mixer Group.
  • To
    Text is deconstructed going to the position defined in the Motion Mixer Group.

Duration (frames)

Sets the duration of the animation in frames.

Synchronize

Defines if text elements appear as a constant flow or as dynamic, separate entities. The duration of the animation is distributed across the text elements (as defined in the Animation menu).

Interpolation

This menu provides different interpolation modes from start to end of the text animations controlled by the Motion Mixer. It specifies the rate of change over time.

The following options are available:

  • Linear
    Simple linear tweening, with no easing
  • Quadratic In
    Easing equation function for a quadratic easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Quadratic Out
    Easing equation function for a quadratic easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Quadratic In Out
    Easing equation function for a quadratic easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Cubic In
    Easing equation function for a cubic easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Cubic Out
    Easing equation function for a cubic easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Cubic In-Out
    Easing equation function for a cubic easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Exponential In
    Easing equation function for an exponential easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Exponential Out
    Easing equation function for an exponential easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Exponential In-Out
    Easing equation function for an exponential easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Sinusoidal In
    Easing equation function for a sinusoidal easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Sinusoidal Out
    Easing equation function for a sinusoidal easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Sinusoidal In-Out
    Easing equation function for a sinusoidal easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Elastic Ease In
    Easing equation function for an elastic (exponentially decaying sine wave) easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity
  • Elastic Ease Out
    Easing equation function for an elastic (exponentially decaying sine wave) easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Elastic Ease In-Out
    Easing equation function for an elastic (exponentially decaying sine wave) easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Back Ease In
    Easing equation function for a back (overshooting cubic easing) easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Back Ease Out
    Easing equation function for a back (overshooting cubic easing) easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Back Ease In-Out
    Easing equation function for a back (overshooting cubic easing)easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Bounce Ease In
    Easing equation function for a bounce (exponentially decaying parabolic bounce) easing in. Accelerating from zero velocity.
  • Bounce Ease Out — initial selection
    Easing equation function for a bounce (exponentially decaying parabolic bounce) easing out. Decelerating from zero velocity.
  • Bounce Ease In-Out
    Easing equation function for a bounce (exponentially decaying parabolic bounce) easing in/out. Acceleration until halfway, then deceleration.
  • Freeze (Use Time Offset to Set Time )
    No interpolation. timing is keyframable manually with the Time Offset parameter.

Random Order

When enabled, text no longer animates in the writing order. Characters are instead rendered in random order.

Random Seed

Allows you to select a different set of randomized values when Random Order is on.

Time Offset

Adds a positive or negative time offset to the start of the animation. When the Interpolation menu is set to Freeze this parameter lets you keyframe the animation timing manually.

Motion Mixer

Parameters in this group let you animate characters without keyframes. Animation paths are defined by mixing geometric transformations in 3D over time.

Motion paths define the trajectory and orientation of text, as well as their trails when the Motion Painting or Motion Blur options are enabled under the Trails group. Motion paths can be previewed at any time by enabling the Show Motion Paths option.

Motype lets you restrict transformations to specific characters, words or lines in your text. You can assign a style in the text editor, such as underline, and restrict a given transformation to underlined text only. The underline (or outline) style isn’t actually rendered in the final output. This allows you build complex animations by changing text attributes through a familiar text editing UI.

Note that the Opacity Fade parameter always applies to all text.

Opacity Fade

Define the incoming opacity fade time (when Sequencing is set to the From option) or outgoing opacity fade time (when Sequencing is set to the To option) as a percentage of the total duration. When this parameter is set to zero the fade is deactivated and opacity remains fixed at 100%.
Note that the Trails group provides a Text Crossfade parameter which also affects the opacity of each character.

Position Apply To

You can restrict position animation to a portion of the text. Note that the Opacity Fade parameter always applies to all text.

The following options are available:

  • All Text — initial selection
    Is the default setting where the corresponding transformation type is applied to all the text.
  • Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the first line of text.
  • Not Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the text located after the first line break.
  • Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Outlined
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you outlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Outlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not outlined in the Text Editor.

Position Symmetry

This menu controls symmetry on a particular axis.

The following options are available:

  • None — initial selection
    No Symmetry.
  • X
    Symmetry in the X axis.
  • Y
    Symmetry in the Y axis.
  • Z
    Symmetry in the Z axis.
  • XY
    Symmetry in the XY axes.
  • XYZ
    Symmetry in the XYZ axes.

Position X

Position XYZ defines the starting position (when the Sequencing parameter under Motion Timing is set to From) or ending position (when the Sequencing parameter under Motion Timing is set to To) of the text elements (characters, words, lines) during the animation.

Position Random

Add randomness to the start or end position of each character.

Rotation Apply To

You can restrict rotation animation to a portion of the text based on whether it’s a headline, underlined or outlined. Note that the Opacity Fade parameter always applies to all text.

The following options are available:

  • All Text — initial selection
    Is the default setting where the corresponding transformation type is applied to all the text.
  • Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the first line of text.
  • Not Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the text located after the first line break.
  • Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Outlined
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you outlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Outlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not outlined in the Text Editor.

Rotation Symmetry

This menu specifies adds symmetry to the rotation axis.

The following options are available:

  • None — initial selection
    No Symmetry.
  • X
    Symmetry in the X axis.
  • Y
    Symmetry in the Y axis.
  • Z
    Symmetry in the Z axis.
  • XY
    Symmetry in the XY axes.
  • XYZ
    Symmetry in the XYZ axes.

Rotation Origin

This menu decides which semantic unit in the text (characters, words, lines) provides the anchor point for rotations. The Origin XYZ parameters let you offset the initial anchor points as needed, along each axis.

The following options are available:

  • Character — initial selection
    Rotation anchor points are located at the center of characters.
  • Character Baseline
    Rotation anchor point is located horizontally at the center of the character and vertically on the baseline
  • Word
    Rotation anchor point is located at the center of words.
  • Line
    Rotation anchor point is located at the center of lines.
  • Layout
    Rotation anchor point is located at the center of the Layout. Depending of the Layout Method it is the center of the rectangle or the position of the Text Anchor point.

Orient Along Path

Orients characters so they are perpendicular to the motion path drawing a realistic curve in 3D space. Characters forming trails may sometimes be invisible when facing away from the viewer. Disabling this option prevents this issue.

Rotation X

Sets the angle of rotation along the X axis of each element during the animation.

Rotation Y

Sets the angle of rotation along the Y axis of each element during the animation.

Rotation Z

Sets the angle of rotation along the Z axis of each element during the animation.

Rotation Smart Spin

This option lets you invert the rotation angle for the character located before or after the center of each word, to create symmetrical effects. Note that this feature is only available when the Rotation Origin menu is not set to Characters.

Rotation Random

Add randomness to each element’s rotation angle.

Origin Symmetry

This menu specifies adds symmetry to the origin axis.

The following options are available:

  • None — initial selection
    No Symmetry.
  • X
    Symmetry in the X axis.
  • Y
    Symmetry in the Y axis.
  • Z
    Symmetry in the Z axis.
  • XY
    Symmetry in the XY axes.
  • XYZ
    Symmetry in the XYZ axes.

Origin Offset X

This parameters let you add a global offset along the X axis to the rotation origin as defined by the Rotation Origin parameter.

Origin Offset Y

This parameters let you add a global offset along the Y axis to the rotation origin as defined by the Rotation Origin parameter.

Origin Offset Z

This parameters let you add a global offset along the Z axis to the rotation origin as defined by the Rotation Origin parameter.

Animate Origin

When enabled, the Origin Offset values decrease from their initial value to zero as the animation progresses.

Origin Random

Add randomness to the Origin Offset values.

Scale Apply To

You can restrict scale animation to a portion of the text. Note that the Opacity Fade parameter always applies to all text.

The following options are available:

  • All Text — initial selection
    Is the default setting where the corresponding transformation type is applied to all the text.
  • Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the text located after the first line break.
  • Not Headline
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Underlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Outlined Text
    The transformation type is applied only to the text you outlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Outlined
    The transformation type is applied only to text that is not outlined in the Text Editor.

Scale

Defines the start scale (when the Sequencing parameter under Motion Timing is set to From) or end scale (when the Sequencing parameter is set to To) of each text element during the animation.

Random Seed

Allows you to select a different set of randomized values for all parameters under the Motion Mixer group.

Show Motion Paths

Display the animation motion paths to help design beautiful motion trajectories. Remember to disable this option for final output.

Paths Opacity

Set to 100% by default.

Trails

Parameters in this group let you configure the appearance of trails, as well as decide which portions of your text will create a trail.

Characters are extruded along motion paths to create different styles. Trails can be produced via Motion Blur or Motion Painting techniques, with several rendering options that transform the results into light trails, curved long shadows and more.

You can inject fractal noise into trails to perturb their shape and create flowing text effects or snake-like motion paths. Trail colors are fully customizable: they may originate from colors assigned in the text editor, they may be assigned random hues or gradients along their path. As trail opacity may vary over time, enable the Show Motion Paths parameter under the Motion Mixer group to preview trail paths. Doing so will help you better visualize and customize trail animations.

Trail Mode

Sets a rendering method for the trails.

The following options are available:

  • Motion Blur
    Simulates Motion Blur creating a shutter effect to the border of the character. Our Motion Blur has an unrealistically large shutter angle capable of accentuating trailing blurs. As an option you can deactivate the normal symmetric drawing to produce a directional trailing effect.
  • Motion Painting — initial selection
    Simulates long exposures, light trails, curved long shadows or snake-like tails along the animation path or flowing text. This option is more advanced than Motion Blur, especially when it comes to timing of the animation.

Samples

The number of replicas generated for each character in the output. Increase the number of samples to improve quality. You can theoretically push this value to 50 000 instances per character. Please note that a high-end graphics card is required to render with large number of samples.

Motion Paint Length

Adjust the trail length as a percentage of the total motion path length.

Apply To

Motype lets you interpret certain semantic or stylistic attributes of your text to control which characters to draw trails for.

The following options are available:

  • All Text — initial selection
    Is the default setting where all characters create trails.
  • Headline
    Trails are created only for the first line of text.
  • Not Headline
    Trails are created only from the second line of text onward.
  • Underlined
    Trails are created only for text you underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Underlined
    Trails are created only for text you did not underline in the Text Editor.
  • Outlined
    Trails are created only for text with an outline, as applied in the Text Editor. Note that regardless of any outlines applied in the text editor, you can force text to render as filled-in by enabling the Always Fill Outlines option under the Character group.
  • Not Outlined
    Trails are created only for text that does not have an outline, as applied in the Text Editor. Note that regardless of any outlines applied in the text editor, you can force text to render as filled-in by enabling the Always Fill Outlines option under the Character group.
  • Random Selection
    Trails are applied to random portions of your text, as determined by the Selection Probability and Random Seed parameters below.

Selection Probability

Define a percentage of characters to be randomly selected for trail generation when the Apply To menu is set to Random Selection.

Random Seed

Allows you to select a different set of randomized values when Random Selection is active.

Shutter

Adjusts the motion blur stretch and increases trail length.

Symmetric Shutter

Motion Blur produces by default an output that is symmetrical, around the boundaries of each moving element. You can disable this symmetry to create an artificial shutter that is biased towards only one direction.

Fade

Enable an automatic fade-out effect based on the Fade Begin At parameter. The related Fade-Out and Fade Offset parameters allow you to adjust the timing. The fade-out applies to trail opacity and optionally to the Noise Amount parameter. When opacity fade-out starts, the Noise Amount value (when greater than zero) is incremented to produce a flowing effect.

Fade Begin At

Sets the timing of trail fade-out effect.

The following options are available:

  • Animation Start
    The Fade - Out is set to the animation’s start. A time offset can be added or subtracted by adjusting the Fade Offset value.
  • Animation End — initial selection
    The Fade - Out starts at the end of the animation. A time offset can be added or subtracted by adjusting the Fade Offset value.
  • Element Start
    The Fade - Out is set to the text element start (depending on the Synchronize setting of the Motion timing Group). A time offset can be added or subtracted by adjusting the Fade Offset value.
  • Element End
    The Fade - Out starts at the end of the text element animation (depending on the Synchronize setting of the Motion timing Group). A time offset can be added or subtracted by adjusting the Fade Offset value.
  • Automatic
    The Fade - Out start is calculated automatically based on the end of the text element animation minus the Fade-Out Duration.

Fade Offset (frames)

Shifts the start of the fade-out effect by the given offset, in frames.

Fade-Out (frames)

Sets the duration in frames of the fade-out effect.

Noise Amount

Adds fractal noise to oscillate the tail of each trail in 3D space. The amount of noise is constant when the Fade parameter is disabled. When Fade is on, the amount of noise is proportional to opacity, as controlled by the fade-out effect.

Noise Frequency

Adjusts the frequency of the oscillation, one of the properties of the noise function.

Noise Speed

Set the oscillation speed when noise amount is constant throughout the animation (this is true when the Fade parameter is off).

Text Crossfade

Adjust the crossfade timing between parameters set under the Trails and Characters groups. When this parameter is set to zero, the original characters remain visible in the output, always.

Sharp Tails

Decrease trail thickness along its path, for a pointier appearance.

Trails Color

Parameters in this group let you assign colors to any trails rendered in the output, and determine if and how the colors change over time or location.

Color Source

Defines how the trails are colored.

The following options are available:

  • Text Editor
    Trail colors are defined by the color you assign in the Text Editor.
  • Color Picker
    Applies the same color to all trails.
  • Hue By Element
    Assigns different colors to each element, as defined by the Hue Element parameter, along the color wheel.
  • Hue By Element (Random)
    Assigns random colors to each element, as defined by the Hue Element parameter.
  • Hue Along Path — initial selection
    Assigns a gradient along the trail path whose hue varies according to the Hue Cycle parameter.

Color

Assigns a solid color for the trails, which may remain constant or animated by hue, based on how other parameters in this group are configured.

Hue Cycle

Determines how many loops are made around the standard color wheel as the trail gradient is drawn. A value of one means that a single loop around the color wheel is made to produce the gradient. Values greater than one can be used to produce fast-changing gradients, such as rainbows.

Hue Element

This menu decides which semantic element in the text is used to control hue gradient generation.

The following options are available:

  • Character — initial selection
    Hue is driven by characters.
  • Word
    Hue is driven by words.
  • Line
    Hue is driven by lines.

Color Vibrance

Decrease the intensity of the brighter colors. This feature highlights the more saturated colors while decreasing pure white.

Blend Mode

This pop-up menu sets the method used to blend trails in the output. Note that all blend modes except Add will produce different results depending on how the Render Order parameter is confifgured. It is a good idea to experiment with different combinations of the Blend Mode and Render Order parameters to get the best look.

The following options are available:

  • Over
    Paints the trails on top of each other. Works well to render curved long shadows. Experiment with Over and Vivid to get the better results.
  • Add — initial selection
    Paints the trails adding their pixels values. This mode can produces very bright colors with over exposure. Adjust the trail opacity to simulate light trails.
  • Max
    Paints the trails comparing pixels to return the maximum value. This mode creates filled trails with a soft saturation. Perfect to achieve perfectly filled trails without any internal motion trace. Push the opacity to the max value to get smooth desaturated trails.
  • Color Burn
    This mode is interesting over bright backgrounds, creating a look similar to Chinese ink colors on the trails
  • Vivid
    Paints the trails on top of each other in reverse order. Works well to render curved long shadows. Experiment with Over and Vivid to get better results.

Opacity Curve

This pop-up menu determines the opacity curve along the trails.

The following options are available:

  • None
    Opacity remains constant over the length of each trail.
  • Quadratic
    A quadratic curve is applied to the opacity of each trail from beginning to end.
  • Exponential — initial selection
    An exponential curve is applied to the opacity of each trail from beginning to end.

Opacity

Sets the opacity of all trails.

Render Order

Changes the trail rendering order.

The following options are available:

  • Samples — initial selection
    On this setting, replicas of each character are rendered from end to beginning of the trail.
  • Chararacters
    Trails are rendered in the same order as characters.

Unmultiply

This option sets the alpha value of each pixel based on the maximum value found in the red, green or blue channels. This trick removes dark fringes that would otherwise appear when compositing lighting effects over a bright background. Note that pure black trails are transparent (invisible) when this option is activated, as black has a value of zero in all three color components.

Particles

Parameters in this group let you turn text elements (characters, words, headlines) into particle emitters. Emitters are triggered at key moments in the animation.

Apply To

Motype lets you interpret certain semantic or stylistic attributes of your text to control which characters to emit particles from.

The following options are available:

  • All Text — initial selection
    Is the default setting where the particles are emitted from all the text.
  • Headline
    Particles are emitted only from the first line of text.
  • Not Headline
    Particles are emitted only from all the text located after the first line break.
  • Underlined
    Particles are emitted only from the text you underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Not Underlined
    Particles are emitted only from text that is not underlined in the Text Editor.
  • Outlined
    Particles are emitted only from the text you outlined in the Text Editor. Notice you can force the raw text to render without outlines choosing the Always Fill Outlines option in the Character Group.
  • Not Outlined
    Particles are emitted only from the text that is not outlined in the Text Editor.
  • Random Selection
    Particles are emitted only from a random selection of the text where you can define a probability and the random seed.

Selection Probability

Defines a percentage of characters that will be randomly picked to emit particles when the Apply To parameter is set to Random Selection.

Particle Emitter

Selects which text element is emitted as a particle.

The following options are available:

  • Character — initial selection
    Each character becomes its own particle.
  • Word
    Emit entire words as particles.
  • Line
    Emit entire lines of text as particles.

Single Birth Cycle

When this option is activated a single particle is emitted with an adjustable lifetime.

Birth Rate

Adjusts the number of particles created in one second. Set this value below 10 to create a text strobe effect, when particle Life is very low. A more frequent birth rate creates a larger volume of particles.

Lifetime (frames)

Adjusts the lifetime of each particle.

Emitter Start At

Sets the trigger of the emitters.

The following options are available:

  • Animation Start
    All the emitters start when the text animation starts.
  • Animation End
    All the emitters start when the text animation is complete. A time offset can be added or subtracted by adjusting the Start Offset parameter.
  • Element Start — initial selection
    Emitters are triggered by the text element animation start (depending to the Synchronize parameter under the Motion Timing group). Start time may be offset by adjusting the Start Offset parameter.
  • Element End
    Emitters are triggered when the text element animation is finished (depending to the Synchronize parameter under the Motion Timing group). Start time may be offset by adjusting the Start Offset parameter.

Start Offset (frames)

Adds a positive or negative offset (in frames) to shift the start time for emitters.

Duration (frames)

Lifetime of the emitters, in frames.

Fade-Out (frames)

Sets the duration of the fade-out effect applied towards the end of the emitter’s lifetime.

Face Camera

Off by default.

Forces the particles to always face the camera direction.

Direction

This pop-up menu determines the direction of the particle streams along each axis.

The following options are available:

  • X (right)
    Emits particles to the right.
  • X (left)
    Emits particles to the left.
  • X (left & right)
    Emits particles to the left and right.
  • Y (top)
    Emits particles to the top.
  • Y (bottom)
    Emits particles to the bottom.
  • Y (top & bottom)
    Emits particles to the top and bottom.
  • Z (front)
    Emits particles to the front.
  • Z (back)
    Emits particles to the back.
  • Z (front & back)
    Emits particles to the front and back.
  • XY (left, right, top, bottom)
    Emits particles vertically and horizontally.
  • Random 2D — initial selection
    Emits particles in random directions on the X and Y axis.
  • Random 3D
    Emits particles in random directions on the X,Y,Z axis.
  • Motion Path
    Emits particles along the character motion paths.
  • Mirrored Motion Path
    Emits particles along a 3D mirrored version of the character motion paths.

Speed

This value controls particle velocity as the rate of change in position over one second.

Speed Randomness

Add random variations to the particle speed at different emitters.

Spread

Adds randomness to the particle motion path.

Tracking

Determine how the position of the particle emitters relates to the animation.

The following options are available:

  • Follow Animation — initial selection
    Emitter position tracks the motion path of the text element. The emitter will follow the element as it animates.
  • Final Position
    Emitter position is fixed at the final location that text elements are animating to.

Offset XY

Offset the emitter positions. All particles are transformed as a single layer.

Layer Size

Changes the global size of the particle layer.

Size Over Life

This pop-up menu provides several options to animate the particle size over lifetime.

The following options are available:

  • Constant — initial selection
    Particle size remains constant during its lifetime.
  • Scale up
    Particles scale up as they are emitted.
  • Scale down
    Particles scale down as they approach the end of their lifetime.
  • Scale in-out
    Particles scale-up when emitted, and scale-down at the end of their lifetime.

Particle Size

Changes the size of the particles relative to the origin of particle emitter (characters, words or lines as defined by the Particle Emitter parameter).

Size Randomness

Adds randomness to the particle size.

Angle Direction

This pop-up menu sets the direction of the particles rotation.

The following options are available:

  • Clockwize
    Rotate in the same direction as a clock’s hand, from the top to the right.
  • Counterclockwize
    Rotate in the opposite direction of the clock’s hand, from the top to the left.
  • Both — initial selection
    Rotate the particles from top to left or top to right according to the parity of their index.

Angle Speed

Set to 0 by default.

The slider is limited to values between 0 and 1 but you can type values between -∞ and +∞ by clicking on the current value in the inspector.

The rate at which particles rotate.

Angle Randomness

Set to 0% by default.

Adds randomness to the particle rotation angle.

Random Seed

Allows you to select a different set of randomized values for all parameters under the Particles group.

Particles Source

Selects a source for the particle texture.

The following options are available:

  • Text Editor — initial selection
    Particles use the main text edtor as particle source.
  • Particles Editor
    Particles use their own text edtor as particle source.

Particles

Lets you edit stylized text used by the effect. Set to the following by default:

•+◼︎⎔○✚△►

Click the Edit button to modify the text through a separate window.

Text Editing Window

This parameter does not support inline images. When importing existing styled text files, inline images are omitted.

The particle editor allows you to choose a series of characters and/or symbols to texture the particles. Each element can be stylized and colored.

Particles Color

Parameters in this group let you assign colors to any particles emitted in the output, and determine if and how the colors change over time or location.

Color Source

Defines how the particles are colored.

The following options are available:

  • Text Editor — initial selection
    Particle colors are defined by the color assigned in the text editor.
  • Color Picker
    Applies the same color to all particles.
  • Hue Per Element
    Assigns different colors to each particle, varied along the color wheel.
  • Hue Per Element (Random)
    Assigns random colors to each particle, varied along the color wheel.
  • Hue Over Life
    Particle color changes over its lifetime according to the Hue Cycle parameter.

Color

Assigns a solid color for the particles, which may remain constant or animated by hue, based on how other parameters in this group are configured.

Hue Cycle

Determines how many loops are made around the standard color wheel as the trail gradient is drawn. A value of one means that a single loop around the color wheel is made.

Blend Mode

This pop-up menu sets the method used to blend particles in the output. Note that all blend modes except Add will produce different results depending on how the Render Order parameter is confifgured. It is a good idea to experiment with different combinations of the Blend Mode and Render Order parameters to get the best look.

The following options are available:

  • Over
    Paints the particles on top of each other.
  • Add — initial selection
    Paints the trails adding their pixels values. This mode can produces very bright colors with over exposure. Adjust the particles opacity to control the exposure.
  • Max
    Paints the particles comparing pixels to return the maximum value. This mode creates filled particles with a soft saturation.
  • Color Burn
    This mode is interesting over bright backgrounds, creating a look similar to Chinese ink colors on the particles.
  • Vivid
    Paints the particles on top of each other in reverse order.

Opacity

Set to 100% by default.

Fade Mode

This menu defines different types of fading happening at the start or end of the particle life.

The following options are available:

  • None
    Particle opacity remains constant during its lifetime.
  • Fade In
    Particles fade in as they are emitted.
  • Fade Out — initial selection
    Particles fade out as they approach the end of their lifetime.
  • Fade In-Out
    Particles fade-in when emitted, and fade-out at the end of their lifetime.

Render Order

Changes the particles rendering order.

The following options are available:

  • Samples — initial selection
    On this setting, particles are rendered from end to beginning of the animation.
  • Chararacters
    Particles are rendered in the same order as characters.

Unmultiply

This option sets the alpha value of each pixel based on the maximum value found in the red, green or blue channels. This trick removes dark fringes that would otherwise appear when compositing lighting effects over a bright background. Note that pure black trails are transparent (invisible) when this option is activated, as black has a value of zero in all three color components.

Transformations

Parameters under this group rotate and move the scene in 3D space.

Use Host Camera

This option only appears in After Effects or Apple Motion and activates direct support for the current 3D camera. When this parameter is disabled, the current camera set by the host app is ignored. Motype uses its own 3D space that is distinct from the one used by the rest of the timeline. Turning off native camera support allows you to render 2D text over content drawn according to the current camera position and orientation.

Position XY

Sets the XY position of the 3D environment.

Position Z

Sets the Z position of the 3D environment.

Rotate Around Origin

Turn this option off to rotate around the center of the text layer. Enable this option to select the desired rotation origin through the Origin parameter below.

Origin

This parameter lets you choose a 3D rotation origin.

The following options are available:

  • Scene Center — initial selection
    3D rotations are relative to the current 3D scene’s X,Y,Z position.
  • Motion Mixer Origin
    3D rotations are relative to the Motion Mixer origin and offset.

Rotation X

Angle of 3D rotation around the X axis.

Rotation Y

Angle of 3D rotation around the Y axis.

Rotation Z

Angle of 3D rotation around the Z axis.

Rendering

Parameters in this group let you configure some advanced features of the plug-in.

Font Resolution

Controls the resolution of all rendered text. In most cases the default Medium resolution is sufficient to guarantee anti-aliased output. For extreme close-ups, increase the resolution to allow more detail to be preserved.

The following options are available:

  • Original
  • Low
  • Medium (Default) — initial selection
  • High
  • Extreme

Color - Random Seed

Allows you to select a different set of randomized values for the trail and particle random color generator.

Missing Font

Set a font to be used when opening a previous project which uses a font that is not available on this system.