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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Set the horizontal text alignment.

Vertical Alignment

The following options are available:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Position Symmetry

This menu controls symmetry on a particular axis.

The following options are available:

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:

Rotation Symmetry

This menu specifies adds symmetry to the rotation axis.

The following options are available:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Opacity Curve

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

The following options are available:

Opacity

Sets the opacity of all trails.

Render Order

Changes the trail rendering order.

The following options are available:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Render Order

Changes the particles rendering order.

The following options are available:

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:

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:

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.