5

2 Click the Project icon.
The Project Preferences pane is displayed.
3 In the Still Images & Layers section, set the Default Layer Duration preference:
• To create text that is the length of the project, select “Use project duration” (the default
setting). This means that if you are working in a 300-frame project and you create text,
the duration of the text (in the Timeline) is 300 frames.
Note: If Create Layers At is set to “Current frame” and you create text at frame 50, the
text spans frame 50 to frame 300.
• To create text of a specific duration, select “Use custom duration.” Next, enter a value
in the text field, then choose Frames or Seconds from the pop-up menu.
All layers you create will span the entered duration.
4 Set the Create Layers At preference:
• To create text at the current location of the playhead, select “Current frame.”
• To create text at the start of the project, select “Start of project.” With this preference,
all text is created at the beginning of the project, regardless of the playhead location.
Adding Text
In Motion, you create text in the Canvas using the Text tool. After selecting the Text tool
in the toolbar, click once in the Canvas and begin typing at the insertion point.
Alternatively, you can type text in the Text Inspector, or drag or import a text file into the
Motion workspace. After you add text to a project, you can apply filters to create special
effects or behaviors or keyframes to animate the text.
Adding Basic Text in the Canvas
This section describes basic techniques for adding text in the Canvas.
For information on adding paragraph text using the Text tool, see Adding Paragraph Text
in the Canvas.
For information on adding text using the Text editor, see Adding Text with the Text Editor.
For information on adding text to your project from an existing text file, see Adding a
Text File to a Project.
When Create Layers At is set to “Start of project” in the Project Preferences pane, text is
created at the first frame of the project. For example, if you are working in a 900-frame
project and you add text, the duration of the text is 900 frames. To shorten the duration
of the text, shorten the text layer duration in the Timeline or mini-Timeline. For more
information, see Using the Timeline.
809Chapter 16 Creating and Editing Text