How/Where can I learn how to make slick broadcast news style backgrounds and transitions in Motion?

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How/Where can I learn how to make slick broadcast news style backgrounds and transitions in Motion?

I bought a bundle of training tutorials from Ripple Training a few months back, and they were great!!! They really got me going from 0 to where I am now. Unfortunately, where I am now, is only about 50 out of 100. I would like to learn how to create super slick news backgrounds like this. I've tried to do it several times, and... I can get... something. But... there are some key concepts that I do not understand. For example... continuity.

Just as an example, let's say I...

Create a dark blue rectangle that fills the stage 1920 x 1080 px
Create a new layer and add a lighter blue circle in the bottom corner of the stage and blur it heavily
Create a third layer and add a smaller blue circle in the opposite corner. (See screen shot)

Then... I add four new layers that contain some "World map" vectors.... and I use blending modes like "overlay" and "subtract" as well as adjust their opacity... so they look cool as they pass by each other and over the background.

Now... I can easily just use Behavior > Basic Motion > Move and have all these layers move across the screen at varying rates, etc. And then I can add some other cool little doo dads that move around all flow'y like. BUT... I don't understand how to make it all "flow" in a way that will look normal in a loop.

If I create this thing as a Generator project, I may very well need it to be 20 min. long. Considering that the "action" in this thing should repeat every 15 seconds or so... I think it is important that I learn how to arrange things so they can loop. It's like creating wallpaper. Anyone designer can create a symbol... but the trick is creating one that you can cut into 1/4ths so it can repeat and scale. Anybody got any resources on how I can learn THIS kind of motion graphics for Apple Motion? Weirdly enough, YouTube is no help on this. I've searched a ton.

Posted on Jul 4, 2023 7:43 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 5, 2023 12:44 AM in response to Dolmetscher

You're off to a good start.

By default, animations in Motion are "stretchable", ie. when you put your generator into a FCP timeline, it slows down or speeds up to match the duration.

You can set Markers on your Motion timeline to affect this.

The simplest ones are the Build-In and Build-Out markers: the section up to the Build-In marker has a fixed duration, as does the section after Build-Out; the section between them "stretches" as needed.

A useful example: a title that comes, say, from the left with a move, stays on screen for as long as you want, then moves out. The build-in and build-out may each be 1 second, but the title can stay on screen for whatever period of time.

The question you are asking is a bit different, and requires two things:

a) A marker to set the point at which the animation loops;

b) You conceiving your animation in such a way that the looping looks natural - ideally, there should be a frame that is identical to the first one - let's say frame 250 is identical to frame 1. Then you set a Marker at frame 249, edit the Marker and set its type to Project Loop End.

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Answer 2

Jul 5, 2023 12:51 AM in response to Dolmetscher

You can learn more in the Motion manual, starting at page 528 (Intro to template markers in Motion).

I remember seeing some nice tutorial videos on this some time ago. If I can find where, and they happen to be available (they might have been from an old subscription and not public), I will try to post links here later today.

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How/Where can I learn how to make slick broadcast news style backgrounds and transitions in Motion?

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