Polk County Public Schools, Staff

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Technical Tip of the Week Archive

#8: Use Master Templates to make Multiple Graphics Easy

Have you ever worked on a show with a ton of lower thirds, for people’s names or full screen graphics done in Motion? Using a Master Template and Motion can make this process much more efficient.

So the old way, you would make your graphic elements in Motion and then save off a copy for each title. This method makes it a lot easier.

  1. Create your graphic in Motion
  2. File > Save as Template
  3. Click New Theme
  4. Type a name for the category of templates. "Show Templates" would be good
  5. Type a name for the specific template, ex: Anchor Namebar
  6. Launch FCP
  7. Select the generator icon (A inside a film reel) at the bottom right of the Viewer window
  8. Select Master Templates > Show Templates > Anchor Namebar.
  9. Now you can change text within the Control tab of the Viewer window.

Master Template