Pinnacle with Studio 14 introduced a new titler called Motion Title. Motion Title is available in Ultimate and Ultimate Collection versions of Studio 14.

After several years of loyal service, Title Deko, the historical titler of Studio, just happen to see a little brother. Indeed the two titlers coexist. Motion Title has new features, but only Title Deko still allows to create interactive menus for your disks (DVD, Blu-Ray).

I suggest in this tutorial to discover this new tool.

General overview :

Motion Title may as Title Deko create a full screen title or an overlay title on an existing video.
A full-screen title is placed on the main video track, while an overlay title is placed on the title track.

To open Motion Title, right-click a track and in the pulldown menu Go to Motion Title Editor :

Those who are used to create titles on the overlay track by double-clicking may still, but Motion Title will be launched instead of Title Deko.
To open Title Deko, in the same manner as above, right-click a track and Go to Classic Title/Menu Editor :

This is what we get to the opening of Motion Title :

There are five main areas :

1. The title bar
2. The album
3. The edit and preview window
4. The background panel
5. The layer list

Before turning to the description of these tabs, just a warning. Do not make the same mistake as me ! Buttons Undo / Redo as seen in the upper right of the edit window

are not those of  Motion Title, but those of Studio. To undo or redo an action in Motion Title, you must go to the Edit menu in the upper left :

or use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.

(1) The title bar :

From left to right :

• The category and the name of our title :
• An area of general settings of the text :
  We'll go into more detail on these parameters later.
• An area where we can define the duration and close the titler :
  The duration can also be set directly on the timeline of Studio by stretching the title with the mouse.

(2) The allbum :

Several types of "objects" can be used in the titler. Such objects are selectable from an album the same as the one integrated in Studio. There are five categories of objects, each accessible via a tab.

The Videos tab :

Here you can select a Video and make it appear as an element in the edition window . Like in the Studio album, the Video may have been cut beforehand into scenes or scenes have been combined together.

To insert a Video or you double-click on it or you move it with the mouse by dragging and dropping from the album to the edit window.
The Video appears by default in full screen.

It can be resized with the mouse using one of the eight checkpoints around the framework of our Video :

Tip 1 : by pressing the Shift key while resizing, it retains the proportions of the Video.

Tip 2 : if we reduce of of the dimensions of a frame to zero and we continue to move the mouse, the Video is reversed. As if the viewer's eye passed behind the screen. The right becomes the left or the top becomes the bottom or both.

You can move the Video :

And rotate it :

The Photos tab :

Here you can select a Photo and make it appear as an element in the edition window. They appear by default in their original size.

All operations for resizing, moving and rotation that can be applied to the Videos are valid for Photos.

The Objects tab :

The Objects are graphical elements. There are three categories of Objects :

• Miscellaneous : they are Objects with transparent background
• Signs : they are Objects with opaque background
• Textures : as their name suggests these Objects can serve as a texture for the background

Here you can select an Object and make it appear as an element in the edition window.

Bonus :

Motion Title comes with a limited amount of Objects. You can expand that list by adding yourself items to folders for XP : C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Pinnacle\Content\MotionTitles\-Objects\Miscellaneous for the folder Miscellaneous (files must be of type. png with alpha channel), C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Pinnacle\Content\MotionTitles\-Objects\Signs for the folder Signs and C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Pinnacle\Content\MotionTitles\-Objects\Textures for the folder Textures. For Vista and Seven the beginning of the path must be C:\Users\Public\Public documents\Pinnacle\Content\Motions Titles\.
If you add a file it is immediately visible in the album in Motion Title.

All operations for resizing, moving and rotation that can be applied to the Videos are valid for Objects.

The Looks tab :

As its name suggests, a Look can change the look of a text or a geometric shape.

You can use a Look already registered or completely change its settings.

Take this text :

and apply the Look Blue Neon Outline. This is what happens :

Until then, that is basic ! By clicking on Settings you see that this Look has a Face, an Edge and a Shadow :

By pressing the + we enter the specific parameters of each element : its offset (position), its size, its color, its opacity and its blur.

What is interesting is that you can add other elements like Face, Edge or Shadow and set each element at will.

For example, let's add a Face by pressing the first A+. A new face has just appeared, named Faced 2 :

Let's set Offset X to 100, Offset Y to 50, add a few blur, change its color to green :

And this is what you get :

We just create a Look that makes everything written in double.

By adding other faces or edges or shadows the possibilities are endless. To remove an item from the stack, simply click the trashcan button in front of the element and it's done.

With Save Look you save your job by giving the Look the new name you want. All that you save can be reused by opening the folder My Looks instead of Standard :

The motions tab :

It is one of the innovative features of Motion Title, the ability to animate items. There are three main categories of Motions :

1. Motions that apply to the arrival of the item on the screen : Enter.
2. Motions that apply en route : Emphasis.
3. Motions that apply to the output of the item on the screen : Exit.

In each category there are three types of Motions. Take the example of a multi-line text. Some Motions will apply to every letter, some to every, some to every line and some to the whole text.
Normally when a Motion exists in Enter, its symmetrical equivalent exists in Exit. But this is not systematic.

To apply a Motion to an element or you double-click the Motion after the item is selected, or you move it with the mouse with a drag and drop from the album to the edit window.

(3) The edit and preview window :

Here come the various elements selected in the album

Everything is handled directly with the mouse..

This is also where you can view the complete course of the title.

(4) The management of the background :

When opening Motion Title, the background is completely black when opened on the Main video track of Studio, or is replaced by the video on the Main video track of Studio if Motion Title has been opened on the Title track .

Above the primary background can be grafted another background. It is initially always transparent, that's why we do not see it.

You can replace the background with a solid color. For this we use the eyedropper or classic color selection dialog of Windows.
With the knob is managed transparency of the background.

What is more interesting is to replace the background with a photo or video. Just select it in the album and drag and drop it into the target rectangle :

Alternatively, use one of the textures available in the Objects.

To remove the background you added, a simple click on the trashcan icon.

(5) The layers management area :

1) Let's start by looking at icons of high.

First the T to enter text. As we spoke earlier in this tutorial, entering a text allows icons activation of general settings area of the text in the title bar :

I will not describe the buttons to make text bold, italic, underlined, nor those of police management or its size, nor the menu Text alignment menu. All this is very classic.
No, I'll just tell you about the menu Text flow :

These settings determine how the text should be written. For example, if you choose Bottom to Top, Right to Left, the text "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" will appear as it :

You got it ?

Then you can add a geometric shape :

Remember that you can apply a Look to a geometric shape.

After that, we found the buttons Alignment and Grouping :

These buttons are available only if at least two elements have been selected. They have the same functions as in Title Deko. Alignment manages how the elements are aligned against each other. While Grouping allows to link elements together so they form a whole. We return to this point later.

The next button allows to manage the stacking position of layers on each other :

We return to this point later.

Then, a series of buttons that control title playback :

You can skip to the beginning or end of the title, forward or backward one image or just read.

Then come the buttons to copy/paste and delete an item. A menu accessible by right-clicking the mouse in the editing window also gives access to these functions. All this is super classic.

Finally a counter hours/minutes/seconds/frames indicates the timing of Title.

2) Let's take a look at the area called Layers List.

In Motion Title can be used seven layers + the background that never appears in the list + the host video (the one on the video track in Studio if you created a transparent title) which does not appear in the list.
Each object inserted in the title occupies a layer.
The layers above the stack are those most "close" to the eye of the observer.

Only three layers are displayed in the list. To the right of the Layers List, a scroll-bar allows to reach other layers :

For those who have difficulty with the concept of layer I recommend reading the introduction of our tutorial Handling layers with Gimp.

The left side shows that the layers have a name :

The default is the file name corresponding to the object used or typed text if it is an object of type text.
You can rename each layer by double-clicking its name.

To the right of the name is a eye-shaped button that can display or not the layer and hence its associated object. It's very convenient when many objects are placed on each other and you want to select one of the objects in the background.
Just next door is a padlock-shaped button. It can lock/unlock a layer. When a layer is locked its associated object is no longer selectable in the edit window. Again this facilitates the manipulation of objects when there are many in the editing window.

The order of the layers can be modified to pass an object ahead another one. Just go up or down with the mouse the layers in the Layers List. Or use the button Layer we talked a little higher.

A little earlier, I explained to you that it was possible to group objects. See the impact of grouping in layers.
Let's group the object Picture (which is a photo) and the object 02 - Shapes (which is a star). For this, we select these two objects in the editing window or their associated layers in the Layers List and we make Grouping.
Here's what happens :

A line called GroupLayers appeared. We see that the two bottom layers are part of this group because their name is shifted to the right. Any changes applied to the group applies its layers.

3) Last element to study, the timeline.

It contains layers as color bars. Blue for layers and orange for the grouping of layers.

When an object is selected in the editing window the bar corresponding to the layer becomes darker. When selecting a bar of a layer its is associated object to be selected in the editing window.

By default the layer occupies the entire timeline, indicating that the object will appear throughout the entire duration of the title.

With the mouse you can reduce its duration from its beginning or its end:

But also move it on the timeline :

See the impact of Motions on a layer bar and the operations that can be applied to them. Here is what looks like the bar of a layer which is applied a Motion Enter, Emphasis and Exit :

We see that by default each Motion occupies one third of the time display layer. Also the name of applied Motion is shown.

By positioning the mouse on one of vertical lines that delimit the Motions you can change their display time :

Last transaction possible, remove a Motion. For this, simply click on the cross above his name.

A movie for example :

Well, I finished my presentation.

If you followed and understood everything, you should now be able to achieve this kind of animation :