Motion Tracking "Cheat Sheet"

Here are a few pertinent points, extracted from the Motion Tracking tutorial:

1. You must define a "Null Object" - a layer in which the tracking data can be stored. Eventually, you will apply the motion information stored in the Null Object to other layers - namely, the layers of your text items.

Get the null object by going

Layer > New > Null Object

2. Set your After Effects project to "Motion Tracker View" to pull up the appropriate windows.

Window > Workspace > Motion Tracking

3. In the "Tracker" window, make sure the target for the tracking data is set to your Null object.

4. You can create a text layer by clicking on the capital "T" in the toolbar (if you'd like to manipulate the text in ways that go beyond what the character and paragraph windows give you - or even beyond what the "effects" menu will give you, like blur, warp, or bevel edges – you can always bring in text that has been manipulated in another program as a graphic).

5. To get the motion tracking info to map to your text layer, use the "pick whip" (the spiral to the right of your layer) to go from your text layer to the Null layer.