The essence of any template is to enable the users to change and customize the project to their needs and likes. To do that, a template must include placeholders for assets such as media, text, logo, or music.
But just placing these assets in the project might not work for every user, and many times these assets are not presented properly, the most common example is text placeholders breaking or being cut off.
Let’s review the process of handling placeholders in the best way so they’ll always work correctly for all users.
Text placeholders
Changeable text is one of the trickiest parts of a template. It must work in different lengths or sizes. Follow these guidelines to make sure your text fits everything the user needs:
The text placeholders should be tightly aligned with the text layer.
Make sure to reposition the text placeholders in the final comp, if needed, to ensure that they match your preview movie.Permanently rasterize the text compositions wherever it is applicable.
Don’t add keyframes to Text layers unless it's applied using the animate panel or directly to the text composition.
Apply any text effects to the text composition and not directly to the text layer.
Each text layer should be in its own text placeholder.
Do not use masks to separate letters. If a user wants to change the word, size, or position, it's going to cause issues. You can either separate each letter into its own individual text composition or animate them in a different way.
Please do not link via the text source - this causes an issue where users cannot edit the font style. Use the actual composition in the final composition and size them accordingly. for example, watch this video.
Don’t use Mask/Matte/Shape layers inside the text placeholder compositions. Make a new precomp with your text placeholder and apply any changes to it instead.
Media Placeholders
Refers to media added, such as images, footage, logos, etc.
The media placeholder should only contain the user's final media.
If there’s an animation in the placeholder, increase the size of the matte layer so that it doesn’t get cut off.
The media placeholders should not contain any media-altering effects. You should precompose the media placeholders and use the effect on the new precomp and not directly on the media placeholder.
Media used in the preview movie should be 100% free for personal and commercial use and shouldn't require our users to sign up or give up their email addresses in order to download it. Here are some sites we accept: Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, Gratisography.
Have any questions about placeholders? Feel free to contact us at content@motionarray.com