Tips for authoring Motion Graphics templates

Don’t give the editors too many choices

To avoid human errors and maintain brand fidelity across a whole production, MOGRTs should be restricted, so one can’t possibly use the wrong fonts, colors or logos, and can’t place the graphic elements in the wrong position, mess up the animation, and so forth.

Make the MOGRTs simple, and easy to understand

MOGRTs with too many sliders, checkboxes, and other options are slower to use and render more slowly. Consider splitting complex MOGRTs into multiple MOGRTs for ease of use and faster render times.

Use libraries to spread the MOGRTs between team members

If you share a MOGRT with ten users by file sharing or email, you can’t know for certain that all of them install it correctly. When you send a new version because the old one had an error, you have no way to know if all ten editors update their MOGRTs. Some may continue using the old one.

When you use libraries to spread the MOGRTs, you have full control over who gets access, and everyone always has the correct version of all the MOGRTs. You can easily invite new members and exclude freelancers that should no longer have access.

Add keywords so the editors can easily search for the MOGRTs

Stressed editors shouldn’t spend time looking for their MOGRTs. Make sure that they have descriptive names and add keywords so they’re easily in Premiere.

Use link to CSV files whenever data exists

MOGRTs where the editor manually adds the data, like names, titles, numbers, are great when you don’t have the data. But if the data exists, maybe in a text editor or a spreadsheet, the editor shouldn’t have to copy/paste or type this. The person making the list could as easily do it in a spreadsheet and give the editor access to this file (CSV or TSV). This way, there’s no chance the editor pastes the wrong title for a certain name, or mess up the numbers for each entry. They drop in the spreadsheet file, drag a slider, and all the info magically updates in the timeline. The editor can still update and change the data. Using a CSV file does not limit the flexibility of the MOGRT.

Reuse expressions in new projects

Over time, the MOGRT creators will have many existing projects that are similar in functionality to the one they’re working on. It’s a large time-saver to steal designs from the older projects. You may only have to make minor changes to customize a design for the current project. This is always faster than starting from scratch.

Keep layer count and number of expressions as low as possible

MOGRTs are, in essence, After Effects compositions, and the more complex the comp is, the slower it renders. Keeping down the layer count and being restrictive with expressions help.

Include prerendered video if the MOGRT is complex.

If you use lots of layers – especially vector-based layers, the MOGRT renders slowly. If the animation is not changeable in the MOGRT, you can pre-render the layers and replace them with the video clip. This improves performance in Premiere.

Render and replace to save time on export

If the MOGRTs cause dropped frames in Premiere, use Render & Replace (use a format with alpha) as you edit, to increase playback performance, and speed up the final export. Render & Replace is better than just rendering the timeline. If you move the clips after rendering the timeline, you lose the render files. When you use Render & Replace, with alpha, you can freely move the clip around without losing renders. If you have to make changes, select Restore Unrendered, make changes, and then Render & Replace again.