Default text color

[Robin S. kurz]

Simply make your own or edit the one you’re using in Motion. That’s where the default is defined, not in FCP.

[Tom Fox]

Thanks Robin,

I’m working purely in motion here. When I start typing, the text is white and thus I cannot see what I am doing. If I try and change the style before typing, the type tool deselects. It seems that I can only change style or colour when I have started typing.

All I want is for the text to be a different colour, so that I can see what I am typing. I can change styles later..

My current workaround is to reduce the opacity of the base layer.

[Robin S. kurz]

Oh, sorry. You’re already in Motion, huh? 😀 Got confused with which forum I was in.

Interesting question. I just played with it a bit, but it would seem that you can’t edit or replace the “Normal” preset nor redefine the default one, which I would have thought would be the way to go.

I’ll have to play with it a bit and see if I can figure something out, because I can recall having a similar problem, too. Maybe Mark knows something I’m not thinking of in the meantime? 🙂

[Simon Ubsdell]

Call up the HUD tool (F7) and set the color there before you create your shape or whatever – that will then stay as the default till you change it.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Tom Fox]

That is where I get the problem with motion deselecting the text tool. It may well work in shapes but in my current experience, not with text.

Obviously, if I make the change after typing, it goes back to “Normal” the next time I use the type tool..

[Robin S. kurz]

[Simon Ubsdell] “Call up the HUD tool (F7) and set the color there before you create your shape or whatever – that will then stay as the default till you change it.”

Nope, that won’t in fact work with text, only shapes and others. That’s what I was thinking would/should happen, too. But…

[Simon Ubsdell]

My mistake – didn’t read the post properly.

The simple way of doing this would be to make the chosen text color/style whatever into a Favorite and save it to the library. I can’t recommend Favorites strongly enough. Huge time saver.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Robin S. kurz]

[Simon Ubsdell] “would be to make the chosen text color/style whatever into a Favorite”

Good tip. Probably your best workaround at this point, even if it means more clicking and not being quite as convenient. Since you’d have to drag the favorite from the library to the canvas (or select it from the Favorites menu) every time first, instead of simply using the text tool. OR you could give it a shortcut, seeing that it resides in the “Favorites” menu after being defined. 🙂

[Simon Ubsdell]

You could always put it in the Favorites Menu and simply pull it down from there – seems pretty quick to me or at least not much more arduous than clicking on the Text Tool.

Simon Ubsdell
tokyo-uk.com

[Robin S. kurz]

[Simon Ubsdell] “You could always put it in the Favorites Menu and simply pull it down from there”

By defining it as a favorite it’s already in the menu. 😉 (and that was part of my suggestion, yes)