[David Grimes]

Matt, you mention that in this project you are following something to Audio. What exactly do you mean…is this by you animating to the audio or are you having Motion do it. Motion’s audio behavior is very poorly done and can only do limited objects before it starts running into serious cpu issues. If you are using the audio behavior, remove it entirely until your project is done (don’t just turn it “off”), then add it and hope for the best. If not, consider shutting off your audio when you don’t need it. I find this can make a huge difference in performance.
Good Luck.
-Dave

[David Grimes]

If you haven’t already, check to make sure the Apply To section is not still set to “None.” I believe it’s the bottom selection in the inspector under behavior.

One note to everyone using the Audio Parameter, the parameter does run into issues when you try and apply the parameter to multiple objects (it can depend on your system, but 10 seems to be about the workable limit with the same audio track). Too many objects, and it appears Motion is over processing the behavior. It acts as if each instance of the parameter has to reinterpret the audio independently throughout the animation (regardless of the parameter length) draining a lot of resources, even with the same audio clip. You can see the problems if you look at the key frames as all the curves will change to already locked objects when you apply the behavior to an additional object. It’s frustrating.

-Dave

[David Grimes]

Are you asking why Motion is doing this, or possibly how to work around it? I can’t answer the first, but as for the second, select the imported object under the media tab (not the layers tab). Then go to the Inspector and find it’s media tab. There are numerous selections there, but one that frequently needs changing is the “Fixed Resolution” box. I prefer to leave it unchecked for more objects.
Hope this offers a little help.

-Dave

[David Grimes]

Any of the motion behaviors you mentioned will work for what you are trying to do (motion path is overkill if you are just moving linearly). Once you have applied a behavior to your text (just click and drag), click on the behavior (or the object/text) in the layers panel and then go to the Inspector and go to Behaviors tab. You will be able to adjust the speed and many other parameters there. For some behaviors, this is done by changing the Out of the behavior (not the object). Even using the text sequence behaviors, once they are applied you can adjust their specific attributes in the Inspector/Behaviors.

The Inspector is your friend, so get familiar with each tab within it and what they do.

Key framing is also an option, but really unnecessary for what you are doing unless you want to use multiple speeds during the sequence (the behaviors allow for ease in and ease out changes too).

Good luck.

-David Grimes