Photo of a computer screen displaying a complex Adobe After Effects project (Photo by Jacob Miller on Unsplash)

MOGRTs, short for Motion Graphics Template, can play an important role in speeding up your post-production workflow and enabling efficient collaboration.

Think of MOGRTs as the packaging that houses your graphic elements for easy adjustment and sharing capabilities. They're editable files that store graphic elements such as fonts, shapes, text and images. Editors and motion designers often use these templates to share their graphics, animations and titles created in applications such as After Effects, and import them into Premiere. Because MOGRTs are editable, after importing them, collaborators can make changes and adjustments to the design elements as needed.

As Adobe describes them: "Motion Graphics templates are a file type (.mogrt) that can be created in After Effects or Premiere Pro. [They] allow a motion designer working in After Effects to encapsulate a complex After Effects project (.aep) into a single file with easy-to-use controls that can be consumed and customized in Premiere Pro. Titles and graphics can also be created in Premiere Pro and exported as a Motion Graphics template (.mogrt) for future reuse or sharing."

Here's a quick guide to create MOGRTs in After Effects.

  1. Go to your Graphic Timeline: In After Effects, go to the Timeline where you have created your graphic.
     
    Screen shot of the Adobe After Effects Interface and a lower third
  2. Protect Regions: In the Timeline, ensure that when the MOGRT is exported and brought into Premiere, the duration of your animated graphic will be adjustable. Do this by creating Protected Regions and isolating the beginning and end of the graphic animation. 
     
    • First, go to your intro animation and find the last keyframe, where the animation ends at its final destination point.
    • Go to the last frame of your animated graphic and hit the N key to create a “Work Area End” point.
    • Right click the blue “Work Area End Point” above the timeline and select Created Protected Region from Work Area.
    • Go to the beginning of your animation outro (when your text begins leaving the screen) and select the B key for “beginning.
    • Go to the end of your outro and hit the N key to mark the end point of your animation. Right click and select Created Protected Region from Work Area.

     

    Screen shot of After Effects showing the selection of the Create Protected Region from Work Area option in the right click context menu of the timeline
  3. Build MOGRT: Go to Window>Essential Graphics. In the Essential Graphics panel, next to the Primary option, click on Select a composition. Select the composition that you want to utilize to create your MOGRT. In our example, it is called GRAPHIC.
     
    Screen shot of the After Effects Essential Graphics panel showing the selection of the GRAPHIC composition
  4. Under Name in Essential Graphics, label this graphic MOGURT.
     
    Screenshot of the After Effects Essential Graphics panel changing the name to MOGURT
  5. Drag Properties: Go to the Composition window and drag properties into the Essential Graphics panel that you would like to include in your MOGRT. Using our example, you will begin by double clicking on the NAME COMP to access text layers. Then, go to the Essential Graphics window and select Solo Supported Properties. In the Composition window, supported properties that you can incorporate into your MOGRT will be revealed.
    Screenshot of an Adobe After Effects timeline
    Screenshot of the After Effects Essential Graphics and timeline panels
  6. Drag any supported properties that you would like to adjust once you bring your MOGRT into Premiere, into the Essential Graphics panel. You are going to drag the “Source Text,” and “Scale,” but you could drag whichever additional properties that you would like to adjust in the future into Essential Graphics.
     
    Screenshot of the After Effects timeline panel with properties displayed.
  7. Edit Properties: Select the Edit Properties option in Essential Graphics. Then under Font Properties, select any options that you want included in your final MOGRT, such as Enabled Custom Font Selection and Font Size Adjustment.
    Screenshot showing options for editing Source Text Properties in After Effects
    Screenshot showing the Source Text Properties options in After Effects with boxes checked for Enable Custom Font Selection and Enable Font Size Adjustment
  8. Export MOGRT: At the bottom of Essential Graphics, select Export Motion Graphics Template which will bring up the Export window. Browse to determine a location for your MOGRT. Then select ok. This is where your MOGRT is stored, so take note so you can find it when it's time to import it into Premiere.
     
    Screenshot of the Export Motion Graphics Template button in Adobe After Effects
    Screenshot of the window to export a motion graphics template from After Effects
  9. Bring into Premiere: Well done! You have created a MOGRT. Import it into the Essential Graphics panel in Premiere, and use it as needed. You or your editor will now be able to make adjustments based on the properties you incorporated into your MOGRT. 

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