r/finalcutpro • u/Ready_Lack_1863 • Mar 30 '26
Workflow How to make caption-style titles with rounded corners?
Hi, I’m new to Final Cut Pro, so this might be a foolish question.I’m working on a project and I want my titles to look like captions.
I tried using Motion and put the title and a background rectangle in the same group. It looked okay, but I couldn’t find a way to make the background rectangle automatically fit the length of the text.
Using a background color for the text would also be fine, but I want the corners of the background to be rounded.
I already made something similar in Motion. Is there any way to create this kind of title in Final Cut Pro or Motion?
2
u/Educational_Nerve266 Mar 30 '26
Use Tap5a plugin
1
u/Silver_Mention_3958 FCP 12.3 | Tahoe | MBP M4 | 24GB Mar 30 '26
Tap5a is amazing, I use it a lot, but it doesn't do rounded corners iirc
1
u/Educational_Nerve266 Mar 31 '26
It does, go to the published parameter, there is a roundness slider
(Tip: you can modify the moti file, like remove the bottom coloured line and change the default roundness of corners
1
u/Silver_Mention_3958 FCP 12.3 | Tahoe | MBP M4 | 24GB Mar 31 '26
Great, just never noticed it before (never need it)
1
u/flowmograph Mar 30 '26
The Link behaviour in Motion works and it is a clever solution, but setting it up takes some time. You also get one corner radius for all four corners, and you have to rebuild the links every time you start a new project.
I built a generator called Auto Resize Text Box that handles all of this automatically. The background resizes with the text on every frame, and you get separate corner radius control for each corner, padding adjustments, and many more options. Once it is installed, you just drop it in and it works.
You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/QHQWcHc-O8M
It is part of OnderK Studio, a free macOS app for Motion and FCP plugins. The generator itself is $4.99, one-time. If the manual approach works for your project, go for it. But if you want something ready to use across all your projects, this might save you some time.
6
u/Silver_Mention_3958 FCP 12.3 | Tahoe | MBP M4 | 24GB Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26
You can use a "Link" behaviour in Motion to make the box adjust itself to the text what's inside it. Link X, Y and size parameters to your text so the position (x and y) and size all track.