Apple LiveType 2 - Manual (Page 74)

74 Chapter 5 Working With Text
The transparent Canvas (or background color if defined in the Project Properties dialog)
appears to fill the foreground element.
The other two matte options, Matte to Movie or Image and Matte to Texture, differ
because the background doesn’t appear as a discrete project element that’s reflected in
the Timeline. And, there’s no need for a layer that the matte has to “punch through.”
Instead, the track contents are simply filled with the designated image.
These two matte alternatives have scale, speed, and sequencing options in the Matte
pane. Scale adjusts the size of the background image, speed adjusts the speed of the
background movie or texture, and sequencing allows you to offset the timing of the
background for each letter residing on the foreground track.
Note: When you matte a word to a movie or image, LiveType calculates which portion
of the image “underlies” each letter, imitating a true window into a lower layer. When
you reposition the letters on the track, they retain the same image content. This feature
can create an interesting look as you apply movement to the text, particularly when
the matte is with a movie.
Texture scaled
down on the y axis
Transparent
Canvas background
Text track matted to the
transparent background