In addition to geometric patterns like circles, waves and spirals, the replicator allows us to use an image's alpha as the pattern source. Combine this with a couple of filters, and we can generate some wild, organic type-treatments.

Please note that the movies in this tutorial require Quicktime 7 to view.

Our source image for the replicator will be a text object, so let's get that text in there!

Add the text

1. Select the text tool from the toolbar or press the 'T' key.
2. Click in the Canvas to create the text object, and type in the word 'PAIN'.
3. Press 'Esc' to exit the text entry mode.
4. With the PAIN text selected, press 'D' to bring up the Dashboard.
5. Set font family to 'Helvetica Neue' and style to 'Regular'.
6. Set the Alignment to 'Center'.
7. Set the Size to 225pt (or close to that).
8. Set the Tracking to 10.
9. In the Canvas, position the text in the center of the project area.

Our Canvas should look like this:

With our text prepared, we can set it aside for later use.

Disable the text

1. In the Layers List, toggle off the text's visibility checkbox, hiding it.

The source for our replicator will be a feathered circle shape object.

Draw the circle

1. Select the circle shape drawing tool from the toolbar, or press 'C'.
2. While holding the Shift key to constrain to a perfect circle, drag out a small circle shape like this:

3. Press 'Esc' to exit the shape drawing mode.
4. With the shape selected, go into the Dashboard and set the Feather to -20.

Our completed shape will look something like this:

We're now ready to create our replicator. Instead of the standard geometric patterns (Rectangle, etc.), we will use the Image pattern. This option uses the alpha channel (the matte) of an image to create a stencil for the replicator points. In our case, we'll use the 'PAIN' text as the source image. Remember, the term 'image' can apply to the output of almost any object in Motion, so we could use text, shapes, footage, particles or even other layers or groups of layers as a source image.

Create the replicator

1. Select the circle shape and click on the 'Replicate' button in the toolbar, or press 'L'.
2. Position the replicator in the center of the project area.
3. With the replicator selected, go to the Inspector and view the Replicator tab.
4. Change the Shape from 'Rectangle' to 'Image'.
5. With the replicator still selected, drag the 'PAIN' text object from the Layers List and drop it into the Image Source image well in the Inspector:

6. Set the Arrangement to 'Random Fill'.
7. Set the number of Points to 800.
8. In the Cell Controls section of the Replicator tab, set the Scale to 80%.
9. Set the Scale Random to 20.

We should now be seeing the word 'PAIN' spelled out by our replicator:

Please note that the random fill is truly random, so the points in your replicator may be located differently than the points in the screenshot. Press the 'Generate' button to get a new random seed, if you like.

The text object acts as a stencil for our replicator, telling it to only draw points within the solid areas of the text. Because an image may have a softer alpha, instead of the fairly solid and abrupt alpha of our text, the replicator gives you the Emission Alpha Cutoff control, which allows you to limit the points to specific areas of alpha transparency. Basically, the lower the value, the more points that get drawn. We want our text to be fairly solid, so as to be readable, so we want a low cutoff value. Setting it to 0% would ignore the alpha altogether, though, so we'll go just a notch above that.

Set the cutoff value

1. With the replicator selected, view the Replicator tab of the Inspector.
2. Set the Emission Alpha Cutoff value to 1%.

A few more points have appeared, solidifying our text a bit. Now we're off to style our replicator...