How to Create Responsive MOGRTs in After Effects

Creating responsive Motion Graphics Templates (MOGRTs) in Adobe After Effects allows editors to adjust text length, layout dimensions, and timing in Premiere Pro without breaking animations or visual hierarchy. This guide covers how to build fully adaptive templates using After Effects' built-in Responsive Design tools, the sourceRectAtTime() expression for auto-scaling elements, and the Essential Graphics panel for export.

1. Set Up Responsive Timing (Intro and Outro)

Responsive Design – Time ensures that your keyframed intro and outro animations remain intact regardless of how much an editor stretches or compresses the clip in Premiere Pro.

  1. Set your Work Area bar over your intro animation.
  2. Go to Composition > Responsive Design – Time > Create Intro. A blue marker region will appear on the timeline.
  3. Repeat the process for the outro: set the Work Area over the ending keyframes and select Composition > Responsive Design – Time > Create Outro.
  4. Any duration adjustments made in Premiere Pro will now stretch only the middle section of the graphic, preserving the speed of your opening and closing animations.

2. Build Auto-Resizing Backgrounds

To ensure background shapes automatically adapt to varying text lengths, use the sourceRectAtTime() expression on a shape layer.

  1. Create a text layer and name it Title.
  2. Create a shape layer beneath it with a rectangle path.
  3. Alt-click (Option-click on Mac) the Size property of the Rectangle Path and add the following expression:
var padding = [40, 20]; // Horizontal and vertical padding
var textLayer = thisComp.layer("Title");
var rect = textLayer.sourceRectAtTime(time, false);
[rect.width + padding[0] * 2, rect.height + padding[1] * 2];
  1. Alt-click the Position property of the Rectangle Path (inside the Rectangle shape contents, not the layer transform) to keep it centered on the text:
var textLayer = thisComp.layer("Title");
var rect = textLayer.sourceRectAtTime(time, false);
[rect.left + rect.width / 2, rect.top + rect.height / 2];

The shape will now automatically grow or shrink depending on the amount of text entered.

3. Pin Dependent Design Elements

When using secondary elements—such as subtitles, icons, or accent lines—anchor their positions to the boundary of the dynamic text layer rather than using static coordinates.

To pin an icon to the right side of your text box:

  1. Select the icon layer and Alt-click its Position property.
  2. Link its X-coordinate to the dynamic edge of the text layer using this expression:
var textLayer = thisComp.layer("Title");
var rect = textLayer.sourceRectAtTime(time, false);
var xOffset = 20; // Distance from the text edge
[textLayer.transform.position[0] + rect.left + rect.width + xOffset, value[1]];

4. Configure the Essential Graphics Panel and Export

  1. Open the Essential Graphics panel (Window > Essential Graphics).
  2. Set the Primary dropdown to your active composition.
  3. Drag the text layer's Source Text property into the panel.
  4. Click Edit Properties on the text item in the panel and enable Enable Custom Font Selection and Enable Font Size Adjustment to give the editor typographic control.
  5. Drag any customizable color, opacity, or position properties into the panel.
  6. Click Export Motion Graphics Template, select your destination (Local Templates Folder or a Creative Cloud Library), and click OK.