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I want to animate text so that when it lands on a line it expands a little at the bottom and then bounces back. I've explored the motion key framer and the results do not look natural, horrible in fact. Will I have to do this using the drawing tools with the light table, if so it is a lot of work for a short title sequence? Am I missing something as I am not a skilled user of TVpaint. Most of what I do is for video.

Cheers Alan.

You need to set the pivot point of the letter to its bottom, this helps a lot to get the desired result. I do this by making the letter a custom brush and set its handle to the bottom (see custom).

Your movement has 2 aspects: the jump, and the distortion. Set the custom brush as source in the keyframer, and set position keys like this:
Frame 1: in top of frame, press C to create key for position
# 6: landing position
# 10 recoil position
# 14 final position.
Now go back to # 5 and create keys for width and height. "Keep Aspect" must be unchecked.
# 6: width 150%, height 66%
# 10: width and height back to 100%.
Voilà. You can refine the recoil jump at #9 and # 11 (nearer to highest position).

Now save that keyframer set to the bin, load another letter as custom brush, set its handle, and apply the keys again on a new layer. This letter will land at the same place as the first, but you'll correct this after you did each letter fall on its own layer with the panning tool.

Thanks,

Wonderful. It would never have occured to me to set the handle to the bottom. You have saved me hours of frustration.

Alan