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Your artwork, drawn onby Herbistry · for Final Cut Pro & Motion

SVG Draw

Load your own logo, signature or drawing and watch it draw itself on. SVG Draw traces every line, fills every shape, and can put a pen in the frame doing the drawing. Eighteen built-in looks to start from, and a control for everything else.

The short version

What SVG Draw does

SVG Draw takes a vector file you already have, the logo from your designer, a signature, a doodle, a map, and draws it onto your video one stroke at a time. Lines trace along their path. Filled shapes get an outline drawn around them first, then fill in. Pieces can pop, grow, wipe or fade on instead, in whatever order you like.

It is a Title, so it sits over your footage and you place it like any other title. The draw (how, in what order, how fast) works the moment you load a file. The finish (a pen in the frame, outlines, shadows, glow, a hot edge on the line, and a draw-off at the end) is there when you want it.

The draw

On from the first load
  • Eight styles: Trace, Trace Outline, Wipe, Center Out, Outside In, Pop, Fade and Grow.
  • Pieces and order: draw the whole graphic at once, by layer, by shape or by piece, left to right, in reading order, from the center, at random, and more.
  • Timing: duration, a start delay, easing, how much the pieces overlap.
  • Placement: fit, position, scale and rotation, the last three keyframeable.

The finish

Switch on when you want it
  • A pen: pencil, marker, ballpoint, fountain pen, brush, chalk, a glowing spark, a comet, or a picture of your own.
  • A look: outline, drop shadow, glow and a hot edge that cools behind the line.
  • A draw-off: un-draw at the end of the clip, in reverse or in any style.
  • Presets: 18 built-in looks, plus your own saved ones.
A colorful flower badge half drawn on with the Default look

A fresh SVG Draw clip with a file loaded and nothing else touched. Every demo in this manual is rendered by SVG Draw's own drawing engine, on sample art made for this manual, so what you see is what the plugin draws.

First run

Install, try, and buy SVG Draw

SVG Draw installs through FxFactory, the free plugin manager many Final Cut editors already have. Here is the whole path.

  1. Install it. Get FxFactory if it is not on your Mac yet, quit Final Cut Pro and Motion, then find SVG Draw by Herbistry in the FxFactory app and click its status checkbox to download and enable it. Open your editing app again and it is there.
  2. Find it. SVG Draw is a Title. In Final Cut Pro, open the Titles and Generators sidebar, click the Herbistry category under Titles (or search "SVG Draw"), and drag it onto your timeline. In Motion it is in the Library under Generators ▸ Herbistry ▸ SVG Draw.
  3. Try it free. Every style, pen, look and preset works right away. The catch: once a file is loaded, a tile of Herbistry leaf watermarks covers the whole frame, and the word TRIAL flashes across it for half a second every 7 seconds. Great for auditioning. Not for a clean export, which is the point.
  4. Buy it. The Licensing row near the top of the inspector reads Trial, with a Buy button that takes you to SVG Draw in FxFactory. Buy it there and the row flips to Licensed. No key to paste. With an older FxFactory the row may keep reading Trial until you quit and reopen Final Cut Pro or Motion. No FxFactory yet? Buy opens FxFactory's download page instead. Install it, quit and reopen Final Cut Pro or Motion, then press Buy again.

After you buy

The mark comes off by itself. Clips that are open lose it right away. If a stretch that Final Cut rendered during the trial still shows the mark, choose File ▸ Delete Generated Library Files, select Delete Render Files, and click OK. Final Cut then renders it again without the mark.

Your Macs and your purchase are managed in the FxFactory app. The Help button in the Licensing row opens this manual.

On the timeline

Add it and load your file

SVG Draw is a Title, so it floats over whatever is underneath it. Four moves and it is drawing.

  1. Drag it on. Drop SVG Draw onto your timeline as a connected clip above your video, or onto the primary storyline over a background. Until a file is loaded it draws nothing at all, so an empty clip is see-through.
  2. Load your SVG. Select the clip, and in the inspector click the Artwork row (it reads Load SVG…). Pick an .svg or .svgz file. The row then shows the file name, how many paths and layers it has, and a small picture of the finished art.
  3. Play it. A fresh clip draws your art on over 3 seconds with Trace Outline, left to right, then holds it until the clip ends. Trim the clip to set how long it stays on screen, like any other title.
  4. Pick a look. Open the Presets menu at the top of the inspector and try a few of the 18 built-in looks. Each one changes how the art draws and finishes, and every one except Default leaves your placement and colors alone.

The file lives in your project

SVG Draw stores the artwork inside the project when you load it, so you can move, rename or delete the original file afterward and the clip keeps drawing. Moving the library to another Mac takes the art with it. To swap the art, click the Artwork row again. To clear it, click the ⓧ at the right of the loaded row.

Any shape of frame

SVG Draw lays itself out to your project's frame, wide 16:9, vertical 9:16 for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, or square. With the default Fit Art to Frame, the art fills 80% of the frame and sits in the middle in any of them.

Your file

Getting a good SVG

Any app that exports SVG works: Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape, Affinity, Sketch, Canva and the rest. SVG Draw draws vector shapes and text. Here is what it does with everything else.

Lines or fills?

The big one

An SVG shape can have a stroke (a line along a path), a fill (a colored area), or both. Most logos are fills only, even the parts that look like lines. That matters, because Trace draws along strokes, and a fill-only shape has no stroke to draw. So SVG Draw starts every clip on Trace Outline, which draws a line around each filled shape first and then fills it in. Handwriting and line art exported as strokes look great with either.

Text

Turned into shapes

Live text in the file is turned into shapes when you load it, with the fonts on your Mac, including fonts turned on by a font manager or Adobe Fonts. If a font is missing, a stand-in font is used and the Artwork row says so. A font you turn on while Final Cut Pro or Motion is open is seen after you quit and reopen the app. To be safe, convert text to outlines in your design app before you export (Illustrator: Type ▸ Create Outlines).

What is left out

Vector only

Pictures placed inside an SVG (photos, pasted bitmaps) are not drawn, and neither are fully transparent shapes. Masks, filter effects such as blur, blend modes and pattern fills are ignored. Gradients are drawn, though a few unusual gradient settings are simplified. An animated SVG draws its first frame. Each of these puts a short note on the Artwork row, so you know what changed. The row has room for one note at a time.

Big, busy files

Size limits

A file with thousands of tiny paths works, it just asks more of your Mac. Above 1 MB once compressed, the Artwork row warns that the file may slow down playback. Above 4 MB once compressed, it is refused, because it is too big to store in a project. Simplify it in your design app (fewer anchor points, merged shapes) and load it again.

"No lines to trace: use Trace Outline"

You will see this on the Artwork row if you choose a pen with the Trace style on a file that has no strokes at all. The pen has nothing to ride, so switch the Style to Trace Outline and it draws around the shapes instead.

Start here

How a draw is built

Behind the inspector is a short chain, and each stage has its own rows. Learn which stage a row belongs to and the inspector stops being a wall of settings.

The one-sentence version

Your file is cut into pieces (Draw By), the pieces are lined up (Order), each one appears in the Style over its own share of the Duration, a pen can ride the line while it draws, the Look grows with the art, and at the end of the clip the Draw Off can take it all away again.

StageIts rowsThe question it answers
1. ArtworkArtwork, Recolor, ColorWhat gets drawn, and in its own colors or one color?
2. PlacementFit, Position X, Position Y, Scale, RotationWhere in the frame, and how big?
3. Draw OnStyle, Draw By, Order, Path Direction, Overlap, PacingHow does it appear, in what pieces and order?
4. TimingDuration, Start Delay, EasingWhen does it start, how long does it take, how does it ease?
5. The lineFill Reveal and the Trace Line rowsWhen do fills arrive, and does the drawn line stay?
6. PenTip and its rowsIs something visibly doing the drawing?
7. LookOutline, Drop Shadow, Glow, Hot EdgeWhat finish sits on the art as it draws?
8. Draw OffDraw Off Style and DurationDoes it un-draw at the end, and how?

The layout

The inspector, top to bottom

Everything lives in one inspector, and most rows that don't apply stay hidden. Here is the map in the order you meet it. Headings split it into six sections: Artwork, Placement, Draw On, Pen, Look and Draw Off.

Top of the panel

  • SVG Draw banner the name and version
  • Licensing Trial or Licensed, Buy during the trial, and Help
  • Presets 18 built-in looks and your own

Artwork

  • Artwork load the SVG
  • Recolor, Color its own colors, or one color

Placement

  • Fit how the art fills the frame
  • Position X, Position Y, Scale, Rotation keyframeable

Draw On

  • Style, Wipe Direction how each piece appears
  • Draw By, Order, Random Seed which pieces, in what order
  • Path Direction, Overlap, Pacing the details of the run
  • Duration, Start Delay, Easing the timing
  • Fill Reveal when the fills arrive
  • Keep Trace Line, Trace Line Width, Trace Line Color, Line Color the drawn outline

Pen

  • Tip which pen, or none
  • Image, Nib X, Nib Y, Up-Stroke Image, Up Nib X, Up Nib Y, Flip Horizontal your own pen picture
  • Size, Glow Color, Glow For, Sparks, Angle, Fixed Angle, Between Pieces, When Done, Shadow how the pen looks and moves

Look

  • Outline Outline Color, Outline Width
  • Drop Shadow Shadow Color, Opacity, Blur, Distance, Angle
  • Glow Glow Colors, Glow Color, Glow Radius, Glow Intensity
  • Hot Edge Hot Edge Color, Cool Down, Hot Edge Intensity

Draw Off

  • Style none, reverse, fade, or any draw style
  • Duration how long the exit takes

"Where did that row go?"

Most rows hide when they would do nothing. Two stay put: Pacing under the shape styles and Easing under Pop, where neither changes anything. Color waits for Recolor Single Color. Wipe Direction needs the Wipe style (in Draw On or Draw Off). Random Seed needs Order Random. Path Direction and Fill Reveal need Trace or Trace Outline, in Draw On or Draw Off. The three Trace Line rows need Draw On Trace Outline, and Line Color also needs Trace Line Color Custom. The Pen rows wait for Trace or Trace Outline in Draw On (the Pen heading stays), and then for a Tip: the picture rows for Custom Image, Glow Color, Glow For and Sparks for Spark or Comet, Shadow and Angle for every other pen, and Fixed Angle for Angle Fixed. Hot Edge needs Trace or Trace Outline too. Each Look effect's rows wait for its own checkbox, and the Look's Glow Color also for Glow Colors Single Color. The Draw Off Duration waits for a Draw Off style other than None.

Every control

The controls, and why you'd reach for each one

Grouped the way the inspector is, top to bottom. For every control: what it does, the range it runs over, what it starts at, and when it shows up. Sizes marked "px" are pixels in a 1080-high frame, and they scale with the frame, so a 4 px outline is 8 px in a 2160-high frame and looks the same.

Top of the panel

Licensing

Status · Buy · Help

Reads Trial or Licensed. During the trial a Buy button takes you to SVG Draw in FxFactory. Help opens this manual in your browser.

Presets

Menu

The Presets ▾ button opens a menu: Save Current Settings… at the top, then Default, then the built-in looks under Hand-Drawn, Logo and Glow and FX, then My Presets. The button shows the name of the last preset you applied. Each pick is one Undo step. More in The 18 looks and Your own presets.

Artwork

Artwork

File · SVG, SVGZ

Click to load an SVG. The file is stored in the project, so the original is not needed afterward. Once loaded, the row shows the name, the number of paths and layers, a picture of the finished art, and in orange the first note about anything that was changed or left out. If a file will not load, the row says Could not load and gives the reason.

Recolor and Color

Popup + color

Original keeps the file's own colors. Single Color paints every fill and every line in the Color you pick, gradients included (they become solid), so one file can match any video. Handy for a dark logo over dark footage: switch to Single Color and pick white. The drawn trace line follows the new color too, unless you gave it its own. Color is keyframeable.

Default Original · Color white

Placement

Fit

Popup · 3 modes

Fit Art to Frame sizes the drawing itself to 80% of the frame and centers it, ignoring any empty margin in the file. Fit Canvas to Frame fits the whole SVG page, margins and all, so artwork that sits off-center on its page stays where the designer put it. Original Size uses the file's own size, one SVG unit to one pixel of a 1080-high frame.

Default Fit Art to Frame

Position X and Position Y

Percent · keyframeable

Moves the art. 0% is the center, and 100% puts the middle of the art on the edge of the frame (with Fit Canvas to Frame or Original Size, the middle of the SVG page). Positive Y moves up. The slider drags from -100% to 100%. Type a number to go as far as -200% or 200%, fully off screen, which is how you fly art in from outside the frame with two keyframes.

Default 0% · 0%

Scale

1% to 400% · keyframeable

Sizes the art up or down from where Fit put it.

Default 100%

Rotation

-360° to 360° · keyframeable

Spins the art around its own middle, wherever Position has put it, with the same dial and direction as rotation everywhere else in Final Cut Pro and Motion.

Default 0°

Draw On

Style

Popup · 8 styles

How each piece appears.

  • Trace: lines draw along their path. Filled areas arrive (the way Fill Reveal says) once each piece is halfway drawn. A shape with no line shows no line.
  • Trace Outline: a line draws around each filled shape first, then the fill arrives. Shapes that have their own line trace that line instead. The drawn outline fades away at the end unless you keep it.
  • Wipe: each piece is revealed by a straight wipe, in the Wipe Direction you pick (Left to Right, Right to Left, Top to Bottom, Bottom to Top).
  • Center Out and Outside In: each piece opens like an iris from its middle, or closes in from its edges.
  • Pop: each piece scales up with a little overshoot, and is fully visible in the first fifth of its time.
  • Fade: each piece fades in.
  • Grow: each piece scales up from its own center.

Default Trace Outline

Draw By

Popup · 4 ways

What counts as one piece. Whole Graphic: everything at once, as one. Layers: each top-level group (or text block) in the file. Shapes: each path. Pieces: each separate island of every shape, so a word saved as one shape still draws letter by letter.

Default Shapes

Order and Random Seed

Popup · 12 orders

Which piece goes first. File Order, Left to Right, Reading Order (lines top to bottom, each left to right, for text and handwriting), Right to Left, Top to Bottom, Bottom to Top, Center Out, Outside In, Largest First, Smallest First, Random, and All Together (every piece starts at once). Random shuffles the same way on every Mac until you change the Random Seed (1 to 9999), so a render looks like the preview.

Default Left to Right · Seed 1

Path Direction

Trace styles

Which end of each line the drawing starts from. As Drawn follows the file. Reverse flips every line. Auto leaves closed shapes alone and turns open lines so they run left to right (or top to bottom when both ends sit one above the other), so handwriting reads the right way even if it was drawn backwards.

Default Auto

Overlap

0% to 100%

How much each piece overlaps the one before. At 0% a piece starts when the last one is done. At 50% it starts halfway through. At 100% they all go together.

Default 0%

Pacing

Trace styles

Constant Pen Speed gives each piece time in proportion to its length, so the pen moves at one speed like a real hand. Equal Time per Piece gives every piece the same time, so tiny dots and long swooshes take equally long. The other styles draw on with equal time per piece, and the row stays visible for them but does nothing.

Default Constant Pen Speed

Duration and Start Delay

0 to 30 s

Duration is how long the whole draw takes, from the first piece starting to the last piece finishing. Start Delay waits that long into the clip before anything draws. If the delay, the draw and the draw-off do not fit in the clip, the draw and the draw-off are shortened together so they do, and the delay stays as you set it.

Default Duration 3 s · Start Delay 0 s

Easing

Popup · 4 curves

Linear, Ease In, Ease Out or Ease In and Out, applied to each piece on its own, so every stroke speeds up and settles like a hand would. Pop ignores it: its bounce has its own timing.

Default Ease In and Out

Fill Reveal

Trace styles

How the filled areas arrive: in Trace once each piece's line is halfway drawn, in Trace Outline once the outline is done. Fade fades them in. Wipe Along Stroke wipes them in with a straight wipe that starts where the shape's longest line starts. Instant drops them in at once. None never fills: a line drawing only. With None, turn on Keep Trace Line too, or the outline fades away at the end and leaves nothing.

Default Fade

Keep Trace Line, Width, Color

Trace Outline

These shape the outline that Trace Outline draws around filled shapes. Without Keep Trace Line it fades away over the end of each piece and leaves the clean fill. With it, the line stays. Trace Line Width runs 0.5 to 20 px. Trace Line Color is Match Artwork (each shape's own fill color, or the first color of a gradient) or Custom, which reveals Line Color. They only touch the drawn outline: lines that are in the file keep their own width and color.

Default Off · 2 px · Match Artwork

Pen

Tip

Popup · 10

Puts something in the frame doing the drawing. None, six realistic pens (Pencil, Marker, Ballpoint, Fountain Pen, Brush, Chalk), two glowing tips (Spark and Comet), or Custom Image, a picture of your own. The pen rides the line as it draws, so it only exists for Trace and Trace Outline, and it always rides the longest line of each piece. It is drawn on top of the art, and the Look effects do not touch it.

Default None

Image, Nib X, Nib Y

Custom Image

Your own pen: a hand holding a pencil, a quill, a paintbrush, a rocket. Click Image and pick a PNG with a transparent background (JPEG, TIFF and HEIC load too; phone photos are turned upright). It is stored in the project, scaled so its long side is at most 1024 pixels. Nib X and Nib Y say where the tip touches the line, as a share of the picture's width from the left and height from the top. A small cross on the row's thumbnail shows where it is. Nothing is drawn until a picture is loaded.

Default Nib 4% · 96% (bottom left)

Up-Stroke Image, Up Nib X, Up Nib Y

Custom Image

An optional second picture used while the line heads up the screen (more than 20° upward), the way a real hand tilts differently on an up-stroke. Without it, the main picture is used throughout.

Default Empty · Nib 4% · 96%

Flip Horizontal

Custom Image

Mirrors your picture around its nib: a right hand becomes a left hand.

Default Off

Size

2% to 100% of the frame height

For a picture pen, its height as a share of the frame height. For Spark and Comet, how big the glow is, with 25% as their normal size.

Default 25%

Glow Color, Glow For, Sparks

Spark · Comet

Spark is a glowing point with a short hot thread along the line, flickering like a sparkler. Comet is a bigger head with a long tapering tail. Glow Color is the color of the glow (this is the pen's glow, separate from the Look's Glow). Glow For tells it what is behind: SVG Draw cannot see your footage, so Dark Footage glows as added light, and Light Footage switches to rich ember tones with a dark rim so the glow still shows on a bright shot. Sparks sets how many particles fly, from 0% (none, just the head and its thread or tail) to 150%.

Default Warm yellow · Dark Footage · 100%

Angle and Fixed Angle

Picture pens

Follow Path leans the pen with the direction of the line, never more than 30° either way, like a hand. Fixed holds it at the Fixed Angle you set. Choosing Custom Image switches Angle to Fixed for you, since your picture is probably already at the angle you want. You can switch it back.

Default Follow Path · 0°

Between Pieces

Glide · Jump · Hide

What the pen does between lines. Glide lifts it in a little arc and carries it to the next line, like a hand. Jump waits at the end of one line and appears at the start of the next. Hide hides it while nothing is drawing. In Trace, gliding takes its time out of the Duration, at most 30% of it, so the draw still ends on time. That only happens with Overlap at 0% and an Order other than All Together.

Default Glide

When Done

Exit · Fade · Stay

Where the pen goes when the drawing is finished. Exit slides it out of the frame over half a second. Fade fades it out. Stay leaves it at the last point. Spark and Comet do not slide: they flare and are gone while their sparks fly off.

Default Exit

Shadow

Picture pens

A soft shadow under the pen, down and to the right, that grows as the pen lifts. This is the pen's own shadow. The art's shadow is Drop Shadow under Look.

Default On

Look

The four Look effects are built from the art as it is on each frame, so they grow along with the drawing. They do not touch the pen.

Outline

Color · Width 0 to 40 px

A border around the outside of the art, in Outline Color, Outline Width wide. It goes around the silhouette, so pieces that touch get one shared border and no line between them. The classic sticker edge.

Default Off · white · 4 px

Drop Shadow

5 rows

A soft shadow of the art (and its outline). Shadow Color, Shadow Opacity (0% to 100%), Shadow Blur (0 to 100 px), Shadow Distance (0 to 200 px), and Shadow Angle, measured the same way as Motion's own drop shadow: 315° points down and to the right.

Default Off · black · 75% · 8 px · 10 px · 315°

Glow

4 rows

A soft light around the art. Glow Colors is Artwork Colors (each part glows in its own color, the neon-sign look) or Single Color, which reveals Glow Color. Glow Radius (0 to 100 px) is how far it spreads. Glow Intensity (0% to 200%) is how bright.

Default Off · Artwork Colors · 20 px · 100%

Hot Edge

Trace styles

Each point of the line glows in the Hot Edge Color the moment it is drawn, brightest at the drawing point, and cools to nothing behind it, like a welding torch. Set the Cool Down (0.1 to 3 seconds, how long a point stays hot) and Hot Edge Intensity (0% to 200%). It needs Trace or Trace Outline, and it is not drawn during the draw-off.

Default Off · warm yellow · 0.5 s · 100%

Draw Off

Style and Duration

Popup · 0 to 30 s

Un-draws the art at the end of the clip, finishing on its last frame, so you can trim the clip and the exit moves with it.

  • None: the art stays until the clip ends.
  • Reverse of Draw On: the draw-on, played backwards. The last piece on is the first one off.
  • Fade (the one right after Reverse of Draw On): the whole art fades out at once.
  • Trace through Grow: the art is taken away in that style, last piece first. Pick the same style as the Draw On and it plays as an exact reverse. The second Fade in this list is the style: it fades piece by piece, last piece first.

The pen leaves when the draw-off starts.

Default None · Duration 1 s

What you can keyframe

Position X and Y, Scale, Rotation, the Recolor and Line colors, and every color and slider under Look. The draw itself (styles, timing, the pen) is set once per clip: to change it partway through, cut the clip in two.

Starting points

The 18 built-in looks

Pick one from the Presets menu. A look sets how the art draws and finishes: the Draw On, Pen, Look and Draw Off rows. It never moves or recolors your art: Fit, Position, Scale, Rotation, Start Delay and Recolor stay as you set them (only Default resets those). It never changes the file or the pen pictures, and it skips any row you have keyframed. Everything stays yours to change after it lands. The line under each name sums up the look's settings.

The logo looks are shown on a made-up emblem, and three of the hand-drawn ones on a sketch drawn as lines. Your own file will draw in its own way: a fill-only logo gets the outline treatment, a file made of lines gets traced.

A flower badge drawing on with outlines that then fill in

Default fresh clip

Trace Outline · Shapes · Left to Right · 3 s · no pen

A fresh clip. Outlines draw around each shape left to right, then the shapes fill in. Picking Default also puts the art back in the middle at 100%, unlike every other look.

Your colors stay put

Your logo's colors are your brand, so no built-in look touches them. Set Recolor to Single Color, say white over dark footage, and it stays that way while you try every look. Only Default puts it back to Original, along with the rest of a fresh clip.

Hand-Drawn

A black marker drawing doodles of a sun, a cloud, a heart and a star on a whiteboard

Whiteboard

Marker · Glide · Exit

A marker draws the art and glides between lines, then leaves the frame. Shown on a sketch drawn as lines.

A fountain pen drawing doodles on cream paper

Signature

Fountain Pen · Fade when done

A fountain pen writes it on and fades away at the end. Made for signatures and handwriting.

A yellow pencil drawing doodles on cream paper

Sketchbook

Pencil

A pencil sketches it in. Shown on a sketch drawn as lines.

A stick of chalk tracing the flower badge in white on a green chalkboard

Chalkboard

Chalk · white line kept · 3 px

A stick of chalk outlines every filled shape in white, and the white line stays on after the fill arrives.

A paint brush outlining the badge in black ink on cream paper

Ink Brush

Brush · black line kept · 3 px

A brush outlines every filled shape in black ink, and the line stays on.

A blue ballpoint pen outlining the badge on cream paper

Notebook Doodle

Ballpoint · blue line kept · 3 px

A ballpoint pen outlines every filled shape in blue, like a doodle in the margin, and the line stays on.

Logo

The badge popping in piece by piece with a soft shadow

Logo Reveal

Pop · Pieces · 2 s · Drop Shadow 60%, blur 12, distance 8

Every piece pops in with a little bounce and lands with a soft shadow under it.

The badge drawn with thin blue construction lines

Blueprint

Trace Outline · blue line kept · 3 px · 4 s

A slow, precise draw: blue construction lines go around every filled shape and stay, then the color fills in.

The badge revealed by a straight wipe from left to right

Clean Wipe

Wipe left to right · Whole Graphic · 1.5 s

The whole logo is revealed by one clean wipe. Quick and classy.

The badge with each shape opening from its center

Center Burst

Center Out · Shapes · 2 s

Each shape opens out from its own middle.

The badge building from the bottom up as each shape grows

Build Up

Grow · Shapes · Bottom to Top · 2.5 s

Shapes grow into place from the bottom of the logo to the top.

The badge drawing on, holding, then un-drawing in reverse

In and Out

Default draw-on · Draw Off Reverse · 3 s

The Default draw-on, and at the end of the clip the same draw played backwards, so the logo leaves the way it came.

Glow and FX

The badge drawing on with a colored glow and a hot edge on the line

Neon Sign

Trace Outline · Glow in artwork colors, 30 px, 140% · Hot Edge, 1 s

Each part glows in its own color, and the line burns hot as it draws, like neon tubes flickering on.

A glowing spark drawing the badge and throwing sparks

Sparkler

Spark · for dark footage · Glow 20 px

A sparkler writes it on, throwing sparks, and the art glows softly behind it.

A comet with a tail drawing the badge piece by piece

Comet Trail

Comet · Pieces · Glide

A comet with a long tail draws each piece and glides to the next, scattering sparks.

The badge drawing on with a long glowing trail behind the line

Hot Wire

Trace Outline · Hot Edge 150%, cools over 2 s

A long glowing trail follows the line and cools slowly behind it, like a hot wire.

The badge popping on with a thick white border and a shadow

Sticker

Pop · Whole Graphic · white Outline 8 px · Drop Shadow 50%, blur 6, distance 6

The whole logo slaps on with a bounce, a thick white border and a shadow, like a sticker.

A few starting moves

Recipes

The jobs people reach for SVG Draw to do, and the settings that get you there. Start from a fresh clip (or the Default look) unless the recipe says otherwise.

A signature that writes itself

Signature look · Order Left to Right · Path Direction Auto · Duration 2 to 3 s

Export the signature as lines if you can (a scanned signature traced as a fill works too, Trace Outline handles it). Constant Pen Speed keeps the pen moving like a real hand, and Auto turns any line that was drawn backwards. For handwriting over several lines, use Reading Order.

Line art only, never filled

Trace Outline · Fill Reveal None · Keep Trace Line on · Trace Line Width 3 to 6

The art stays an outline drawing. Pick Trace Line Color Custom for one ink color, or leave it on Match Artwork so every outline is drawn in its shape's own color.

A logo sting, in and out

Logo Reveal (or In and Out) · Draw Off Reverse of Draw On · Draw Off Duration 1 s

Trim the clip to the length of the sting. The draw-off always ends on the last frame, so trimming moves the exit with it.

Fly it in from off screen

Position X keyframes: 200% → 0% (type the 200)

The slider stops at 100%, so type 200 to start fully off frame. Add a Rotation keyframe pair for a spin on the way in. The art keeps drawing while it moves.

Your own hand doing the drawing

Tip Custom Image · Image = your PNG · Nib X / Nib Y on the pen tip · Size to taste

Shoot your hand holding a pen against a plain background, cut it out to a PNG, and load it. Set the nib on the tip of the pen (watch the cross on the thumbnail). Add an Up-Stroke Image if your hand looks wrong going up, and Flip Horizontal for a left hand.

Glow on a bright shot

Sparkler or Comet Trail · Glow For Light Footage

Added light disappears on a bright sky or a white wall. Light Footage switches the pen to ember tones with a dark rim so it still reads.

One color for any background

Recolor Single Color · Color white (or your brand color)

A dark logo over dark footage vanishes. Single Color paints all of it, gradients included, in one color. Keyframe Color to shift it over the clip. It stays put when you switch looks (only Default resets it).

Confetti build

Pop · Draw By Pieces · Order Random · Overlap 50%

Pieces burst in all over the logo at once. Not the shuffle you wanted? Change the Random Seed for a new one.

Start later, finish on a beat

Start Delay = the wait · Duration = the draw

Put the clip's start where it should appear and set Start Delay to hold off the drawing. If the delay, the draw and the draw-off do not fit in the clip, the draw and the draw-off are shortened to fit.

Everything at once

Order All Together (or Overlap 100%)

Every piece starts at the same time. With Equal Time per Piece they all finish together at the end of the Duration. With the trace styles and Constant Pen Speed, short pieces finish first and the longest one takes the whole Duration.

How the controls play together

Which control wins

Most surprises come from two rows talking to each other. Here are the ones worth knowing.

The pen needs a trace style

Style · Tip

Pens ride lines, so the Pen rows only appear for Trace and Trace Outline. With Trace on a file that has no lines at all, there is nothing to ride: the Artwork row tells you to use Trace Outline.

Shape styles get a minimum time

Style · Duration

With Wipe, Center Out, Outside In, Pop, Fade and Grow, every piece gets at least 0.4 seconds (or half the Duration, if that is shorter), so a file with a thousand shapes still shows each one appearing instead of a blink. The pieces start closer together to make room, and the last one still ends on time. Trace and Trace Outline are not held to this: a tiny piece drawing fast is what a pen does.

Pacing only steers the trace styles

Pacing · Style

Constant Pen Speed shares the time out by line length, which only means something when a line is being drawn. Every other style draws on with equal time per piece, whatever Pacing says. (A draw-off keeps the timing of the draw-on.)

The clip has the last word

Timing · clip length

The draw-off always ends on the clip's last frame. If Start Delay plus Duration plus the draw-off is longer than the clip, the Duration and the draw-off shrink together to fit. The delay never shrinks.

Recolor reaches the trace line

Recolor · Trace Line Color

With Single Color, the drawn outline is painted in that color too, unless Trace Line Color is Custom, which keeps its own Line Color.

Looks finish the art, not the pen

Look · Pen

Outline, Drop Shadow and Glow are built from the art and grow as it draws. The pen sits on top of all of them and is never outlined or shadowed by them. It has its own Shadow and, for Spark and Comet, its own glow.

A look keeps your placement and colors, a preset of yours does not

Presets

Built-in looks leave Fit, Position, Scale, Rotation, Start Delay and Recolor alone. Your own presets save all of those, and applying one moves the art to where it was when you saved it and gives it the colors it had. Default puts the art back in the middle, in its own colors. Anything you have keyframed is left alone by all of them.

See-through art and the Outline

Outline · Fade

The outline never shows through the art, even art that is partly see-through. So when a piece next to an outlined piece starts to fade in, the border underneath it switches off on that piece's first visible frame instead of fading. That is by design: the alternative is an outline showing through your logo.

Make it yours

Your own presets

Built a look you love? Save it and reuse it on any clip, in any project.

  1. Dial in the look, and park the playhead where the settings are the way you want them (a saved preset takes each row's value at the playhead).
  2. Open the Presets menu at the top of the inspector and choose Save Current Settings…, then give it a name. If that name is already taken, it asks before replacing.
  3. It shows up under My Presets in that same menu, sorted by name, ready on any clip. To change it later, open its submenu there and use Rename… or Delete.

What a preset of yours saves

Everything about the draw
  • Recolor and Color.
  • Fit, Position, Scale, Rotation and Start Delay.
  • The Draw On, Pen, Look and Draw Off rows, apart from the ones on the right.

What no preset touches

Built-in or yours
  • The Artwork file.
  • Your pen pictures and their nib points.
  • The Random Seed.
  • Any row you have keyframed.

Where your presets live

Each preset you save is a small file on your Mac, in your home folder under Library ▸ Application Support ▸ Herbistry ▸ SVGDraw ▸ Presets. (That Library folder is hidden by default: in Finder, hold Option and open the Go menu to reach it.) Because they live there and not inside one project, your looks follow you everywhere, and you can send a preset file to someone else so they get the exact same look. Keep the .json on the end of the name, and have them drop it into that same Presets folder.

Good to know

Tips and limits

A few things that save you a headache, and what SVG Draw can't do.

Huge files and smooth playback

Playback only

A file with thousands of shapes, or an Outline over art that is fading in, asks a lot of your Mac, and live playback may stutter. Render it and it plays smoothly: select the clip and choose Modify ▸ Render Selection (Control-R). Your export is not affected: every frame renders in full.

Very tall frames and big shadows

Vertical 4K

The Look effects can reach a long way past the art, but not without limit. On very tall frames, such as vertical 4K, a long Drop Shadow (a big Distance plus Blur) is drawn a little shorter than asked so it still renders cleanly, and on even taller frames a very wide Glow too. At 1080p, 1440p and landscape 4K nothing changes.

2.39:1 projects

Wide frames

In a 2.39:1 project, Final Cut Pro hands a title a picture that is set in from the frame's edges, so the art cannot reach the outermost columns of the frame. That is how the app treats titles in that frame shape, and no setting changes it. Keep the art away from the far edges and you will never notice.

One file per clip

Stacking

Each SVG Draw clip draws one file. To draw a logo and then a tagline under it, stack two SVG Draw clips and give the second one a Start Delay, or simply start it later on the timeline.

SVG only, for now

File types

SVG Draw loads .svg and .svgz. Got an Illustrator, PDF or EPS file? Open it in your design app and export it as SVG.

Cheat sheet

Quick reference

Every row with a range or a menu, and what a fresh clip starts at. Checkboxes start off, except the pen's Shadow, and the colors are listed with each control. Sizes in px are for a 1080-high frame and scale with the frame.

RowRange or choicesFresh clip
RecolorOriginal, Single ColorOriginal
FitFit Art to Frame, Fit Canvas to Frame, Original SizeFit Art to Frame
Position X, Y-100% to 100% (type up to ±200%)0%
Scale1% to 400%100%
Rotation-360° to 360°0°
StyleTrace, Trace Outline, Wipe, Center Out, Outside In, Pop, Fade, GrowTrace Outline
Wipe DirectionLeft to Right, Right to Left, Top to Bottom, Bottom to TopLeft to Right
Draw ByWhole Graphic, Layers, Shapes, PiecesShapes
Order12 orders, File Order to All TogetherLeft to Right
Random Seed1 to 99991
Path DirectionAs Drawn, Reverse, AutoAuto
Overlap0% to 100%0%
PacingConstant Pen Speed, Equal Time per PieceConstant Pen Speed
Duration0 to 30 s3 s
Start Delay0 to 30 s0 s
EasingLinear, Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In and OutEase In and Out
Fill RevealFade, Wipe Along Stroke, Instant, NoneFade
Keep Trace LineOn, OffOff
Trace Line Width0.5 to 20 px2 px
Trace Line ColorMatch Artwork, CustomMatch Artwork
TipNone, 6 pens, Spark, Comet, Custom ImageNone
Size2% to 100% of frame height25%
Nib X, Nib Y0% to 100%4%, 96%
Sparks0% to 150%100%
Glow ForDark Footage, Light FootageDark Footage
AngleFollow Path, Fixed (-360° to 360°)Follow Path
Between PiecesGlide, Jump, HideGlide
When DoneExit, Fade, StayExit
Outline Width0 to 40 px4 px
Shadow Opacity0% to 100%75%
Shadow Blur0 to 100 px8 px
Shadow Distance0 to 200 px10 px
Shadow Angle-360° to 360°315° (down right)
Glow ColorsArtwork Colors, Single ColorArtwork Colors
Glow Radius0 to 100 px20 px
Glow Intensity0% to 200%100%
Cool Down0.1 to 3 s0.5 s
Hot Edge Intensity0% to 200%100%
Draw Off StyleNone, Reverse of Draw On, Fade, or any draw styleNone
Draw Off Duration0 to 30 s1 s

Before you install

System requirements

SVG Draw is a Mac video plugin. Here is what you need.

Operating system
macOS 15.6 or later
Sequoia 15.6 and up.
Works in
Final Cut Pro 10.8.1 / Motion 5.8 or later
A Title in Final Cut Pro, a generator in Motion.
Mac type
Apple silicon Mac
M1 or later.
Installing
Via FxFactory
Free trial with watermark; buy it in FxFactory.

Get help

Stuck on something?

A file that won't load, a draw that won't behave, or a pen that keeps wandering off? Reach out and we'll sort it.

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