titling software.

[Ian Planchon]

what are you guys using to create titles?

[Don Bloom]

depends on what I need. I use the generated media in Vegas, Photoshp and BluffTitler for motion titles. I will use a combination of those if it's called for.

Don

[Ian Planchon]

usually I just rely on vegas, as I dont do too much that requires really fancy motion. but I am working on a project right now that will require some of it. so I need to look at motion titles.

[Mike Kujbida]

Ian, what kind of motion titles are you hoping to create?
With the use of Pan/Crop and Track Motion, Vegas is capable of doing a fair bit of motion with respect to titles.
Matthew Chaboud has an example on his site (2nd from the bottom) called 3D titles that will surprise you, especially since it was done with Vegas 5!!

[Ian Planchon]

I guess I am not looking for titling, but titling backgrounds. some sort of background that has motion in it, but is only a band on the lower third, you know?

[Mike Kujbida]

I'm not the kind of guy who can "roll his own" animated backdrops so I use a lot of the Digital Juice Jump backs for things like that.
VASST has the GrafPack collection as well.
If you want some static ones, check out CG textures for a rather large collection.

[Bill Mecca]

you can also check out Movietools.biz - Video Loops Download Shop - Movietools.biz Downloadshop from motion backgrounds etc.

[Mike Kujbida]

Bill, while the Movietools stuff is nice, I think you get more for your money with the Digital Juice products, especially if you take advantage of their (almost daily) specials.
For example, all their HD and SD Jump Backs are on sale right now for $24.50 (regularly $99) and you get 20 different anims with each one for that price.
My entire collection was bought while the various items were on sale so I consider them a very good purchase.

[Ian Planchon]

awesome, thanks for the links.

[Bill Mecca]

Mike

I agree, I love DJ's stuff, (really would like to see Production Notes come back) What I like from MT is the news sets, though I haven't found one that is "exactly" what I want. It's given me the impetus to start creating my own, when I find time.

I have a bunch of DJ stuff here at work, and a couple I purchased for my own use. (I don't do much freelance video, just some voice work, and my own video projects)

Not knowing what someone's budget is (www.movietools.info has freebies, though they are 640x480. I have stretched a few to 720x480 and they held up pretty well) I though I would mention MT, but I forgot to put the free site in the original post.

[Ian Stark]

If you do fancy 'rolling your own', try creating a track above your 'action' track; insert Generated Media/Noise Texture; use track motion to size and position it on the screen where you want it; add a track above with your title text. Easy lower third. But perhaps a bit dull.

To spice it up you could :

- introduce motion by (among other things) keyframing a change in the X and Y frequency over the life of the clip
- gradually change the colour over time
- use other filters, like median, glow, whatever takes your fancy
- drop the opacity of the lower third track
- in the pan/crop tool, create a mask and feather it on one or more edges so the lower third fades out
- fly in a line at the top or bottom (or both) of the lower third (eg create a gradient, use the track motion tool to make it really thin, position it, make a duplicate, position that, then keyframe some movement in and out).
- use a transition to bring it in more dramatically.

These are all really simple ways to create a slightly more interesting lower third. But I'll add my agreement with the other guys here - there are some beautiful ready made lower thirds avalable commercially. Although there is always the danger that someone else has already used them, I guess. This way is free and has a pretty good chance of being unique (and, quite possibly, horrible-looking!!).

I'll knock up a quick example in a .veg and post it shortly.

Ian . . .

[Ian Stark]

Here's a quick 'n' dirty very low res example using some of the techniques mentioned in the last post. I stress 'quick 'n' dirty'. This one won't win any beauty competitions, it's for ideas and reference only. All criticism will be ignored ;-)

Of course you'll pick your font, colours etc more carefully and to compliment the background footage. What also looks nice is if the two lines of text fly in from oppsite sides. Anyway, like I said, just a silly example.

[Giroud Francois]

text-o-sterone

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

All criticism will be ignored ;-)

How about compliments then?
This is an excellent example of "rolling your own".
I'd like to see this made into a sticky to be able to show others just what Vegas is capable of doing in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing.
Nice job Ian - and thanks for the inspiration.

[Ian Stark]

He he he! Well, I might have to pretty it up a bit first!

Quite seriously, though, I find I am staying in Vegas more and more to achieve the results I want for titles and title sequences. Not that long ago I would invariably leave Vegas and work in After Effects (for certain things I still do). Nowadays I can achieve a great deal more while remaining in Vegas. If you throw in some of the excellent plugins available from people like NewBlueFX (sorry, I keep raving about them but they are - mostly - really great filters) you have a fantastic set of tools to create interesting graphics elements, quite simply and very quickly. The example I posted really was a <5 minute job using only native Vegas filters and only one external media item (the photo). I should add that I have never taken the time to consider what the different settings are in the Noise Generator - I just fiddle and get something interesting! I'm no expert compared with many here, I just like fiddling. So to speak . . .

That said, thanks for the compliment. OK, I'll take it ;-)

Ian . . .