Typing Text Title Help needed...

[Sean Seah]

I need to create a typing text effect.. what is the best way to do it in Vegas besides manually doing it? I think pro tilter is possible but I'm not sure how to get into the character itself?

[Edward Troxel]

Probably the easiest way is to use the Pro Type Titler. You can set it work at the character level and then reveal them one at a time.

You can also use the standard generated media. To do this, I would start with ALL characters typed and then add the ending keyframe. Then add additional keyframes backwards - one per letter - removing the proper letters on each keyframe.

[Sean Seah]

thks Edward! I m proficient to do it with keyframes.. am thinking how to do it with pro titler.. the typing effect is like making the text appear char by char in words.. if i can figure out the parent relationship timings pro titler should be the best bet.

[Sean Seah]

managed to do it with masking but it is sooooo tedious! I wish there is a better way. Now I'm trying to do the blinking underscore. Any good way to do this?

[Jay Massengill]

I've been experimenting with this, personally I think you can get away with not having to reveal each full letter as if it is truly being typed. Once you add the blinking cursor and a typing sound effect, I think that simply revealing the line of text using a hard edge linear wipe would work. But that's up to you if it would meet your expectations. It's obviously much simpler to just use a transition rather than keyframe each jump to the next character, but you might consider this an unacceptable shortcut visually.
As for adding the blinking cursor, I've created an underscore character in photoshop with a transparent background. Set beginning and ending key frames in Pan/Crop for the position of the cursor as it would move along the line of text. Then split this event many times, removing every other new event to make it blink.
The motion of the key framing from the original long event stays correct after you've split it up.
Again this results in a smoother flow rather than "typing", but it's certainly easier than keyframing each jump from character to character.

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Sean Seah

managed to do it with masking but it is sooooo tedious!

Here's another method courtesy of John Rofrano.

1. Insert a Text Generated Media and set up the font, size, color, etc that you want.
2. Make sure you press the Left Justify button because text is center justified by default. If the text is centered it will move as you add more letters.
3. Start by typing the first letter of the text only.
4. Now make a keyframe a little further down the timeline and type the 2nd letter.
5. Make another keyframe further down the timeline and type the 3rd letter.
6. Keep making new keyframes and typing one letter at a time until your whole message is written.
7. Finally, highlight all the keyframes and right click on one and select Hold from the pop-up menu for the keyframe type.
This will cause the letters to instantly appear at the designated keyframe.
8. Add a typing sound effect and you're all set.

[Gerald Webb]

here's a link to a few secs of typing text I had in a family vid I did

YouTube - typing text.mp4

I dont know if I'm over simplifying this, or you guys are trying to achieve something a bit different, but this is really quick and easy
with simple add text,
make linear mask with keyframes set to Hold,
move it along....1 key for each letter.
If you wanted you could save it as a preset.
cheers to all
:)