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By Le Papy - Last updated on Saturday, October 27, 2012
2032 Views ::
5 Comments :: (Total Votes: 7) Category: Pinnacle Studio 16 and AVID Studio Tutorials / General - Previous tutorials
Published on Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Created on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 4:20 AM |
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In the latest version of Pinnacle Studio 1-15 we have already shown you the Motion Titles editor.
Avid Studio and new Studio versions have gone a step further with improved ergonomics for the title editor to make it a more powerful tool. With this editor, your creativity can lead to even greater achievements. Its main advantage is there is something for everyone:
- some will choose to use a title template just as it is;
- there are those who will dare to change a title if it isn't completely satisfactory;
- or those who want to build a new title from scratch;
- and finally those who want to use the power of this editor to do more than just a title.
I think that you can see from what I said that I have more ideas for tutorials in mind ...
But like any newly developed tool, you need to get a better handle on it and some explanations are needed to tap into it's full potential.
Step 1 : How to Navigate the Titles
With a little over 700 titles available, the AVID (and new Studio versions) title library is so extensive that a new user can get confused. But fortunately "Mr. the publisher" had the forethought to make your job easier.

- From the Library tab, you can view all titles by selecting the "Titles" section in the folder shown in the tree view in the left column of the library;
- Then the publisher had two good ideas:
- He added categories to the title names;
- He has a filter to further refine your search.
The general classifications of the title names are (see the tooltips):
- If a title has no transparent area, it's name contains "fullscreen";
- If a title has transparent areas, it's name contains "overlay";
- If it's a rolling title (from the bottom up), it's name contains "roll";
- If it's a lower third type title (from right to left), it's name contains "crawl".
The contextual coding adds names to titles :
- If a title is based on your name, on holidays, on school, or Christmas, it's name contains "name", "holiday", "school", or "Christmas."
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With the "Titles" folder selected, if you want to find all titles that contain transparent areas:
- Enter "overlay";
- In this case, either match option can be used;
- The display will show all titles with the word overlay in them.
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With the "Titles" folder selected, if you want to find all titles that contain transparent areas or which are about Christmas :
- Enter "overlay Christmas";
- Check the first filter, "Match any words";
- The filter shows titles with overlay or Christmas in the title.
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With the "Titles" folder selected, if you want to find all titles that contain transparent areas and which are about any holiday :
- Enter "overlay holiday" and check the second filter criteria "Match all words";
- You will see titles that contain only overlay and holiday.
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- The applied filter is displayed at the top left of the page;
- To display all your titles again, click on the "X" to remove the filter.
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Step 2 : The Title Editor
I strongly urge you to read the User Studio Guide "Your Life in Movies" available our download page (Chapter 7) before proceeding.
There are two ways to enter the title editor:
- From the timeline, add a new title at the cursor position on the selected track by clicking on the "T" in the toolbar (or CTRL + 5 : not the 5 on the keypad ... the one above the "T"...). Creating a blank title will take you immediately to the title editor;
- Double clicking on an existing title that is on the timeline or in the library.
Let's start by creating a blank ...
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- By default the title is created with the default "Your Text Here" and a text layer;
- With an area of transparent background;
- From the "Looks" tab, you can apply different font styles, shadows, bevels, etc to the layer that's selected;
- You can add more details like shadows, edges and face details;
- You can change the text size, font, make it bold, italic, underline, change alignment, and even change the text flow in order to change the direction of the scrolling text, this allows you to accommodate languages that are written in directions other than left to right;
- Finally, you can save your "Look". You can easily find it later under the "5 My Looks" button.
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And you can also animate the titles you create. To do this, simply:
- Select the "Motions" tab;
- Select the layer to which you want to add a motion.
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- From the "Enter" Button, you can apply a preset effect that will define how your title will appear on the screen;
- From the "Emphasis" button, you can apply a preset effect that will define the conditions under which your title will remain on the screen;
- From the "Exit" button, you can apply a preset effect that will define how your title will disappear from the screen;
- Your layer will reflect the changes made:
- "Enter" and "Exit" dotted;
- "Emphasis" solid line;
- Hovering the mouse over a motion shows you a Tool Tip of what motion it is;
- When a layer is selected, clicking the center cross will remove the effect;
- The duration of each motion can be adjusted with the mouse by dragging on the ends of each motion of the layer.
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- You can add additional layers using the buttons on the toolbar. A button to add a new text layer and the other button to add a shape layer;
- By clicking on the button to add a shape layer, you can choose from various shapes;
- The ellipse can be resized and keep its aspect ratio by using the corner control points;
- It can be resized without keeping the aspect ratio by using the control points on the top and sides of the selection rectangle;
- You can rotate the ellipse by using the rotation handle;
- You can drag a picture or clip by hovering inside the shape until you see the double arrow.
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To move your text and your shape at the same time, you will need to group the two layers. Right click in the box layers, below the last layer.
- Select all the layers;
- Choose the item "Grouping";
- Click on "Group".
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Step 3 : Changing an Existing Title
There are two broad categories of titles:
- those that do not contain a background;
- those that do contain a background.
At first glance, it's not easy to distinguish them, we must edit them to know.
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Here's a title that does not contain a background.
- This title (Standard Title 12) contains two layers:
- A - a text layer (editable);
- B - a special layer (with a video camera icon). It's content - steps - , can not be changed, only the positions and motions of this layer can be changed;
- The drop zone of the background is blank.
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This title (Baby It's a boy 1...) is shown against a background.
- The title contains only one text layer (editable)
- The drop zone has an image of blue slippers. It is not possible to change the position of the background image, but you can delete the background - right click in the bottom of the preview window and click on "Delete background") or replace it with another object.
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| Finally, here's a more complicated title (Standard Title 35) that contains seven layers with a camera icon and an editable text layer. |
To edit an existing layer you can:
- Manually add text layers and change the text, position, size, and orientation;
- Manually add shape layers that you fill with color, with a picture or a clip;
- Group layers;
- Add entry, emphasis or exit motion to layers or to grouped layers;
- Add or replace a background;
- Copy layers and/or grouped layers from other pre-made titles and paste into your new title for editing. If you copy a grouped layer, all layers in the group will be part of your copy. By copying a layer, you also copy the motions associated with it.
- Finally if you want a particular background, it's easier to copy it from a title that contains the background rather than trying to import image files. You can then remove the layers that you do not need.
In conclusion, understanding these basic ideas is essential to grasping the tutorials that will follow. By now, you should be able to make a title like the one below with just the basics that you have learned ...
{Screen Capture made with TechSmith Snagit 10}
{Thanks to Loosecannon for the fine tuning} |
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