4. FINAL CUT PRO: WORKING WITH TITLES, 3D TITLES, LOWER THIRDS AND GENERATORS [10:27 min]
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What You'll Need: Final Cut Pro
TRANSCRIPT
Hi I’m Kiarra Drew with We Make Movies.
You have edited your video in the way you want people to see your story. Now comes the part of the project where you start Post-Production on your film.
One part of Post-Production is adding your titles.
Titles are on-screen text that describe places, people in your video. Whether it is your opening title, a lower third for a person,
Titles give your audience more information in your video.
In this tutorial we are going to cover adding Titles to your project in Final Cut Pro 10.4.9.
For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to use our Smart Phone Studio Library.
I created a new Event called Titles. Imported media and made a Project.
Adding A Basic Title over footage
Move Playhead or Skimmer to any location on your timeline (NOTE: THE SKIMMER TAKES PRIORITY OVER THE PLAYHEAD)
Edit > Connect Title > Basic Title (Shortcut Control-T)
A Purple Clip named Basic Title is added above your primary story-line, with a default length of 10 seconds.
Adding A Basic Lower Third over footage
Edit > Connect Title > Basic Lower Third (Shortcut Control-Shift-T)
A Purple Clip named Basic Lower-Third Title is added above your primary story-line, with a default length of 10 seconds.
You are able to move these titles anywhere by selecting them and dragging them anywhere around your timeline, including the beginning and ending of your video.
When you move a title/lower third to the main timeline. The title now becomes a clip in your main timeline.
Titles by default have a transparent background. This allows you to add the titles over clips and pictures, or different color Generators (We will cover Generators a little later.)
Editing A Basic Title.
Move the Playhead over the Basic Title.
Double-Click the Basic Title.
The text in the viewer is now selected.
Text Inspector will be active. Text icon is highlighted blue.
Type a new title. Text will change in the Viewer.
Editing A Basic Lower Third Title.
When you have text that is on multiple lines and is in the left or right corner of your video, it is called a lower third,
Editing a lower third title is very similar to editing a regular title.
Do all the steps in Editing Basic Title for Name.
In the Viewer you will notice two arrow buttons (Previous Text Layer, Next Text Layer) on the left side.
Click on either arrow to move back and forth to the Description (bottom line) of text.
Type a new Description.
Click Command-Return to close text editing.
Editing Text Title Settings and Length.
Double-Click the title.
In the Viewer, Select Show Text Inspector Icon
To See more options of the Inspector on screen, Toggle Inspector Height by selecting View > Toggle Inspector Height (Shift-Command-4)
Basic options include:
Font style
Size
Alignment
Try Changing the Font Style and Size.
You can also change the Position, Rotation and Scale of the text. Adjust some of these positions. Command-Z to undo the movement.
There are also other options for Titles, including 3D Text, Face, Outline, Glow, Drop Shadow. If you have formatted any of your text in a word processor app you will be familiar with how these settings affect your text.
To Increase or Decrease the duration of the title.
Hover your pointer to either side of the title until it turns into a trim-tool (I may be wrong on the exact name)
Click and hold, the edge handle will turn yellow, move left or right, depending on the side you are on to increase or decrease the duration. A box will appear with the new duration on the left side, on the right will be the duration the title has been changed by.
Titles and Generator Sidebar.
There are many different styles of Titles and Lower Thirds that you can use in place of the Basic titles and Basic lower thirds.
Select the Titles and Generator sidebar.
Click to select it
Window > Go To > Titles and Generators (Option-Command-1)
Select Titles.
Click the disclosure triangle to see the different categories of titles.
Move your pointer over the different thumbnails, and skim back and forth to see the titles animation preview.
Select Glow.
Drag down to timeline (Command-Q) to connect.
Double-click the title to edit text.
Change the Text to SMART PHONE STUDIO.
Click anywhere in the timeline to exit out of the text editor.
Changing Title Inspector Settings (Published Parameters)
Some Titles, like the Glow Title, have “Published Parameters” which allow you to change certain settings of the title.
In order to see what published parameters are changeable. Select the title in the timeline and select Title Inspector in the Inspector (
Select the color option and change it.
Select the glow color option and change it.
Play your title back on the timeline to see the changes.
Adding Generators to your project
Generators are pre-installed still backgrounds and animations that you can use in your video. There are a lot of different choices to pick through. For the purpose of this tutorial let’s add a title UNDERNEATH an opening title on our project.
Take the Glow title that we worked on earlier.
Move it and place it in the front of the timeline.
Go to Generators, and click the Disclosure Triangle to see the different categories.
Go to Backgrounds and select ORGANIC.
Select and Drag the ORGANIC CLIP UNDERNEATH the Glow title.
You have now made a unique intro title for your video.
3D TITLES
You are also to create 3D titles in Final Cut as well. 3D gives your text the appearance of depth, lighting, texture, and other formatting options. You can add a variety of effects to the title. Truly taking advantage of the 3D space.
This will be a starting out overview of 3D titles.
Make sure Playhead is located where you want the 3D title to go.
Click Titles.
There are 2 options: 3D and 3D Cinematic.
Click 3D.
Click Basic 3D.
Click Q to Connect the Title.
Click on the Text Inspector.
Click (Control-Command 4 to extend the Inspector Height)
Double-Click on the 3D Text in the Viewer.
On Screen Controls (OSC) 3 Control dots and 3 Control Arrows appear.
These OSCs allow you to move your title in 3D space.
(Note: These controls correspond to the Position and Rotation Scales in the Inspector)
The 3 dots control the Rotation of the title:
Left dot is Y Axis. (Vertical)
Top dot is X Axis (Horizontal)
Right dot is Z Axis (Depth)
Click the Reset icon to undo the changes.
In the middle of the Title are 3 arrows.
The 3 arrows move the Position of the title:
The upper green arrow moves the position on the Y Axis (Vertical)
The right side green arrow moves the position of the X Axis (Horizontal)
The middle blue arrow moves the the position of the Z Axis (Depth)
Clicking and Moving anywhere in the box moves the title around the screen.
Go over to Inspector Window:
Here you can format the text like normal.
Basic:
Basic and Normal text formatting options for font, size, position, rotation, etc.
You can now change the settings for Z Axis for Position, Rotation, Scale.
Scrolling down in the Text Inspector are the 3D Text Formatting Controls:
3D Text:
Various controls that allow you to change the size of the depth in the front, side and edges of the text.
Lighting:
Various controls that change the kind of light on the text and how the text responds to the lighting.
Material:
These controls allows you to add a variety of materials, textures, colors, etc. to your text, giving it a very unique appearance.
Single is the default setting. Select the controls under Substance. Experiment with the different types. As you change substances notice how options change in the Substance Box.
Change the setting in Material to Multiple.
You can now select and change the materials, colors, etc. for the front, edges, sides and back of the 3D Text.
Rotate your 3D Title around to see the changes to the edges and sides as you make them.
You can uncheck the 3D Text box to change back to 2D text.
You can also check the 3D box in a 2D title to change it into 3D text.
Your 3D text titles can also have Published Parameters to them that allow you to change a variety of animation/behaviors for the title. Experiment with them to create a unique animation style for your 3D title.
CONCLUSION:
There are many different Titles and Generators in Final Cut. You can format them in a variety of ways, Some of them have additional options you can use to customize the look and feel of your titles.
There are also 3D titles that we will cover in another lesson. Feel free to create a new project and experiment with all the different settings for different titles. Create and have fun, and find the look that compliments your visual story.