Sunday, September 30, 2007

Super Fast Lower Third Name Bar

I've seen people jump through hoops to get a simple lower third that looks decent, nothing fancy but just good enough. Here's a super fast way to make a basic lower third.

01) Drop a text element into the timeline on V3. Set it up however you like it.
02) In the Effects window (or the effects drop-down in the lower right of the Viewer when you have the Video tab active) go to Video Generators > Matte > Color Solid. Bring this into the timeline under the text element and set it up with whatever color you like.
03) With the Color solid highlighted, tap C on the keyboard to grab Crop tool and drag the cropping of the color solid so it's a thick line near the bottom of the screen. However you prefer it to look.
04) In the Effects Window and under Video Filters > Matte > Soft Edges grab it and drag it onto the color solid element. With the color solid element highlighted, hit Enter to load it into the Viewer.
05) Monkey with the Soft Edges filter until you get the look you like. Drag Left or Right all the way to the edge and then drag the opposite one say 70 or so for a nice faux gradient.

Now you're ready to add in what ever you like on V1 to spice it up a bit. You don't have to use a color solid either, feel free to use any piece of video. And to make the text stand out a little more if it needs it give it a drop shadow value of 1.

1 comment:

John said...

Hey, thanks for the tip. I used it and it was quick, painless and looked great. Thanks for taking the time to make this available to the rest of us.