CG Text in Vegas 5 - What Can I Do?

user3744 wrote on 2/11/2005, 10:31 AM
Vegas 5 is a great program... easy yet powerful... and I've been able to learn quite a lot (except for parent/child options and compositing modes... they are tricky to learn - and that's whole other thread).

Question... what can I do with CG text? I know how to create, format, move, shrink, apply video effects, keyframes, etc. But this is still very basic. How can I do REALLY cool things like shake, etc.

Also, how can I use the Transition function to wipe/roll/particle the text on the screen? Right now, all I know how to do is cut/fade it on.

This is one area I feel Vegas 5 is lacking.

ONE OTHER POINT... how can get a look at other projects or still frames to "inspire" me as to what Vegas can do (or has done for others?)

Thanks!

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/11/2005, 10:42 AM
Admittedly, the text generator in Vegas is rather basic. You can still do some rather impressive things with it though. It's major lack is 3D depth, but aside from that if you're creative and imaginative enough you can eventually accomplish amazing stuff. Try track motion with lots of keyframes to get a shaking effect. There are some scripts available that will apply the keyframes for you to create an earthquake type effect.

Use the text as a mask to allow other video or still images to make up the letters, or to be holes through a video image. Use the other media generators to create visual effects and then mask these with the text. Consider using 3D track motion to slant, rotate, move, slide, twist, resize, bend, flop, spin ... etc. the text. Composite multple text tracks together with varying colors and transparency to create interesting new combinations. Add effects such as glow or light rays to the text. Use a bump or displacement map to make the text appear raised or etched into the surface of other images. These are just a very tiny assortment of ideas.

In order to apply transitions for text in and out, apply a simple fade first and then drop the transition you want onto the faded area.

Check out http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/ for some examples of what other folks are doing with Vegas.