Hi David,

After Effects sure does get a lot of praise from the video development community, but as as beginner, a subscription model is not something that makes sense (I have a pre-sub version of the basic Adobe package of PS and Indesign, which works fine for my level of creative use).

Further to that, I would have actually preferred to start my NLE journey on Premiere Pro, if not for the inability to buy the sotware outright.

So why do you use AE over making your own titles? Too much work starting from scratch ?

I start them from scratch in After Effects. AE offers far more options to animate and treat your titles. I also have Sapphire plugins for it which gives more options as far as effects. I have never used any templates.

Gotcha.

I'm having a go at replicating a few that I've seen on NewBlue's demo page, and feel like it's pretty clunky trying to dial in the subtleties, like slight bouncing movements. I'll post up some of my work in a few days for critique.

Maybe I'll keep an eye out for the last of the boxed versions of AE, most likely v6 of their discontinued suite before they went to a subscription model.

It really gives me the sh*ts that I can't buy Adobe creative products.

I started my editing journey in Premiere Pro... About a year later I discovered Vegas 4, which had this amazing, previously unheard-of (to me, at least) ability to do live previews of your transitions and effects without having to render them first. I realized that was far from the only reason to switch, once I discovered Vegas amazing format compatibility and workflow, I never looked back. I did try to go back to Premiere again a few years ago, just before Magix bought Vegas, as Sony had all but abandoned Vegas by that point and the software was years behind its competition (still is in many, many ways... but at least it works better for me now than it did under Sony). I couldn't even last a day, the whole having to drag transitions onto a transition track thing was annoying, and there were many other aspects of the workflow and format compatibility that still sucked.

After Effects is pretty much essential learning, at least the basics of it. It has become the industry standard motion graphics software. Thing about After Effects is, it is so complex that you're going to be a "beginner" for quite some time. What I would do is, search the web for video tutorials (youtube has tons) on how to do exactly what you are after, and rent the software for a month. See how far along you can get with creating what you are after, and if it works out, then you've justified your reason to keep paying for the subscription as needed.

One good thing about that model is, as you are learning the software, you might, for instance, learn to create something that you only need to use once in a while. Let's say I need to know how to create amazing lower thirds, but I might only get a video project that calls for them once every 2-3 months. I then have the option of renting the software, learning how to do that one thing, and I didn't have to drop $600 or more on some program that I use to do one thing, rarely. Eventually, I'll get good enough at doing other things in AE to use it more often, but it is still nice to not have to commit to it like that, and to be able to pick out specific tasks I want to learn how to do, rent the program for a month, watch a tutorial on how to do it, learn that new skill, and not take a huge hit to the wallet in the process. If it turns out I do need to use that skill on a regular basis in my productions, then the $50 per month I've paid for access to Adobe's software suite has justified keeping it going perpetually. As long as the price is comparable to what a perpetual license would cost, it definitely can have its benefits.

Interesting to read your comments on Premiere Pro vs Vegas.

At the moment I've got a lot to go through in learning Vegas for post-production, then I need to learn to actually shoot (ultimately though, I'm more interested in post-production), so perhaps in around 6 months I'll rent AE for a month and do some raining and practical work in it.

Can those who have some lower thirds they are proud of share some links, either on this thread or via message if you prefer to keep it out of the public domain ? I will have a crack at seeing if I can achieve similar directly in Vegas.

In the Lynda Tutorial I'm going through, there is mention of NewBlue 3D Titler Pro, but I don't have it in my version (14). Was this a limited time bonus offer, or is it possible for me to download it as a free plugin? Seems like it's been superseded by a paid-for version.

BlackMagic fusion is free and is like AfterEffects x 10. You can do pretty much anything with it. AE is a little faster for motion graphics, but you can do it all in fusion and you can also do anything you would ever need to do to your videos. Nothing else needed. Adobe, Boris, NewBlue, whatever %$^&*, is all crap compared to Fusion. And it's free ( last time I checked ).

This is not hyperbole , really, If you invest some time into learning Fusion you will never need anything else.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion/

Adobe, Boris, NewBlue, whatever %$^&*, is all crap compared to Fusion.

Agreed. Or Blender. Thing is, you can create whatever lower third you need in Vegas. Little pop outs with twirly bits. Whatever. But think. Are uber fancy lower thirds going to add anything to your production? Or are they like the hundreds of available fancy never needed transitions - just a diversion from making anything worthwhile.

@deusx thanks for the recommendation, I'll look into that after I've gotten a grasp of Vegas. I know myself well enough to say that software like that is going to take me into a whole other direction !

@Rainer You are spot on ! I've looked at so many title splashes that people have made, and I have to say, they are absolutely tasteless. I'm not looking to do 3D spinning letters with exploding flames.

Since starting this thread, I've been fooling around some more, and with the duo of Vegas and Photoshop, think I'm developing a direction that's going to be fairly easy to execute whatever design ideas I can come up with.

I'm surprised at the direction this thread is taking, and that people are working outside of Vegas. I guess everyone wants to achieve different things, that makes Vegas inappropriate for the task. But I believe I can get away with staying 'in the box' for the moment.

Some demos to follow.

Here's what I've worked on so far

Congratulations - you're already well down the track. One of the advantage of developing your titles and lower thirds within Vegas is that you will learn techniques that are transferrable to other aspects of video editing. You already know how to slide things in and out, fade things in and out, use half transparent overlays and adjust the timing on each - which means you can now use these techniques for other types of events, not just text.

@JaySonic : Those are your work-ups? Then very well done 👍.

Mostly, unless doing some VERY LOUD in yer-face-type hyperbole-type graphics then Less is More. Make Lower/Middle/upper thirds relevant to the Motion or stationary image behind. I’ve seen lots of irrelevant, clunky and downright appalling rubbish graphics.