The other thread "how to do it in Vegas" was getting pretty long, so I thought I'd just put this here, because I know PTT isn't intuitive, but I'd like to help people use it, if I can.
And I recognize I'm a noob on Vegas <grin>, but if this can help anyone, fantastic!
Vegas is the only NLE I've ever used, so I can't compare it to others. As for titling, I've used Bluff Titler, which was fine, but now I do like PTT better. I still use some of the nice fonts from Digital Juice if I just want to put a title on the screen sans animation.
As for PTT, the first thing to notice is that there are two modes - text editing and block editing. In text editing, you can edit each individual character, which is very handy.
Block editing is where you set up the animation with key frames. However, the important thing to note is that each effect (e.g. opacity) by default is not set up for animation. In other words, if you change opacity to 50%, that's the value for your whole title's lifetime.
To activate animation, click on the little spiral next to each effect, and then a new "track" will appear below, corresponding to that effect. Then you can place keyframes and values as before.
Now, a very nice feature is that you can choose which level you want to change those effects - the whole title, or perhaps one line, or one word, or even one character. I've found that to be very powerful and opens up all sorts of creative possibilities.
And, on top of that, after you do create an effect (say, the first letter dropping down from the top of the screen while fading in and shrinking from very large to the size you want), you can then click on one button (cascade) and voila, it's applied to all the other characters! You can also change the cascade properties, but just leaving it alone, you see that now your whole title, one character at a time, drops down, fades in, and zooms out.
Yeah, it takes a lot of getting used to (hence this thread!), but so far, I find it pretty cool, if not overdone.
And I recognize I'm a noob on Vegas <grin>, but if this can help anyone, fantastic!
Vegas is the only NLE I've ever used, so I can't compare it to others. As for titling, I've used Bluff Titler, which was fine, but now I do like PTT better. I still use some of the nice fonts from Digital Juice if I just want to put a title on the screen sans animation.
As for PTT, the first thing to notice is that there are two modes - text editing and block editing. In text editing, you can edit each individual character, which is very handy.
Block editing is where you set up the animation with key frames. However, the important thing to note is that each effect (e.g. opacity) by default is not set up for animation. In other words, if you change opacity to 50%, that's the value for your whole title's lifetime.
To activate animation, click on the little spiral next to each effect, and then a new "track" will appear below, corresponding to that effect. Then you can place keyframes and values as before.
Now, a very nice feature is that you can choose which level you want to change those effects - the whole title, or perhaps one line, or one word, or even one character. I've found that to be very powerful and opens up all sorts of creative possibilities.
And, on top of that, after you do create an effect (say, the first letter dropping down from the top of the screen while fading in and shrinking from very large to the size you want), you can then click on one button (cascade) and voila, it's applied to all the other characters! You can also change the cascade properties, but just leaving it alone, you see that now your whole title, one character at a time, drops down, fades in, and zooms out.
Yeah, it takes a lot of getting used to (hence this thread!), but so far, I find it pretty cool, if not overdone.