protype or the text generator in vegas. I haven't found anything I couldn't do with that that I needed.

I use http://www.prodad.de/gb/heroglyph_std_details.htmlHeroglyph[/link]. I find it less confusing than the ProType titler.

There are two versions of Heroglyph. The cheaper "Rapid" version is really all you need. The extra features of the full version are redundant with the photo animation tools of Vegas and frankly, not as good as what Vegas already does.

There is no such thing as the Best [fill in the blank] when it comes to software. There is only The Right One for You. Or even more accurately, The Right One For Your Situation.

It all depends on what your needs are.

Rob

90% of the time I just use the standard Text Generator. I'm starting to transition to the ProType Titler now that I understand how to use it.

If I need anything fancier I use Boris RED. (you could use Boris Graffiti instead since Graffiti is part of RED) The 2D text styles and 3D text in Boris RED/Graffiti is more capability than I would ever need. Occasionally I'll even use it to extrude a logo into 3D as well as text. It's very powerful.

~jr

I'm curious about Heroglyph. Presently I just use the basic Vegas title generator, with rolling credits at the end. For just plain ol' rolling credits, it works great, especially now that I've learned how to add a shadow effect almost effortlessly (duplicate, change to black, defocus, offset).

Many people knocked the original Vegas title generator, but I use it plenty. If you stack 'em up (you have unlimited tracks after all) you can get some great results. Stack too much and I do get a little lost sometimes, especially when you got keyframes going and stuff zooming in and flying out.
And then my wife finds the stupid little spelling error I left and I have to go back and find the right event box.

I do like Pro Type, for scrolling credits its MUCH better than the title generator.

As for Graffiti, it kinda sucks as a Vegas plugin. And personally, I find the interface a little confusing.

matt

About a year ago, I bought Bluff Titler based on recommendations on this forum (is no one using this anymore?). I think I used it once and then didn't use it for the longest time. Recently, I had two clients that wanted very dramatic ("cheesy"?) titling done, and they loved the options I gave them from http://www.blufftitler.us/Bluff Titler[/link]. Ya never know when you'll need some crazy presets that this program offers.

I've done some really cool titles in Bluff Titler.

Doesn't anyone care about the quality of their text?
I look at the standard output from Vegas compared to OTA broadcast and shudder. It seems I can get better looking text printing it out and shooting the page with my old D8 camera.
One solution is to do your text in HD and downscale it to SD with Vegas. If you want something that works out of the box Cayman Graphics or the output from Inscriber that I've seen one local Vegas user use looks of comparable quality to other TVCs.

Bob.

Bluff is a bit jaggie for my taste but has some quick solutions. Zaxwerks Proanimator if you like sport style logos and titles fits the bill. Its great imports models and illustrator files too.

Riredale,

You can also add a drop shadow or glow using Track Motion.

Dave T2

> Doesn't anyone care about the quality of their text?

That's why I recommended Boris. The output is outstanding at any resolution. There is a learning curve but you can say the same thing about After Effects and that doesn't stop anyone from using that.

~jr

While I personally like Bluff Titler (inexpensive, ease of use and meets my needs) I have heard some very good things about Zaxworks ProAnimator.

I've heard a lot of varied opinions about the quality of Bluff Titler's output and am convinced that it varies from system to system due to it's reliance on whatever graphics card you have installed. I know that on my system the output is very smooth, and I can render out a sequence at much higher than HD resolutions, but I understand that that is not the case for all systems with all graphics cards.

ProAnimator is excellent for the money. However, it is primarily for 3D.

Does Bluff Titler work as Vegas plug-in?

Does Bluff Titler work as Vegas plug-in?
No, you have to render it out and import into Vegas. If you are doing an alpha layer you have to render it out uncompressed.

Kind of a pain, but if you need 3d titles with light sources and shadows, it works quite nicely.

Is there a need to use the Video Supersampling envelope to improve text and/or titles when using ProDAD Heroglyph?

Thanks

Doesn't anyone care about the quality of their text?

I do. I found out the high-res "trick" when I was doing that vasst contest. Here's 4 different Vegas text examples in a SDNTSC frame, each rendered @ different quality resolutions in the protype/text media generators:

http://img507.imageshack.us/my.php?image=textcomparisoncl9.jpg[/link]

That's just so people know what's being talked about.

EDIT: high resolution in the text generators give much higher quality output. The media generators treat the media it generated as an image of the specified resolution for translation purposes, including zooming.

Bluff no longer relies on the graphics card to render. It's done in software since V9. If you pay attention to your render settings you can create reasonably good text by doubling your render size.

The particle effects are also very handy and easier to create that in combustion or one of the other steep learning curved programs.