Text Backgrounds?

thuganomics88 wrote on 2/1/2005, 11:30 PM

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm new at video editing and have no idea how to do this. How can I add a background to the text I add(like the text here: http://www.lawpoint.com/cbs-news.jpg )? When I use the "text background" option, it covers the whole screen. How can I put the background just where the text is? Thanks.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/2/2005, 2:51 AM

You will need to mask the text event so that it only covers a specific area. You might be able to use the Cookie Cutter effect, but it is somewhat limited in the shapes it can produce. You could also use Pan/Crop to crop the event to just the specific area, but then it will stretch to fill the width of the screen. Using Track Motion after Pan/Crop will let you reduce it in size again and position it exactly where you want it.

Failing that, you may need to create a simple mask as a still image. Create a new 654x480 (for NTSC) still image in any photo editing or drawing software. This image should be entirely black, except for a while rectangle where you want the text background to show. Save it as a PNG file. Load this image into a track above the text and composite the text track with it. Set the compositing type to Multiply (Mask). If you want to get fancy you can use shapes other than rectangles, fade the edges instead of having sharp white/black edges so that the border of the text background will be feathered, use Track Motion to move the background across the screen, fade it in and out, use animated masks to create motion, etc.

The possibilities are endless! :)

farss wrote on 2/2/2005, 2:55 AM

You're probably better off using text with no bg on top track, create the text bg in say PS and put that on track 2 and the vid on track three.
This way you can make the bg whatever you want including something with motion by masking a moving background such as the Sony Vision series or the ones from Chienworks. Have fun.
Bob.

busterkeaton wrote on 2/2/2005, 8:35 AM

If you are using Vegas 5, you can easily do this using bezier masks.

The element you are talking about is known as a lower third, you can search this board for "lower third" and see a lot of posts. In the example you give, it is not fully a lower third, because it stops short of the bottom of the frame, but the same principles apply

Mandk wrote on 2/2/2005, 10:02 AM

If you have Vegas 5.0 that came with the Boris Graffitti LTD you can also use a prepared lower third from that program.