I've also found the titles in Vegas a little lacking, I'm afraid...

But I've also found that, oddly enough, Photoshop of all things makes for a wonderful titler! It's an easy solution-- just create your titles, import them as a photoshop file (which I didn't find out that I could do until about 2 weeks ago) with an alpha channel & bingo! I've been really, really happy with the results so far.

Although it may not be the solution your hoping for, it's the best one that I've found.

David.

It occurred to me that since I still have a registered seat of Speed Razor / Inscriber, I could just launch SR and create a project that consists of only CG effects. Create all of my CG pages there and export them one at a time as 32bit TGA's and import them into Vegas. Save the project and if any of the pages need updated, then just open the SR project and revise the page and export it again. Seems simple enough. I'd bet that aren't many $2000 CG programs out there ;-)

One other thought was to pick up a copy of Pinnacle Studio 8 for around $70 and use its CG program, TitleDeko, in same manner as mentioned above. Not sure if TitleDeko exports to an image format with an alpha channel though.

What is it Photoshop can do (title-wise) that Vegas can't?
I don't know Photoshop but I know Paintshop which I believe does much of the same as Photoshop only slower.
I used to create .png files in Paintshop and import them to Vegas when I was a kid - about four weeks ago. Then it dawned on me that the Vegas text generator handles all kinds of true-type fonts and does all kinds of nice and nasty things to them.
What exactly is it you want to do with your titles? Make 'em rhyme?

Tor

so you were just a kid 4 weeks ago? man, you grew so fast. just kidding.

Well, one of the things that Title Deko does is the graidient fonts and other effects. I use Real Draw for mine because I can use 3d lights, bevels and bump map and textures if I desire.

K

Hi Jim,

FWIW, The Title Deko for Pinnacle may not run standalone... I think the version bundled with Premier does.

(Pinnacle Studio *does* feature Smart Sound... if you need quick scoring.)

HTH, MPH

Well, if you're going to go to that much trouble, consider XARA 3D5. This is a quick, cheap program that kicks out some nice text. I import into Vegas as PNG files.

www.xara.com

T

A new Titler which is called HeroGLYPH which is broadcast quality and reasonable
priced.

worth taking a look at it. www.heroglyph.com

HeroGLYPH looks interesting and it has plenty of horsepower to the type of stuff I'm needing to do, but it isn't being sold yet according to the web site. And at $200 it's a little steep, without the opportunity to check out a demo. Thanks for the reference though.

What is it Photoshop can do (title-wise) that Vegas can't?...the Vegas text generator handles all kinds of true-type fonts

You've partly answered your own question: Vegas can't use PostScript (Type 1 or OpenType) fonts.

It's very annoying and will hopefully be dealt with in Vegas 4.

Vegas can't use PostScript (Type 1 or OpenType) fonts

I know little about those formats. Is it the amount of available fonts that does it, or is the vector thing? (I'm afraid I don't know much about vector things either.)
I am a great admirer of fine typography in print, but for video I've not seen the need for subtelty that is not available in True Type. That is because so much on video is so FXed that what it was to begin with usually it is no more.
I'd be interested if you'd care to enlighten me on this matter. But I'm not sure that the original poster had the availability of font formats in mind.

Tor

Availability of fonts wasn't even on my list ;-) Primarily I was looking for: Edge and drop shadows (which VV has); real tabular columns; more than one color on a CG page at a time; shapes (rectangles, clipped corner rectangles, etc.); word wrap... The typical CG stuff, nothing fancy at all.

real tabular columns

This you can do by laying several text events on separate tracks. Awkward but possible.

more than one color on a CG page at a time

Same workaround: several tracks, one for each colour.

shapes (rectangles, clipped corner rectangles, etc.)

Do you mean framework to put around your titles or shapes to build images with? Consider the use of dingbat fonts for various shapes and figures.
At This place you'll find a few small examples of fonts used in Vegas animations. (They were all done before the new 3D plugin was out.) Apart from some backgrounds and stock shots it's all done with fonts - even the fish.
Framework, well they're mostly standing still so Photoshop will certainly deliver. Plus there's a lot of premade stuff around.

word wrap

I have no solution nor workaround for that.

It's not that I claim Vegas' text capabilities to be superior. They offer a lot of possibilities and I've only began to explore them. And I find it more convenient to work in Vegas than to create stuff outside and import it. Possibly because my titles are usually re-written a few times after I start making them. As for postscript and such I don't really know what I'm missing.

Tor

TorS, can you please elaborate a little on the fish4.wmv ? It is quite nice.
Is the background a video loop ?
Thanks

sqblz, about the fish4.wmv:

The background is a shot that came off a Video Factory utility CD. It could be looped I guess, but I'm only using its original length (or less).

The fish are from a free font I've found on the net applied with the text generator - each colour on its own track. The letters are - well, letters.

The trick is when you apply the Wave FX together with pan/crop, you can get that swimlike motion that does this little film. I'm using various degrees of opacity to make the fish seem submerged.

Then there is the play on words, the C and sea theme. The music is a chord progression around seven C notes. Could have indulged deeper into all that but it was only meant as a short test on making fonts come alive in Vegas.

Tor