Titling Options within Vegas: shoot me now?

vtxrocketeer wrote on 2/24/2012, 8:31 AM
This may fall into the "so simple I missed it" category, but I don't think so. All I wanted to do was add a block of text that would type on, wipe on, anything on, where the block is smaller than the frame size so it appears nicely beside a graphic. Simple, right? It should look clean like a page from a slick magazine.

The problem is that neither Sony's titlers nor New Blue can give me WORD WRAP in VP11. I wasted close to 2 hours with these plugins and generators to simultaneously control justification, font size, hard returns, and on-screen positions to try to get a block of text to appear nicely. New Blue was promising, but it got fed up with me and crashed too many times (and selecting and moving text in the NB interface is...don't get me started), and Sony's offerings fared no better, although they didn't crash Vegas.

Truly exasperated, I exported a frame grab, dropped it into Photoshop, added my block of text layer (with WORD WRAP by default) using the frame grab to line up the text block, hid the frame grab layer, saved the PSD and dropped it on the Vegas timeline. Edits? No problem. Do them in PS, save, and they update automatically in Vegas. Took me, oh, 10 minutes.

Criminy!! Did I miss something so simple WITHIN Vegas that I had to use Photoshop to add a stinkin' block of beautiful, nicely justified text? Please tell me where I went wrong.

Also, I'm really short on sleep and patience, so sorry for the drama. And my beef is not about creating and animating short titles, which any of the options above do well for me.

-Steve

Comments

farss wrote on 2/24/2012, 2:58 PM
"Please tell me where I went wrong."

You went wrong by assuming Vegas has typesetting capability.
Giving Adobe's history in typesetting I'd expect their products to be quite capable in that area. SCS's history is in audio. From what I've seen people in the industry use to do things like credit rolls, Vegas is not the only NLE lacking typesetting skills.

Bob.
vtxrocketeer wrote on 2/24/2012, 6:25 PM
Roger that, Bob.

Something in Vegas akin to the typesetting function in AE would be just dandy.

Cheers,
Steve
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/24/2012, 8:33 PM
Vegas doesn't do word wrap but I've never wanted it to. I prefer to do that by hand.

It's pretty easy to do word wrapping in Vegas, just hit "enter" at the end of every line. Just like if you're typing on a typewriter.
Grazie wrote on 2/25/2012, 4:03 AM
I just did this in ProTypeTitler. Took about 2 mins . . . .



I copied your "text" straight into PTT and did several Enter, Para breaks and done.

G

farss wrote on 2/25/2012, 4:25 AM
The text is fine but that "satanic" image arrgh :)

I agree, PTT has a lot of typographic goodness in it, from memory it can also justify text which makes it look "like a page from a slick magazine".

Bob.

Rory Cooper wrote on 2/26/2012, 12:25 PM
.txt files can be imported by Heroglyph and Boris so you can justify left and right save as .txt in powerpoint save as .txt and import via these 2 plugs

It seems as if Vegas can import .txt files how I don’t know
vtxrocketeer wrote on 2/26/2012, 9:05 PM
Haha! OK, I'm much more rested now, and Grazie's post cracked me up. Thanks, gents.

@Grazie, that's what I was I trying to achieve. It was around 3AM and I'm not proficient with NB titler, so perhaps I can chalk this up to user inexperience and fatigue.

@Rory, thanks, I didn't know of that functionality. I will definitely check it out.

Much appreciated for making my future work simpler, gents.

Steve
VanLazarus wrote on 2/29/2012, 12:14 PM
@TheHappyFriar.... Strongly disagree. Word wrap would have saved me a lot of time. Imagine that you want to have a paragraph fill the screen, but you won't know where to break the lines until you've done it once and realized that you need to make the font larger or smaller and then change all your line break points. Word wrap is sorely missed.
vtxrocketeer wrote on 2/29/2012, 12:25 PM
VanLazarus, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I don't want to enter text and have it be an iterative experience, e.g., paste in, adjust font size, enter breaks, delete breaks when font has to be resized, etc.

In my (somewhat egregious) case, I was copying text from a PowerPoint presentation. NewBlue and Vegas' titler dumped it all onto one line, and NB at least preserved the font. But then it was up to me to start chopping away, figuring out where to enter breaks, monkey with the text box dimensions. As I said, I gave up. PS was SO much easier in this instance.
Steve Mann wrote on 2/29/2012, 11:03 PM
now we know what Grazie looks like.
gpsmikey wrote on 5/9/2012, 4:21 PM
Looks remarkably like my cousin (could be twins). Which one do I send the sympathy card to ? (yeah, I know old thread - I was looking for something else when I found this one).

mikey
videoITguy wrote on 5/9/2012, 6:56 PM
Sony Vegas ProType Titler is actually the application that has the most accessible quick interface and delivers....but for those who really want "TYPESETTING" - you need to set-up in a true app like ADOBE Illustrator.

In that app you will learn the ropes of type kerning, line spacing, justification, and of course handsome looking line-wraps. Export your AI project at a suitable resolution for import to Vegas.
vtxrocketeer wrote on 5/9/2012, 8:41 PM
Yes, thanks, I've learned the ropes, as you say. I'm a heavy user of AI, not only for most titling work, but also to generate artwork and splines that I import into my 3D software, which I use to make really spectacular titles.

On a recent project, however, I ditched a credit roll in Vegas in favor of doing the same in Photoshop, which I found to preserve much of what I enjoy about AI's unquestionable strength in titling. By dropping the PSD file on the Vegas timeline, I could edit the PSD as needed and have it update automatically in Vegas. Nice. And the credit roll turned out stellar.
Rory Cooper wrote on 5/10/2012, 1:00 AM
Flip …Of course..PSD …simple