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Fine-tuning type poistion
Hi All,
Has anyone out there mastered how to fine-tune the position of type in Vegas?
I have a project that needs to be output in German, Dutch and Japanese. Consequently I have to drop in a lot of type and tweak it to get the spacing and position correct.
I manually type in a single line of text and get it in position (top/left for sake of discussion). When it’s copy/pasted down the timeline and I hit a carriage-return to drop in a second (continuation) line – the whole thing moves from its home position. Very irritating.
Copy/Pasting language variants generates even more problems because of the visual change in line length.
This wouldn’t be so bad if I could find a keyboard technique to fine-position the text position. Is there a keyboard modifier that moves the text in very fine increments? I can get it right by typing numbers in the (X/Y) position boxes – which is slow. Copy/Pasting these X/Y positions helps somewhat in providing some consistency, but being able to quickly fine-tune text position after adjusting the tracking & leading is the real challenge.
Cheers,
John M.
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4 Replies
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If you are using Vegas Pro 8, use the ProType Titler instead of Generated Media Text. If you don’t have Vegas Pro 8, this is a good reason to upgrade.
If you must use Generated Media Text, stay away from the Free Form option. For example, if you lock the text to Upper Left and set the text as left justified, the text will not move when you hit enter and add a line. The problem is, once you manually move it, it goes into Free Form and if you add more text it moves vertically. The ProType Titler doesn’t have this problem.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Hi John,
Thanks. Yes I am using Pro 8, but I am using the Generated Media Text as you guessed.
I’ll finish my current projects as they are, then switch to using the ProType Titler. I’d (incorrectly) assumed that unless I was doing credit rolls etc. that I wouldn’t need the features of this, but I’ll do my homework on this now.
Your post was appreciated as always.
John M.
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Hey John, I get the sense that you’re in the middle of a project and don’t have time to learn something new. Been there, done that… but you might actually spend more time adjusting the old Text Generator and getting frustrated than the few minutes it would take you to learn the Pro Type Titler. It is dead easy to use if all you want to do is type some text and place it accurately.
You might want to take a few minutes to watch Douglas Spotted Eagle’s short introduction: Titling Teaser in Sony Vegas Pro 8 on YouTube. You literally just type the text and position it and you’re done (except that it stays where you put it) 😉
Take care,
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks John,
You assessed the situation correctly. Actually I’ve now finished the Japanese & Dutch versions and am waiting for my client to give me the German translations – this is all technical engineering stuff.
I was just cursing to myself as I tried to learn how to use the Pro Type Titler from the Vegas Online help, and wondering whether I ought to go and search for an on-line Tutorial. Your mail was therefore very well timed!
I am constantly dismayed at how few software manufacturers output coherent information (as say a PDF). There often seems to be a few small tutorials (which are great but often not quite what you want), or fragmented html help files. Is it just me, or perhaps I’m just becoming a grumpy old git?!
I’ll make myself a cup of coffee and watch the video link.
Cheers,
John M.
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