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Credits are the bane of my existence – OT rant
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[Oliver Peters] “I understand your dilemma. In my case, though, usually those design choices are figured out ahead of time. Typically we look at existing styles and pick one to copy”
That’s generally been my situation as well, but the reason for my rant coming now is that I have an old show with a new producer and new cast and the credits have grown exponentially while the time to display has shrunk. A credit roll is a very simple database and should be handled that way – and once the data is gathered (the hard part) and entered (the tedious part) it should be child’s play to display it any way you want. The Photoshop-AE method is basically the same way things have been done since the turn of the century – and I’m talking the 20th century – and I’m just amazed that nobody wants to do this right.
The reason your still going PH-AE is not that it’s the ideal, merely that it works, in comparison with all the other options.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “The reason your still going PH-AE is not that it’s the ideal, merely that it works, in comparison with all the other options.”
That’s absolutely true. What I have generally found is that all the various template driven methods are just that – templates. When you try to vary the format, they fall short. Thus the fallback. Not to mention that performance with Ph/AE blows away any and all plug-ins and built-in text tools.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “I found that Motion was a good tool to build that style of credits. Just a bunch of single cards.”
Motion will in fact also do all of the above for a scrolling credits as well. Even add drop zones for graphics that scroll along with the text for populating in FCP later if you need them, change tabs, formatting, speed, color, all inline of course and in realtime, with or without flicker reduction, make the text 3D :-P… etc. etc. etc.
But… oh well.
– RK
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Deutsch? Hier gibt es ein umfassendes FCP X Training für dich! -
If you know AE and Illustrator, this is all you need for credits. Illustrator is one of the best text handlers out there. And it continuously rasterizes in the AE comp.
I make a very long document in Illustrator using an HD or 2K or 4K template for width. I set up all the type/text for the credits in a Word doc with the spacing in the center (left right center column justified) as is the norm.
Illustrator can import and place a word doc. I then adjust fonts, size etc. in Illustrator.
Now I bring the Illustrator file into AE, animate to my hearts content and voila! And if there are changes, I just use the edit original command in AE, make the changes in Illustrator and Ta Da! This is for the credit roll.
I do the same thing for static and single card titles.
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: info@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.BabyBoomPictures.comFor Camera Accessories – Monitors and Batteries
website: https://www.EigRig.com -
Is it just me (and I don’t have to do credits for commercial and short form marketing work) that feels it’s kind of crazy to have to use 3 different software packages to do credits? Or is that normal for long-form, even in Avid world?
Scott Witthaus
Senior Editor/Post Production Supervisor
1708 Inc./Editorial
Professor, VCU Brandcenter -
[Scott Witthaus] “Is it just me … that feels it’s kind of crazy to have to use 3 different software packages to do credits?”
It’s not just you and that was the point of my rant. This should not be that hard and yet it is.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf -
I used to sometimes use some teleprompter software to create credit rolls, and it was wicked smooth and fast to do.
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I concur. I use Illustrator every time and have for 15 years. I just ask for a left justified text file from the producers and paste that into Illustrator. The first step is to set up 2 tabs for your centerline and then format using fonts of choice. Even plopping in things like the Red logo, SAG logo etc is super easy. Then I just kick out a .png if going to FCPX or Premiere or import the file into AE like you said – set 2 keyframes and done.
The only issue I have is if whoever does the credit list decides to “help” out by trying to format in Word or whatever. Bad move and all the formatting has to be stripped out before I align everything.
It was at a Vegas premiere that I resolved to become an avid FCPX user.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
Whenever I need some sort of automation I check AEscripts.com
Here is one for credits:
https://aescripts.com/credits-are-due/————————–
Brett Sherman
One Man Band (If it\’s video related I\’ll do it!)
I work for an institution that probably does not want to be associated with my babblings here. -
[Lance Bachelder] “The only issue I have is if whoever does the credit list decides to “help” out by trying to format in Word or whatever. Bad move and all the formatting has to be stripped out before I align everything.”
Something I also don’t have to watch for with Motion either btw. Quite the opposite in fact. If it’s coming from elsewhere I actually tell whoever is doing it to give it to me pre-formatted the exact way they imagine it. I simply copy/paste and everything from font to formatting is retained. I normally just have to scale up the font size. Done. Probably saves me two to three (with some clients presumably even more) correction cycles!
And if you don’t want (or don’t know how) to fiddle in the aforementioned drop zones for optionally adding graphics yourself, there’s always “RT Text Scroll” from Ripple in their “Tools II” plugin.
(At 2:10)
https://youtu.be/H3AzssPaxv4?t=2m10s– RK
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