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FCP and text
Hi everyone!
After 3 months of working with FCP after finally making the switch from AVID, I’m really impressed with most things.
The one biggest shortcoming though that really irritates me is the handling of text.
In AVID, I could make a whole screen with graphic elements, text of different fonts, lines etc etc at a single time.Is there some plug that let’s me do the same in FCP?
Just airing my thoughts a bit…
Thanks,
ErikEditor
Monitor Flm & Television
Stockholm, SwedenG5, 2*2.5ghz, 2 gb ram, 600gb Huge raid, Blackmagic Decklink extreme, Apple 23″ Cinema display.
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11 Replies
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Use Title 3D, which you should have installed with FCP.
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Tom’s suggestion is excellent, as always… but 3 months ago FCP HD was shipping sans this free addition. However you can download it from apple for free. Go to the download area of apple’s site, and search on Calligraphy. You want to download and install it for OS X (Vers 1.1)… then it will show up in the generators button in the viewer at the bottom of the list… Title 3D will do what you want mostly. The work flow is different than Avid’s though. You’ll enter text in a text box, give it the look you want, then overlay this clip over the video in the timeline window, and adjust it’s position only with the Controls tab in the Viewer not the Motion tab. The controls tab maintains the Vector Based graphics that title 3d creates.
Jerry
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How about Livetype?
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The FCP HD installer stopped installed it, but it was still on the disc I believe in the Extras folder and could be installed from there. It’s completely built into the FCP5 installer.
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As another poster said, LiveType can do what you want and a lot more.
You might also want to pick up Final Cut Studio and get Motion. Motion is just plain amazing with text and is a real hoot to use.
D
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Is Title 3D excluded from Academic versions? I don’t seem to have that.
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I think Erik’s point is that FCP’s internal text tool lags far behind avid…and Avid’s is not great, but at least it is WYSYG. You should not have to hop out to external programs just to get decent text!! The controls are nice in FCP for text, but the text looks lousy and its a pain to position. Should have been fixed a long time ago.
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As far as I know, the academic version is the same as the regular version, so it should be hidden there somewhere.
However, I remember Title 3D was a bit hard to find, so here’s how to get to it:
Look under the effects tab, Video Generators, Text and then you should see “Title 3D” right under it.
Hope that helps.
D
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I find the text tools in FCP to be easier to use then Avid, though Avid gives you some other options. I would suggest Live Type or Motion.
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We use the built-in titler only for slates (for what that info is worth). It works well for this, and is faster to revise than an Avid slate, which is a plus as our slates get revised constantly.
For full screen text, lower thirds, etc. we have been using After Effects but are moving towards Motion. Maybe you shouldn’t have to go to an external program, but the round trip ability to open somethiing built in Motion from the FCP timeline is pretty powerful.
I’m also a little leary of programs that have “everything you need in one interface”. My experience has been that those programs tend to be limited in one area or another, and are much bigger and more cumbersome to load and upgrade. Think CorelDraw from 5-6 years ago, if you remember that…
tjs
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