I need a “User Friendly” titler/animation softrare.

[Perry Cheng]

OK, let me chim in here on this topic to my heart. I know not many know/agree/use what I have been using. All the above recommendations are good, I am sure, and some might be ‘dirt-cheap’, and yes, AE is great, of course. Here are my $.02:

1. If you think Boris Fx & Grafritti is hard, I don’t know if AE is any easier. (erhaps the text animation is not too bad.)

2. Use Flash software, if you know how to make a flash swf file, then import it into premiere either via a plugin or via converting it to tga sequence. See all the web text animation… your windows of possibility and creativity is endless.

Best wish,
Perry

[George Socka]

I just installed CS3, and it still looks the same – with a few more options. Still can’t animate/keyframe anything over time. Still can’t make a hole in a donut to let the video through. Yes you can animate individual letters of text with AE, but AE costs as much as all of PPro if all you want are elegant titles. And you can make holes with PS, but again, another high priced tool for a title.

Some will say that titles SHOULD look boring, but then why is CNN doing so well?

[Tim Kolb]

[George Socka] “Some will say that titles SHOULD look boring, but then why is CNN doing so well?”

Well…and I’m chuckling just a bit…I doubt that CNN has a revenue category where it measures how much income it has from its titles.

Seriously, I think that what users want is CNN style interstitial and transition logo and graphic treatments and I’d be willing to bet very little of that comes from a titler. I can see having some keyframeable attributes on text, and yes, AE does that but I suppose that one could argue that some users can’t afford AE, though with the pricing on the suite, I think that group is shrinking.

Also, keep in mind the effects capability that PPro itself has that can be used on titles once they’re composed. While the character-by-character effects may not be available, certainly there are lots of options that can be applied on the timeline…

You brought up CNN, and I think that that is an excellent illustration of our conversation. My perception is that many users may perceive that the animated bumps on CNN are something one gets when they push the “Animate 3d glass/chrome/beveled logo with transparency and specular highlight over background of 152 transparent panels with glowing strokes and 14 particle emitters and one ambient and two spot light sources” button on a “more advanced” titling tool.

…and of course that simply isn’t the case.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Dave Evans]

Hi Howard

Boris tools allow you to create some very cool titles & FX with your project elements, there are some great tutorials on the Boris website. From personal experience it is worth persevering with these tools, once things start to make sense then the possibilities are endless. If you later go with AE then most Boris tools plug directly into AE so you wont have wasted your time learning them.

Regards

Dave.