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Many Boris 3D questions
Again, I am getting up to speed on FCP after working with a PC system for many years that I am still using. I seem to be groping with Boris 3D as my character generator and I can’t get it to do things that my other CG can do. Here is a partial list. Any advice would be appreciated:
1. How do I make a change in a CG (lower third key) where the change is automatically updated everywhere it appears in the timeline? I have names that appear over and over and I had to go back and change each one. There must be a way to make the change once.
2. I see I can save a CG by dragging it into the bin. But if I have two or more and try to name them, it makes them both the same name. How do I name my CG clips? Which brings me to…
3. How do I do a “save as”? If I make a CG and then want to make another one with something added or subtracted, how do I copy/save as, or whatever you would call it?
4. Justification: I can’t figure out how to justify just one line, or one word, or the bottom of the page from a certain line on down. I want to center justify the first line, then make the next three lines left justify, then center justify again the bottom three lines. How do I do this?
5. Line spacing: I tried using leading to squeeze the line spacing together, but it only squeezed the space between the first and second lines but not the third. Where is the line spacing adjustment?
6. How do I import a logo?/graphic image?
7. Where are the backgrounds?
Thanks everyone for your help and patience. -
5 Replies
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Hi, Leonard
I’m a long-time Boris user, going back to the days of Media 100 (which didn’t have its own CG or compositing capabilities). Maybe not a “power user”, but I can help with some of the basics.
First off, Title 3D is essentially the same product as Boris Graffiti, so you might get the best advice from posting questions at the Cow’s BorisFX forum. Boris Yamnitsky answers questions there from time to time himself. (Yes, there really is a Boris!)
As for your specific questions:
1) I don’t think you can cause automatic updates to occur in the way you are suggesting. The easiest solution is not to correct each one, but to correct the first one, then copy and paste (or use the Replace function) for each subsequent occurrence. The solution is more about how to use Final Cut than Boris, per se.
2) To give different CGs different names, you have to make them independent of one another. Again, this is a Final Cut thing, rather than a Boris thing. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. Control-click on the clip in the timeline, select “Make Independent Clip” and then drag it to the bin. If it’s already in the bin, Control-click and select “Duplicate as New Master Clip”. Sometimes simply dragging it to the bin causes a “Making Master Clip” message to appear.
3) As above, if you make a new clip from an old one with something new added, you’ll need to make it independent of the old clip.
4) Justification. I don’t think you can actually do this. I think Title 3D only justifies entire pages. The solution here is to make a separate title of each item that requires different justification and then stack them or nest them. (Or invest in Boris Red which permits multiple layers in a single clip.)
5) Line spacing: The Leading adjustment should apply to all the lines you have selected. Highlight two out of three and it only adjusts two. Select all of them and it should work as you expect.
6) Good question. Don’t know that I’ve ever had occasion to do this in Final Cut. Have you tried pressing the button marked “Import File” at the bottom of the text editing window?
7) Backgrounds? Um, what makes you think there are backgrounds?
Hope that’s somewhat helpful.
Good luck!
Mike Raff
Richmond, VA -
Thanks, Mike. Your information has been very helpful. All of the things I asked about can be done with the CG that comes with DPS Velocity, which is what I’ve been using but need to migrate away from. That’s why I’m surprised Boris can’t do these things.
I tried the Import File but it didn’t do anything. A former colleague of mine said he thought that was for importing text files like Word Documents. But it definitely doesn’t work with graphics.
I’ll check out the Boris forum when I have more questions.
I also started on Media 100. I thought the Comet CG that came with my version wasn’t bad. At least it had backgrounds.Thanks again.
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Mike’s pretty much hit the nail on the head. As far as I know there is no image import, just text. Import File will bring in text you can then format. You can affect each line (or lines) separately by selecting them and then choosing a justification, color, font, font size, drop shadow, etc. and it will only be applied to that line or lines. If you need a background put it on V1. Then put your logo on V2 and finally your Boris 3D text on V3. If you then want to treat the whole thing as a unit, nest the 3 tracks.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870
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Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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You could pretty much do everything you want to do by creating you chyrons in motion.
If you do that then you just import the motion project into FCP, then if you need to make changes you do it in motion. Save. Come back to FCP and all instances of the Motion project file in the timeline will reflect your changes.
Other than that, the best way to do what you’re wanting is to use Photoshop/Illustrator and After Effects.
Motion is cheaper (you already have it with FCP) and pretty easy, way more robust than Boris FX.
And there is always Live Type, Motion super lite. Live Type can definitely do everything you are wanting to do. Burt Motion will definitely give you more options.
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Thanks, Eric. I need to learn all of this stuff. I have a colleague who is a whiz at Motion, so I’m going to ask her to show me the CG stuff. In the meantime, I’m going to work on Live Type and try to teach myself.
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