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More on Boris
One of the great things about this forum (and other Cow forums) is that even if the response you receive isn’t perfect, it will very often get you headed in the right direction.
Thanks to Tom and Shane’s help with my “gutter” problem in Boris, I went on a search for more help at the Boris site (my earlier search turned up nothing), and after much digging, I was able to come up with a user guide for Calligraphy. Using the guide, along with Tom’s suggestions, I was able to create the credit roll with the gutter. This should not be a big deal, but I defy anyone to figure it out without help from somewhere. Here are a couple of “gotchas” you should be aware of when you try to create this style of credit roll.First of all, it’s damn near impossible to find the User Guide. Although I was able to stumble onto it the other day, I’ll be damned if I can find it today. Maybe someone else can and could put up a link. In the meantime, here is a link to a partial version of the Guide: https://borisfx.com/download_files/CalligraphyTutorials.pdf
Go to the last couple pages for info on creating credit rolls.If you can locate the actual User Guide, go to page 43 for info on “working with the title crawl generator.” To open Boris in FCP, click on the generator button at the bottom of the viewer window, go down to Boris and click on it, and scroll down to Title Crawl, and selct. In the Controls tab, pay attention to the “DeFlicker” option, and use it. Be sure to select an “Animation Style” from this page. Usually you will want “roll” for normal credits that move from bottom to top of frame. If your project is letterboxed, as mine is, you will want to apply the “Mask Start/Mask End” parameters so you credits appear and disappear within the body of your picture area, not the black letterbox. Don’t try to apply a “Widescreen” matte effect over the credits. It won’t work properly. Select the “justify center” on this page. Do not select “Continuously Rasterize.” Read guide for more info.
If you are somewhat new to Calligraphy, be sure to go to page 9 and read the info on “working with the text window.” Here is where you will get the info on using the tabs, which Tom mentioned. As the text notes, there is more info on tabs and margins on page 17. On page 10, you learn how to apply tabs to your text. For the credit roll, you need only 2 tabs; right and left justify for your two columns of text. Do not use the center justify tab as it will screw you up. You will move from the left column to the right column using the “Tab” button, so press tab once, and type your first credit, then press tab again and type your second credit. Press tab again, and you will return to the first column. one row lower. Continue this way until you have all your credits complete. If you want to type a centered word, like “Cast”, hit the return button and type your text, which will be center justified. You can also place a return between each line to double space your text.
Here is a major “gotcha.” (Yeah, it got me.) By default, your text color is black! Change it or you won’t see your text on the page when you hit “Apply.”
When you apply your text and overlay it in your timeline, you cannot play it without first rendering. But you can scrub through it to check it out. what you will probably discover is that your text is not quite centered; looking at your monitor you notice that the “gutter” isn’t centered on the monitor, and the word “Cast” is also off center. What you need to do is go back to the text window and adjust the tabs left and right while refering to your preview monitor until everything lines up properly. So, what I suggest is create a test, typing out two columns of text. Use your longest credit for the test, and also put in a single word, like Cast as part of this test. Tweak till happy.
BTW, I had good luck with Helvetica font at 24 for my credit roll. Remember, credits that fill the entire frame from left to right are harder to read than credits that are more compact. Scanning the screen is harder than keeping your eyes still when reading credits, so don’t try to make text as big as possible.
OK, I hope this helps some of you new folks get a jump on creating a credit roll with Boris Calligraphy.
Bulletin: here is a link to the User Guide: https://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Boris_Calligraphy_2_User_Guide.pdf
Wayne Orr
G5, Dual 2GHz, 1.5 GB Ram, OSX 10.4.6, FCP5.1, AJA Io, SATA External Array 500 Gig
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1 Reply
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The Calligraphy user guide is in the Documentation folder of your FCP install disc.
All the best,
Tom
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy” DVDs
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