Titles not visible…

[Jerry Cast]

Thanks Dave,

I used the Rectangle tool in AE CS3, made it red (the text is yellow), and then down below choose Opacity to make the red almost see thru.

The problem now is that the yellow text dulls down with the turning down of the opacity on the red, so now the bright yellow text is dull.

Can’t figure out how to keep the yellow bright yellow.

Thanks.
Jerry
https://www.jerrycastaldo.com

[Jeremy Allen]

You may have already done this but if not, the most standard way to make text stand out against video is to use a bit of drop shadow.

Also, changing the opacity of the red solid should not affect the yellow text. Sounds like something is screwy, unless you have the text set to a particular overlay mode i.e multiply, screen, overlay, etc..

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Jerry Cast]

Thanks Jeremy,

I think (because I’m so new to AE) I have the text layer below the solid in that window on the bottom. Just thought of it and will try it later when I can.

I’ll look for the drop shadow button in the text creation menu’s too.

Jerry
https://www.jerrycastaldo.com

[Jeremy Allen]

No problem.. you can access the drop shadow thru the text layer’s layer styles or under effects>perspective>drop shadow. Or you can also type “drop shadow” in the effects palette search box.

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.6

AE CS3
FCP 6.0.1

[Todd Kopriva]

You can also use a drop shadow layer style, which is sometimes better than ye olde schoole way of using the Drop Shadow effect.

A glow or stroke can also help the text to stand out against a background that has a color similar to the text’s fill color.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Jerry Cast]

Wow, thanks everyone. I was having a bit of trouble finding things in AE, but this is great.

The only other thing is that I was able to successfully make a solid, size it to a rectangle, set it’s opacity, and get the text on top of it fine.

But, I still can’t find the menu item that allows you to automatically draw ovals, circles, squares…

I had it up on the top center left for a minute, then lost it and couldn’t get it back. The manual isn’t helping.

Also, I’m trying to make a title (one line of two words) sort of slowly “quiver” or just move somehow (rolling like smoke) or just wave like a slow rolling ocean wave, but am having trouble figuring this out too.

I noticed that Premier Pro CS3 has templates for lower thirds, but it looks like there are none in AE, right? One last thing, the solid seems to start “before” my “Animate In” text flys in from the side. I fixed it a little bit by trimming the start on the Dymanically linked AE title, on the Premier Pro timeline. But, it still appears fully a bit before the text. I was wondering if I can make that solid slide in “with” the text simultaneously.

Sorry for all the questions jumbled into one post. But it exciting learning how to do this from you guys (and girls).

Thanks again.
Jerry
https://www.jerrycastaldo.com