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Typing in Avid, what’s the deal?
A simple question for Avid editors:
First, I’m a designer but I work with editors who use Avid, so my knowledge of Avid’s abilities are pretty much zero.
My question is this: How difficult is it to use the basic text/font function with drop shadow in Avid? Does it look good when keyed over video?
I’m often interrupted from my daily responsibilities by the Avid editors who ask me to type out a single word with a drop shadow or a glow around it in PhotoShop and save it as a pict w/ an alpha channel and import it to the Avids. It seems to me to be a lot of extra unnecessary steps, not to mention a nuisance to myself. The editors claim a simple font done in PhotoShop looks “10,000 times better” than if done in the Avid. I’m not even talking animated text, JUST A SINGLE STATIONARY WORD. When I ask if they can do it themselves, I get excuses and they get defensive.
Is it unreasonable to ask that simple words be typed in Avid? How does it work in other places?
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8 Replies
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You can’t really add a soft drop shadow or any kind of glow in Avid’s basic Title Tool without running through hoops or using a 3d party plug in to acheive it. So I can understand it, especially if they are trying to match another graphic that you might have created in the same piece. This is something that is a regular part of our workflow here, but I did ask for a copy of Photoshop on my edit box so that I could quickly revise or create a graphic. PS is actually an essential part of my workflow on a day to day basis, and I’ve found that most editors have at least a basic working knowlege of it.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Thanks for your post. I can understand Avid’s limitations in terms of duplicating the effects created by imaging software like Photoshop. It’s very valuable to know how other shops operate and how different the skills and responsibilities are among editing professionals.
About Avid not being able to make a softened shadow… I actually had one of the editors show me the basics of the Title tool so I could try to see where they were coming rom. I then did a little exploration and found that within the Title Tool function, under the Object drop down menu at the very bottom is a “soften shadow” option that allows for specific values to be entered into the pixel spread field to modify the softness. This drop shadow effect identical to photoshop and should do the trick.
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If I am doing something in a hurry and the budgeted time is very low, I’ll do graphics in title tool, or if I have a credit roll or extremely long crawl. Otherwise I much prefer the looks of a well done graphic, created by a graphic artist over my quick graphics created in title tool. They are just cleaner and better kerned and leaded than available in title tool.
Charlie
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You are absolutely right.
The soften shadow function is a nice and quick enhancement to the title tool. -
Yeah, I forgot about that. Which is funny because I use it all the time. So I guess if they have the same font that you are using they should be able to create the graphic themselves. I see where you are coming from, but if there is any “design” to the graphic it would be better done by a designer.
(I see local spots all the time that scream “Editor trying to do design”, and I’ve come to really respect what a good graphic designer brings to any project.)-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Tell em to use Marquee.
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Soft shadows are there, but not soft glows – only hard borders. You can fake it in a number of ways, but for the same looking style, a single word would look about the same as in Photoshop. Some systems now have both Title Tool and Marquee and maybe even Boris Graffiti (as a plug in), so maybe they should learn their tools better or petition the boss to add Photsohop so they can do it themselves.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I’ll take this opportunity to say once again that I dearly miss the AVBV over the Meridian for it’s one cute, simple yet effective ability of being able to cmmd-c a layer from Photoshop and pasting it directly into the title tool – complete with clean, soft alpha.
That was nice.
Meridian is 1000x more stable, but dang, that was cool.
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\`(=)`/…Pixel Monkey
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