Hello people, welcome here! Let's see how to add and manage text with
Sony Vegas Pro 13!
Leave comments to correct any mistake you find in our English.
Text clips are generated by Vegas Pro, to make text and titles. These are
collected inside Video Tracks, since they can be seen, but not heard.
To insert text, you need a window called Media Generators. If you don't
have it open, just go to View and then to Media Generators. This window has
inside all that Vegas is able to create without importing any file from
your computer. There are three main kinds of text clips you can add.
(Legacy)Text includes simple fixed text. If you select the section, you can
choose between different ready-made templates on the right. Just choose one
and drag it on a Video Track. A window, called Video Media Generators
appears, making you edit anything about the text just added.
Through Edit you can change the font, the size, the text distribution
and type in.
Remember to select the text to apply the changes. To check how the text
looks like through the Preview, make sure to place the playhead on the text
clip interested in your timeline.
Through Placement you can place the text where you like most. Just click
and drag it where you like. Don't worry about the Safe Zone.
In Properties section you can change the Text Color on the left, and the
Text Background Color on the right. You can set the color through the graph
at the bottom, and its transparency through the bar on the left. Full
transparency is indicated through a checkerboard. You can use the
Eyedropper button to pick the color from your screen.
The Text Background is put behind the text and covers all the text clip,
through a width and height indicated on top in Frame Size. It is initally
transparent to show just the text, but you can put some opacity to make
it visible.
In Text Properties you can use Tracking to change the distance between
letters, Scaling to scale the text and Leading to set the distance between
text lines.
In Effects section you can add effects to text, like some Outline, Shadow
or Deformation. When you finish, just close the window. You can come back
editing text clicking on the green icon on the clip or right-clicking on it
and going to Edit Generated Media...
The text clip can be managed just like any other clip. You can apply fades
and transitions as usual.
Similar is the ProType Titler, with the difference that with this kind of
generator you can apply some gradient and rotation too. Try this, it is
very similar to the first one seen.
You can change the text properties in time. With Video Media Generators
on, click on Animate below. A local timeline appears. This works through
rhombuses called keyframes. In short, each keyframe saves a fixed set of
text properties in a precise instant of time. So that, two keyframes put in
different instants of time create a fade from the first set of properties
set to the second one. Doing this is very simple: one keyframe is set by
default, to describe the initial aspect of the text. Then just place the
playhead in another instant of time, and change the text properties above:
a new keyframe will be added, saving the new properties just put.
So you can add new keyframes, and so new fades. You can move keyframes
dragging them, and delete them simply by right-clicking.
The more two keyframes are close, the faster the fade will be.
You can also add animated text, that appears and disappears with special
effects. These are all listed inside Titles & Text. You can check the
animation of a template hovering it. To add it, simply click and drag it on
a Video Track. The editing window that comes up is a little different from
the previous one, but the options are more or less the same. Under Text set
the text font, size, distribution and color. Click on the black arrow to
show suboptions. Use the Advanced, Outline and Shadow sections to add
effects. There are some differences. For example the placement is adjusted
by dragging the text from the Preview itself. Just make sure to have the
playhead on the text clip of course.
Another new option is the Animation one. Choose one and check it by
dragging the playhead.
The animation does have a duration. So if the text clip is longer, you will
find it looped. To change the animation speed without any loop, it is
enough to trim the clip. Just click and drag on its edges while holding
CTRL down. If you check the clip, you will find it slower, without any loop!
You can also make the animation reversed. Just right-click on the clip and
go to Reverse.
A grey arrow on the left indicates that the animation is played on the
other way. Mind that, you must disable the Reverse effect in case you want
to edit the text again. You can change the text properties in time in this
case too. Each property has a sort of watch icon on the extreme right. If
you click on it, the property will be listed at the bottom. Then you can
add your keyframes inside, as seen. The only difference is that, in the
fixed Text you change all text properties per time, in this case you can
change each single text property in time. Each property occupies a row,
that contains inside its own keyframes, indicated through circles. The row
itself helps you at seeing what is going on: if the text color changes in
time, the bar shows it, if a value changes, an envelope line will give you
a nice overview.
The third kind of text clips you can add is composed by Credit Rolls. You
can add one in Credit Roll section, dragging one of the templates in a
Video Track. When you add it, the Video Media Generators window appears.
In short, a credit roll is composed by different kinds of text paragraphs
or items, each of them with different customizable styles. So there is the
Header, used for the main titles, the single paragraph indicated through a
blue lines icon, and the two-columns red icon, used to write following two
columns. Each row of the credit roll occupies a row on the left. To add a
new row, just double-click on the bottom vacant row, and type in, define
its kind hovering your click on its left icon. You can do this to edit
existing rows too. Delete a row right-clicking on it. Always check using
the Preview, placing your playhead correctly. So to go on writing, for
example, following the two columns, go on adding rows belonging to the
Text Item with the red icon.
On the right, through Properties, you can change some options related to
the whole credit roll, for example the scrolling direction or its kind.
Through Styles you can change the options and the text properties of each
text item. Remember that rows that are inside the same text item do share
the same text item styles set on the right.
Keep in mind that the credit roll has a fixed duration. Trim the clip to
set the right speed, and so its duration in time. You can also animate a
credit roll as well, to change its properties in time. This works just like
the Legacy Text seen before, try it!
Thanks for watching! Check the next videos to see what else Vegas Pro 13
is able to do!