Welcome to Final Cut Pro X in under 5 minutes. I’m Steve from rippletraining.com. If you
work on corporate or educational videos that require the use of animated text builds like
the ones you typically see in Keynote or Powerpoint presentations, I’m going to show you how
to save a boat-load of time by creating a title template in Motion.
I have open a short project with a voice over track. Connected above it are several titles
that build in at the appropriate place in the voice over. Let me play it back for you.
Here's my three step guide to shooting better video:
"Use a tripod whenever possible, especially when using a telephoto lens."
"Use Manual exposure settings; never use auto anything."
"Avoid using the camera's built-microphone."
Each of these titles were created in Motion, then published for use in Final Cut Pro X.
By selecting a title, then opening the Title inspector, you can see that each title includes
a Build in and Build out animation.
If you open the Titles Browser and select the Build In/Out category, you’ll discover
that all these titles have animated build ins and outs. The problem is, none of them
are very good candidates for bullet builds to voice over. Many of them are the wrong
typeface, include too many lines, and often include cheesy build in and out animations.
This is why I’m going to take you over to Motion to show you how you can quickly build your own.
After launching Motion you’ll see the Project Browser. Select Final Cut Pro Title, then
choose a preset and frame rate that matches the project settings you are using in Final
Cut Pro X. I’ll choose Broadcast 1080 HD with a frame rate of 30 frames per second.
As for the duration, you can keep this short. I generally set this for 3 seconds.
Click Open.
In the Layers pane, select the Text Layer. We want to create a single line of text that
will be used as a template when we publish to Final Cut Pro. Click into the text box
and double-click the text to select it.
To add a bullet, press Option-8, then a space and type out some placeholder text. I’ll
type out Placeholder text for creating awesome bullet builds.
Press Escape to exit text entry mode.
Move the text to the center of the screen and turn off the Title Background. You won’t
be needing it.
In the Format properties of the Inspector, choose a font. To create an animated build
in, click the gear button on the toolbar, then choose > Text Basic > Blur In.
Let’s play it back.
The build in could be a tad quicker so trim it’s end point to 1 second.
I also don’t like the glow, so I’ll remove it by selecting the Blur In behavior, then
in the inspector choose > Remove > Glow Blur.
Now we need an animated Blur Out. Right-click on the Blur In Behavior and choose > Duplicate.
Drag the copy until it’s right edge lines up with the end of the project timeline. In
the Inspector, spill open the controls for the Blur-In copy then change the sequencing
from "from" to "to".
Let’s play back.
Now the Text has a build In and build out blur effect.
Great, we’re almost done.
Click in the gray area to deselect everything, then move the Playhead to just after the first Behavior.
Press M to set a marker, then press Command-Option-M to open the edit Marker window.
Set the Marker Type to Build In Optional and Click OK.
Move the Playhead to the beginning of the second behavior and press M, then Command-Option-M.
Set the marker Type to Build Out Optional.
You may be wondering why we’re doing this. When we publish this title template, these
optional markers will give the Final Cut Pro user the ability to enable or disable the
build in and/or build outs. You saw this feature earlier in Final Cut Pro’s inspector.
Here’s something else these markers do. They tell Final Cut Pro to always keep the
builds at a fixed duration regardless of how long or short your title clips ends up being
in the project. So if you need to adjust your text to accommodate larger or shorter sections
of voice over, you’ll never have to worry about the build durations changing along with it.
Let’s publish our template. From the File menu choose > Save. Give the Template a name,
choose a category then click Publish.
In Final Cut Pro X, your title template will appear in the category you saved it into.
I’ll open a project that only has a voice over clip in it, then set an in point at the first
phrase. Notice an out point is automatically set for the end of the voice over clip. Select
the template, then press Q to connect it above the voice over.
Double-click the text to edit it, then move it to where you want it. I’ll set an in
point for the second phrase, then connect the template, enter new text and reposition
it. I’ll do this one last time for the final phrase of voice over.
As I play back the end of the title build, all titles blur out. I'm thinking, I would rather
have them all fade out instead.
Because I published the titles with markers, I now have the ability to turn off the builds
if I want. Here's the ending with all build outs disabled, and replaced with fades.
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