Transparent Lower Thirds

Hi, I'm new to Motion so forgive if this is a newbie question!
I would like to use one of the custom lower third templates bundled with Final Cut Studio 2. How do I make the black background opacity transparent so I just have the lower third grx section? The dimensions should be 640X480.
I just want to export the lower third to bring into FCP and add over a talking head to identify with text. Any help would be appreciated!

Just import the Motion project file into FCP and place it over your clip(s).

Similar Messages

How to add picture over video to create a lower third look

Here's one I've not been able to deduce. After creating a small JPEG label, I want to place it on the lower portion of the video as a title, but one that has been custom made. In this case the logo needs to cover the lower right of the screen. Therefore, I need to bring this photo over into IPhoto, import it into the video, and be able to manipulate it to sit exactly where I want it to go. Picture in Picture doesn't work because that deals with two video elements. Crop doesn't work partially for the same reason but also because the crop box won't go that small or that wide.
This lower third logo needs to be able to stay over the entire length of the video (as in this case) or be able to fade in and fade out at certain times.
Not sure if IMovie has this capability, and would sure appreciate the tips. Thanks.

If you upgrade to iMovie 09, you could do this with the cutaway feature.
You would create the lower third title in Photoshop or the like. Make the slide in the same dimensions as your iMovie project and the same aspect ratio. Set the lower third title exactly where you would want it on the frame. Use PNG not JPEG so you can make the only thing showing your title. Everything else in the frame should be alpha-channel transparent.
Drag this over your video in iMovie 09 and select Cutaway.

Video output size to use for a (horizontal) Lower Third.

Hi. I would like to know what the video output size to use for a (horizontal) Lower Third. I will be very grateful for your help. Thanx in advance. Sam.

Make it the same horizontal & vertical size as your video. The upper 2/3 needs to be transparent.

Exporting Lower Thirds from AE CC 12.2 to be used in Premiere

hi everyone,
I'm currently in the trial versions of adobe AE and Premiere for Mac. I'm stuck...trying to troubleshoot whether AE or/and Premiere is not properly set up.
I have dug up so many youtube tutorials and forum posts on how to export lower thirds with alpha channel from AE... and everyone has the same solution,
Here is my lower third on AE, as you can see it is transparent:
Export using the following settings as everyone has taught:
Import into Premiere, I layer it over my footage and it just doesn't show up...like it is not there.
Yet, the footage preview shows the lower third, but my preview doesn't...
Anyone know what is wrong?
I downloaded a free web-based sample lower thirds quicktime (Created with: Adobe After Effects CS5.5 10.5 Windows 64)
to test if all lower thirds don't work...sample works perfect... therefore, I conclude that it has to be that my mac AE is exporting in a format that Premiere can't show properly.
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks

Rome-mulus wrote:
Anyone else have any ideas?
Just one: what are the dimensions of your Premiere Pro sequence?
You have rendered at 1280x720 from After Effects. If your Premiere Pro sequence is smaller, such as 720x480, the problem would be that your lower-thirds graphic is offscreen due to the difference in frame sizes. If this is the case, you can scale the lower-thirds clip in Premiere Pro to the smaller size.

Lower third obcsures video if captions imported

Hi - Got a problem with a lower third I created. It requires 4 video tracks. I have created this within a sequence which - if I pull onto the main sequence - does what I intend, giving me an animated lower third, whilst leaving the underlying video untouched.
Not wanting to copy and paste this lower thirds sequence from project to project, I have rendered it out to an mpg2. However, when I import and pull this mpg2 on to a timeline, it completely obscured the underlying video (the screen is black, except for the caption). What is going on here and is there a way of saving my lower third in such a way this will not happen?
Thanks for help.

Your MPEG2 has no alpha channel, which is required for transparency.
You can reexport in a format that allows alpha channels, or you can use the Media Browser to 'import' that sequence from one project into the one you're working on.
The better solution might be to recreate that lower third in After Effects, and use Dynamic Link to bring that into each project. This way alone, any changes that might someday need to be made will cascade to every project.

How to create a lower third in motion

I want to create a lower third in motions just like the ones that iMovie 08 has with a fade effect into it.
can anyone help me on this or is there a video tutorial on this thank you

Hey man, have you made ANY progress? You're asking for help, and I basically TOLD you how to do it. No luck? Do you want me to make it for you? Should I charge at my "friends and family" rate?
Again, bro, just make a rectangle and mask it with a gradient, set the mask on luminosity. Done. Also make sure your project settings have a transparent background, not solid.
Overlay that .motn on any video. Done.
Not trying to be a jerk, but it's almost comedic...
You haven't posted anything about problems you're running into. Got any screen shots of what you're ending up with? What is your specific problem here.

Change background color of lower thirds

I'd like to have a lower thirds title with a slightly dark, say brown or gray, background behind it, since the still behind is busy and will interfere visually with the text. I only see black as the 'flag' background in iMovie 11. Is there a way to change this (I see I can change font colors easily).
Thanks, Mary

Thanks...I do see those. I gather it's not possible to adjust the transparency of the background (i.e. to make a black more or less 'see through' or change from black or white to a different hue. I'll check out "soft bar." That might do it.
I'm posting a link to a video that has something I really like -- at 3:02 to 3:06 in this video by Bob Krist on Vimeo
http://www.vimeo.com/25645879. There's even a little flag blowing at the right. (I don't need that, however)
On a contrasty background -- where you don't want a big heavy black or white bar--this is cool. Maybe Final Cut has something for it?
Mary

I'm creating a lower third in Motion and importing into FCP X, but the alpha channel is gone when I import into FCP. What am I doing wring?

I'm trying to export from Motion 5 with an alpha channel, but in FCP X the alpha is gone. What do I do?

if you're exporting video animation out of Motion and you need transparency, then you need to make sure that the codec used is ProRes 4444. There are no other options. From the Share > Export dialog, the default Export option is usually "Same as Source." In Motion, that *should* be PR4x4. You can double check that setting by clicking the summary button and reading the last line.
You also need to make sure under the Render section that Color + Alpha is selected (that should also be the default setting.)
However, most of all, you're really wasting your time going about it this way. If you started a Title project in Motion, all you have to do is Save and give the project a Name; pick a category or create a new one. In FCPX, in the Titles browser, look for the category you used and find the project name and drag it onto the storyline.
You have the option of picking parameters in your motion project that you can "publish" to FCPX (things like the lower third background color, text color, positioning, etc... almost every parameter is publishable to FCPX allowing you to customize the project *inside* FCPX.) Any parameter you publish in Motion will be in the Title Inspector in FCPX. You do not have to "bake" your lower third in Motion before using it in FCPX. You can pretty much turn your project into an FCPX plugin.
If you didn't start a Title project, you can still build your lower third as an FCPX Generator. Go to the File menu and Publish Template... In the dialog box, make sure you check Publish As Final Cut Generator. Give the project a Name and select a category (you'll need to wait a few seconds until the Categories update to the FCPX categories...) You can create a custom category if you like and save the project. In FCPX, instead of the Titles browser, look for your template/plugin in the Generators > WhateverCategory > YourLowerThird.

Using third party lower third titles

Hello All,
We've been using fcp 7 on an mac pro now for a year. We have started looking at third party lower third titles. We have downloaded a few to play with, but quickly realized that we can not use them because as a .mov file they can only be used as a stand alone and not able to overlay on top of an existing clip. Any suggestions on how to utilize third party titles or how to covert them into another format I can overlay without a black background.
Thank you,

What format are they now? Meaning, what CODEC? Calling them a ".mov" means nothing...other than they are Quicktime files. In order to be transparent, they need to be in the Animation codec, or ProRes 4444.

Making After Effects lower thirds editable in Premiere Pro

A friend has created some lower thirds using After Effects.
I want to to be able to edit them (change the text entry) within Premiere as I shall be using them a lot.
Is this possible and if so how?
Many thanks, Mark
PS. I've just moved over from Final Cut Studio which I've been using for over a decade.

I myself have a couple of different ways to deal with many, many titles or lower thirds in a single project. I am not a fan of making multiple titles using the Premiere Pro Title Designer.
If I make a lower third in After Effects, I can simply change the name in the lower third by animating the source text. I have an example you can see here:
The other way is to use InDesign, which can read a text file with all of the names in it. There is a video link in this thread: Brilliant way to create titles from text files
By the way, if you are trying to get rid of a black background from a 3rd party then perhaps you should be keying it out with a Luma Key. But to get the black to be transparent in Premiere Pro from After Effects, you just need to use the right codec. Like Quicktime Animation, or any of the others that export an alpha channel.

PSD Lower Thirds & FCP: Help!

Hi all, I have a lower thirds graphic as a PSD Photoshop file.
I am having difficulty incorporating the file into FCP. I have imported as layers into FCP but the formatting is all off. My project is 1920 x 1080 16:9. In Photoshop, I tried to save the document as a JPEG flattened. The background is not transparent. I used clipping paths and fooled around with background layer opacity but the background was always opaque on bringing into FCP.
Does anyone have suggestions on making the bg transparent in PS and saving in that program for easy manipulation in FCP. Or properly formatting a PSD layered doc in FCP?
Thanks!

Here are the steps I follow when prepping a psd for FCP:
Start out by making sure your pixel dimensions and aspect ratio are correct for your frame size.
1. save a copy because you will be flattening some elements
2. merge all background elements into the background
3. flatten out all type, vector, masked, or effected (styles) layers using the following method for CS2+:
-select the layer to flatten
-make new layer
-select both layers , make smart object & merge
this will rasterize the type and effects in the layer.
Now your file is ready to import to FCP. If you are pixel aspect ratio correction in photoshop, then the file should import correctly according to your easy setup, if you have been owrking in square pixerls in photoshop, then be sure to correctly identify the aspect ratio in the sequence setting for the sequence fcp creates when you import the psd - these will inherit the pixel aspect ratio setting for the sequence preset set in your easy setup, which is usually not square.
Hope this helps. Really, you shouldn't have to bother with extracting alpha channels and keying out layers in FCP.

Lower Third Question

I am using FCP 6.0.5 and have a two parter...
1. I made a typical text lower third to use as a "logo" in the bottom of the screen for the entire length of the video. Is there any way to get this text to be even lower than the preassigned level. I already left the top line blank, and used only the bottom line - but it still is a little too far up in the screen.
2. Once I know how to do the alignment - i was wondering if it is possible to import a graphic as a log to be used in a similar fashion as stated above - throughout the entire video. Is there a way to do this?
Thanks

is the lower third considered a text generator)?
Yes it is. But you'll get much better results using the Boris Title 3D text generator or Photoshop.
how do you move it around - is it a special function, or do I just grab it?
This is covered very well in the manual and help files.
if the image is on a track above the video - doesn't it kill the video below it for the durationit plays - or does FCP know that a graphic is supposed to be like a lower third?
Like I suggested above, make sure your logo has a transparent background. Import it into FCP and place it on a track above the video. Use the Scale and Center controls to resize and position it. This too is covered in the manual.
-DH

Using a lower third video file

I have been putting lower thirds on my video without any trouble. My lower thirds have been jpeg images. I simple drag them onto the timeline and they lay right over my main video.
My trouble now is, I've just obtained an animated lower third that is not a picture file, but a movie file. When I lay it on the time line it doesn't lay on top of my main video, but rather blanks it out.
I tried the video merge option, but it leaves some moving black pixels around the lower third image.
How can I lay one video (my lower third video image) over my main video?
Thanks,
Matthew

Hi Matthew,
Sounds like the video doesn't have a transparent background.
What format is the file? It should be Uncompressed AVI to work well in Premiere Elements.
The video needs to have preserved the transparent Alpha channel.
We have many of these types of lower thirds and motion backgrounds at muvipix.com and I have created many of them myself.
Depending on what format the file is will tell us something that may help.

Why is AE Pro CC not exporting my lower thirds properly?

Hello! I'm having a very strange issue today with AE Pro CC. Before I start in, let me explain a couple things:
1. I have updated my Mac Pro to Mavericks; and
2. I have downloaded and applied the patch that was released.
I can open, edit, and export my files just like pre-Mavericks; however, when I go to import them into Premiere via Import, I get an import error:
"The importer encountered a generic error."
Oddly, when I look at the exported files in Finder (which, by the way, do not throw an error during the export process -- I have clean logs), I don't have a preview thumbnail like I did before. Now, it's a placeholder Quicktime logo. Hitting space bar to preview them only offers the information window, which show "Zero KB" as the file size... but in Finder, it clearly shows the correct file size.
Opening the files in Quicktime gives me a "converting" message before opening (these are .MOV files that shouldn't need converting at all), and exporting them from QT won't allow for an Alpha channel, ruining the transparency of the lower third.
Anybody have a clue what's happening here, or having the same issue? It seems there's some new problem with Mavericks, or QT, or After Effects rendering out in RGB+Alpha .MOV ~
Thanks for the help.

Sure -- it's actually all over the Quicktime forums right now. Lots of people having TONS of issues. Mine just happened to cross over into After Effects, because I use Alpha Channels in my .mov
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/quicktime
Here's a specific thread where folks are talking about it:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5470956?start=0&tstart=0

File Error: Unknown File when trying to render a Motion Lower third

I'm getting this: "File Error: Unknown File" when trying to render a Lower third made in the Motion tab. I'm using FCP 6.0.6 and haven't had any issues with this before. It seems to work fine if there is just text, but as soon as I apply any effect, like a drop shadow, I get that error message.
Thanks,
Joe

What's the exact format of the video you're working with and the exact specification the sequence you're editing in?

Transparent Lower Thirds

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for