I spent this last week immersed in editing in DaVinci Resolve Studio 19. Here’s how it compares to Final Cut and Premiere, along with features that drive me nuts.
There are two principle ways to create titles in Premiere: Manually or using After Effects templates. Let’s take a look at both in this illustrated tutorial.
Editing may tell stories, but visual effects make those stories eye-catching. In this short video, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create and format 3D text. Plus, how to convert 2D text into 3D.
The new Transcribe to Captions automatically generates text captions from clips in the Final Cut timeline. It fast and dead easy to use… except, there’s one small problem: It creates captions in the wrong format. In this demo, Larry Jordan shows how it works and how to change caption formats.
The new Transcribe to Captions Feature in Final Cut Pro – the first, big step toward speech-to-text. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this works AND an essential workaround that you need to know.
Your project is complete – except you need to burn captions into your video. This process is surprisingly easy in Apple Final Cut Pro – but darn hard to find. Here’s how to do it.
Captioneer is a Premiere Pro extension that creates animated captions directly in your timeline using .mogrt files which are easily modified by an editor. Here’s an interview with its developer: Nic Dean.
Sometimes, creating a custom effect can save you a lot of time – especially if you need to use it over and over. So, here’s an example of how to create a template in Motion, using a variety of useful Motion effects, that you can use directly in Apple Final Cut Pro. (I included both the movie and the Motion project.)
Joel asks: “I want the logo to enlarge, eventually getting to the point where a single letter fills the screen, and at the same time, the logo area gradually becomes the concert video. How do I do this?” There are at least three ways. Here’s an illustrated approach to all three.
Adobe updated text and graphic styles in the March, 2024, update. A “style” is a format, like a template, that is applied to text or captions. This tutorial explains how they work.
3D text is exciting because of its depth and the variety of textures available for each surface. But the real excitement comes when you start to play with lighting. Here’s a simple tutorial on how this works.
Apple Final Cut does not support exporting markers – or anything else – displayed in the Timeline Index. However, there’s a cool work-around that works perfectly. Here’s what you need to know.
Recently, I needed to export a list of chapter markers and their timecode positions from a sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro. It wasn’t hard, but it also wasn’t obvious. Here’s how.
CZUR has thought carefully about the features a book scanner needs to offer. The CZUR ET24 Pro is fast, flexible and provides key output options. It has limitations, but, for the price, it will do what needs to be done for most of us.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what speech-to-text is in Premiere, then shows how to create transcripts from your sequences using it.
You need to animate some text. It needs to be flashy. It needs to be colorful. And, most importantly, it needs to be done yesterday. Apple Keynote to the rescue! In this short video tutorial, Larry provides an overview on how to create animated text using Apple Keynote for use in any video editor, such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or Media Composer.
Apple Keynote, like Apple Pages, supports text styles. However, these are more limited than you might at first think. Here’s a tutorial that explains more about how to create and modify them.
This tutorial creates a 3D text template in Apple Motion that allows Apple Final Cut Pro to put moving video inside adjustable, textured 3D text. There are many creative variations on this idea.
Apple Motion is powerful software that can be used to create motion graphics for any video editor, not just Final Cut Pro. For example, you can use Motion to create animated text and graphics on a Mac, then export it …
Another new feature that Adobe added recently to Premiere is text gradients. These are easy to create, but a key switch you need to access this feature is somewhat hidden. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this works.
This is a very fast trick I recently learned which can save a ton of time when you need to change fonts in one or more titles in an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence or project.
In it’s latest release (Dec. 2021), Adobe added some some, but significant, features to Premiere Pro that make text easier to find and graphics more flexible. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on what these new features are and how they work.
The revised speech-to-text transcription and caption workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro is fast, easy to use and, now. extremely useful. If you haven’t looked at the new options for Speech-to-Text in Adobe Premiere Pro, now is a great time to start. This one feature can save you hours.
“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to export captions from YouTube, then what you need to do to convert them for import into Adobe Premiere.
“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demos the new Speech-to-Text transcript and caption workflow options in Adobe Premiere Pro.
With the July, 2021, update, Premiere Pro now supports text with multiple strokes and shadows. If you are creating commercials, action comics or anything where “eye-catching” is a job description, you’re gonna have fun with this!
Adobe adds speech-to-text and native M1 Mac support to the July, 2021, version of Premiere Pro. Here’s the full list of changes.
Here’s another technique that I use all the time – creating highly-flexible custom Final Cut Pro title templates in Motion that I use and modify in all my FCP projects. This is fast, easy and saves TONS of time formatting and positioning titles.
These three custom shortcuts simplify and speed several repetitive aspects of my edit and I want to share them to save you time in your edits as well.
Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the importance of readability – and other factors – when choosing fonts for a video project.
Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several font design tips to help you choose which fonts to use in your next video project.
Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates three font adjustment techniques that can make on-screen video text look better. While this uses Photoshop, we can actually do this in most applications on Windows or Mac.
New with the May, 2021, update to Adobe Premiere Pro, is the ability to add gradients to text. Here’s how this technique works.
“Ask Larry Anything!” is a free-form conversation about technical questions of interest to video editors. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows the best way to modify and copy titles and compound clips to retain position settings in Apple Final Cut Pro.
Here’s how to create a logo or shape in Photoshop, fill it with moving video in Final Cut Pro, then place that over a moving background. This works with video or stills and with any text, logos or shapes you care to use. Plus, it is fun to create – once you know how.
In March, Adobe released the new 2021 versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Media Encoder, and the rest of their audio and video applications. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new media replacement feature in Motion Graphic templates in Adobe Premiere Pro.
With the release of the March, 2021, update to Premiere Pro, Adobe introduced a new caption workflow. You can create edit, stylize, and export captions and subtitles in all supported formats. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this new system works.
Auto-shrink is a new feature in Apple Motion that resizes text to fit within a specific area. This is a very useful tool when creating text graphics for Apple Final Cut Pro.
When using Premiere, caption timecode for importing captions doesn’t matter. But it DOES matter when exporting. Here’s what you need to know.
Many of the titles shipped with Final Cut Pro look, um, suboptimal. Here are some tricks you can use in both Final Cut and Motion, to make your titles look a WHOLE lot better.
Explore the capability of Apple Motion for your projects in more depth. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create a curved path for text, then animate text along that curve using Apple Motion.
At first blush, many of the backgrounds included with Apple Final Cut Pro are mostly unusable for text. However, when you adjust their settings – and combine them with a few well chosen effects – you’ll discover a wealth of creative options to make your projects more visually interesting. Here are six examples.
In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create, import, modify and export closed captions in Apple Final Cut Pro.
Two “Top Ten” lists of tips and techniques from “The Inside Tips” for 2020. The first is by number of views, the second is by reader ratings. These cover Adobe and Apple software, along with codecs, media, visual effects and production.
Here are some text tricks that can help position and display text in eye-catching ways using Apple Final Cut Pro.
Emojis are little icons that have taken over the world. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and modify emojis in a video project using Apple Final Cut Pro.
Motion graphic templates are created in After Effects for use in Premiere. This illustrated tutorial explains how to add, find, edit, modify and delete these templates.
Smart Conform, the new re-framing feature in Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.4.9, is a good start. It does what Apple says, but there are limitations. Here’s an illustrated tutorial showing how this works.
Captions are not titles. Understanding the difference is key to problem-free playback of your media. Also, you don’t get to choose the caption format – your distributor does. Learn more here.
An illustrated tutorial on how to create a scrolling credit list using Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop and Apple Final Cut Pro X (or Adobe Premiere).
