Appearing and dissolving text layers or captions

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Appearing and dissolving text layers or captions

Postby pacino8591 » Tue Jul 21, 2015 10:32 am

Hi guys,

Once more I need assistance from the experienced users. Here's my question. I have a video slide. While it plays I want (for example) the text 'DOG' to appear in in the middle of my slide and dissolve again. Then while my video keeps playing, I want the text 'CAT' to appear and dissolve again, on the exact same spot as with 'DOG'. And then successively a third and fourth line of text.

What is the best way to do this? Can it be done with captions, or are text layers the way to do it? If there is a solution, what would be the easiest way to achieve this goal?

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

Paul
Belgium

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Re: Appearing and dissolving text layers or captions

Postby Marie78 » Tue Jul 21, 2015 11:21 am

Hello

Add all the captions you need, one by one.

Then for each one, move its first keyframe to the rigth at the time where the caption must appear.
Then move its last keyframe to the left at the time where the caption must disappear.
Chris Marie

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Re: Appearing and dissolving text layers or captions

Postby cherub » Tue Jul 21, 2015 7:01 pm

Hi Paul,

Here is a more detailed explanation than what Marie wrote above.

First of all, about the difference between regular captions and text layers:
Text layers are a relatively new feature of Producer. They started in ver. 6.
Text layers are a kind of hybrid - a mixture of sorts between what we know as "captions" and the regular layers. They allow us to use special features that are not possible with regular captions, for example: blurring, tilting, positioning a caption underneath other layers, or using the caption as a mask.

You don't need text layers for the example that you gave. Regular captions will be quite adequate, because your captions will be placed by default on top of your video.
This is what you need to do:
Add your fist caption using the + plus sign. Click on the tab Caption Settings and set all the features of your caption: color, size of font, alignment and basic position
Now, choose the tab "Effects". Notice the two keyframes on the timeline: at the beginning of the slide and at its end. You don't want that. You want your caption to start later into the slide. So, drag the first keyframe to the right, to where you want it to start. Then, drag the last keyframe to the left to where you want your caption to end.
Notice the "T" icon beneath the keyframes.
The T stands for "transition". Producer gives you the option to set an effect for how your caption will appear and disappear from the slide. Click on that T in your keyframe 1, and you'll be given a nice list of "Fly-in Effects". For your purpose, I would choose something simple: Fade In
Notice that if you hover the mouse on top of that T segment, you can drag its edges to a certain time. I would choose something like 0.5 seconds or a bit less.
Do the same thing for the last T (Fly-out Effects), and choose Fade Out, also for 0.5 seconds or less.

Image

Now here comes the nice part:
Normally, in order to insert more captions into your slide, you will have to repeat everything that I described above, for each and every caption.
But, Producer is a clever program :D It gives you the option to shorten your workflow.
Once you are happy with your first caption, how it looks, how it appears and disappears, just DUPLICATE it ! (Right click on the caption in the list, and choose "Duplicate").
Select this new caption that has been added, and change the text.
So, now you have two captions that have different texts, but appear on top of each other. You don't want that, of course.
Go to Effects again, hold down the [ALT] key, and drag this second caption to the right, to where you want it on the timeline.
Repeat this for all the other captions of your slide.

At the end, you will have several captions, that will all look alike, will be placed exactly in the same spot of your slide, but will appear and disappear at different times into your slide. Just as you wanted it.

Hope this clarifies things for you. If you need further explanations, please don't hesitate to ask again. :D

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Re: Appearing and dissolving text layers or captions

Postby pacino8591 » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:56 am

Both Marie and Mona, a sincere thanks for your input! Something to try out straight away!! :)

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