Deconstructing effects: Sheens, Strokes, Shadows and Fill: Lesson 7-6
Reverse enginering can be a good learning tool. So in this mini-lesson you will deconstruct one of the many built-in templates that come with Premiere Pro to learn how to work with Titler's effects.Unlike Styles, Templates are a combination of background graphics, geometric shapes and placeholder text. They are organized into themes with enough variety for just about any circumstance.They are tremendously useful. You can easily customize graphic themes to suit your needs or build your own templates from scratch and save them for future projects.
1. | Select Title > New Title > Based on Template. |
NoteYou can also open the Titler and select Title > Templates to get to the same Templates screen.
2. | Open as many template folders and click through as many templates as you like. |
3. | Open the Lower Thirds folder, select Lower Third 1026, and click Apply. |
NoteNote: I chose this template because it has a full range of effects including 4 Color Gradient, reduced opacity (transparency), sheen, stroke and shadows. [View full size image]

NoteIf you have trouble selecting the components, double-click Lesson 7-6 Template Test in the Project panel to open a disassembled version of the template.

6. | Drag the brown and yellow rectangle's top edge to expand it.That selects it and displays its characteristics in the Titler Properties panel. |
7. | Close Transform and Properties to make some room. |
8. | Twirl down Fill, Sheen (in the Fill section), Strokes, and Outer Strokes (there are no Inner Strokes used in this template).[View full size image]![]() |
9. | Open the Fill Type drop-down list and click on each option in turn to see what they do. When done, return to 4 Color Gradient. |
10. | Double-click on one or two of the four color-stop boxes around the 4 Color Gradient display to open the Color Picker. Select new colors. |
NoteNote: Each color is slightly different than the other three and the colors at the top are slightly darker than the bottom colors. This gives this rectangle extra depth. [View full size image]

11. | Change the Color Stop Opacities by clicking each Color Stop box, and changing the opacity setting. |
NoteNote: You can change the opacity (transparency) of any color applied to any object or text, be it fill, sheen, or stroke. You can give a geometric shape or text a solid color stroke border and convert its fill color to 0% opacity to display only its edges.
12. | Click the Sheen color box and change its color, opacity, size, angle, and offset. |
NoteSheen is a soft-edged color that typically runs horizontally through shapes or text. In this case it's the brown, horizontal line that runs through the entire rectangle.
13. | Twirl down the two Outer Stroke disclosure triangles.Strokes are outer or inner borders on text or graphic objects. They have the same collection of properties available for text and other Titler objects. In this case both strokes are 3 points wide and they fall adjacent to one another. |
14. | Change the size of the two Outer Strokes to 25 points each. As shown in the next figure, that more clearly displays the sheen applied to these borders.[View full size image]![]() |
Sheen artistry
![]() | Take a look at the Sheen properties for both Outer Strokes. Note that the angles are 281 degrees and 81 degrees (270 and 90 degrees are horizontal). That is, each sheen appears just a bit above the center line on one side and a bit below the center line on the other. If the sheens were to run through the entire box, they'd form an X. This is a clever bit of visual artistry. Before you expanded the rectangle, the sheens were on the top and bottom edges. In this taller mode, they are along the sides. To see how that works, drag the rectangle's bounding box top edge up and down and watch the sheens move along the edges. |
NoteAdding a sheen or a shadow to an object is just as easy. Merely select the object in the Titler screen, check the appropriate properties box and adjust the parameters.
Experiment with effects
I encourage you to open a new title, select a Style, and draw an object. Do that for several distinctly different Styles. Then open the Fill, Strokes and Shadow properties and make lots of changes to each object.Create new Outer and Inner Strokes. Add Sheens. Check a Texture box and add any graphic image or Photoshop file to add some real pizzazz to your text and object.The more you play with the Titler the more you'll come to appreciate its depth and creative possibilities.