Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 [Electronic resources]

1.

Select Title > New Title > Based on Template.

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.

4.

Click the Selection tool (V) and move it over the template.

Bounding boxes will appear, delineating the three components of this title:

Title One text, a brown and yellow rectangle, and a black rectangle.

5.

Drag each bounding box in turn up the screen so you can see the template's three components.

Your Titler should look something like the next figure.

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.

Instead of using the Color Picker window to change the color stop color, use the Eyedropper tool to select a color from your video. Click the Show Video checkbox at the top of the Titler window, move to a frame you want to use by dragging the timecode left or right, drag the Eyedropper tool into your video scene, and click on a color that suits your needs.

11.

Change the Color Stop Opacities by clicking each Color Stop box, and changing the opacity setting.

12.

Click the Sheen color box and change its color, opacity, size, angle, and offset.

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]

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.

15.

Click Add next to Inner Strokes. That opens the Inner Stroke property.

16.

Check the Inner Stroke box to turn on its parameters and experiment with this new Stroke by changing its Size, Fill Type, Color and Opacity.

17.

Click the

Title One text to select it.

18.

Open its Shadow properties.

Title One doesn't have an obvious shadow because the shadow size is only 2 points. It's more like an Outer Stroke.

19.

Change all the characteristics to see how the Shadow feature works.

Take a look at my example in the next figure. Everything is self-explanatory, with the exception of Spread. Increasing the Spread value softens the shadow.

20.

Select the black rectangle and take a look at its 4 Color Gradient.

All the Color Stops are black. This template's designer set an Opacity of 0% (completely transparent) to the Color Stops on the left side and 100% (opaque) to the stops on the right side. In that way the black rectangle's opacity gradually changes to give text appearing on it a more dramatic look.