I'm an AVID editor transitioning to FCP. So far I'm really dissapointed with FCP's titling. Besides going into Live Type or Motion, are there any cool titling plugins out there that people are using?
Thanks
-Dave
Re: Titling Plugins? by Craig Seeman on Jun 20, 2008 at 2:55:30 pm
Are you using Boris Titler or the horrible generic titler? Boris is quite good. Title 3D, Title Crawl, Vector Shape. It's all in there already.
You don't say exactly what you're looking for in a titler. There certainly a few plugins with specific features but you don't say what you're looking. The included titlers goes a long way for most professionals.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Alan Okey on Jun 20, 2008 at 3:55:30 pm
Boris Title 3D is a joke. No live broadcast monitor previewing, no ability to compose over underlying video. It's archaic.
Until someone comes out with a decent FCP plugin, you're much better off doing titles in something like Combustion, where you can see your work properly on a broadcast monitor as you compose.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Craig Seeman on Jun 20, 2008 at 4:06:46 pm
[Alan Okey]"Boris Title 3D is a joke. No live broadcast monitor previewing, no ability to compose over underlying video. It's archaic. "
I don't think that's a Boris problem. It's an FCP problem. Live title preview would be great but I suspect it hasn't been done in FCP because FCP itself doesn't support it.
[Alan Okey]"you're much better off doing titles in something like Combustion" If you're going to talk about Combustion then one may try this in Motion or Shake (although I haven't).
The OP asked about a plugin, not a separate app and didn't say live preview was the issue. If FCP is the limiting issue then NO plugin would solve this.
Re: Titling Plugins? by dave rawson on Jun 20, 2008 at 4:42:27 pm
Well that is one of my BIG issues. The lack of live preview is a joke. Its driving me insane actually. So this is a FCP issue? Because I used Boris on a daily basis with my AVID, and it was great.
It seems like there's a lot of great things about FCP, but man do they need to do something about their horrible titling set up.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Craig Seeman on Jun 20, 2008 at 4:52:38 pm
I think your comment is a perfect example of how it's the app, not the plugin. Boris works differently on Avid vs FCP. I was an Avid editor since about the time of it's public release and the following 10 or 12 years before moving to FCP. It is one of the things I miss about Avid. Then again so many Avid editors used Photoshop as their main titler.
Heck I was a Chyron operator too on many projects and making changes over a live (and often playing) image, really is useful.
I'll certainly say live title preview would be nice but it certainly hasn't been make or break for me in my choice of FCP as my NLE.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Chris Poisson on Jun 20, 2008 at 5:30:48 pm
Dave,
I have mixed feelings about most Boris products, but no preview is not entirely true. Once you apply Title 3D and put the clip over your video, you have tons of control over placement, scale etc. in the viewer window, even animation, although most of T3D's animation sucks. It's shadows suck too, so I just use the Boris controls in the viewer for placement and size, then animate and put on shadows in the motion tab.
Re: Titling Plugins? by david bogie on Jun 20, 2008 at 6:22:46 pm
You got a good rant going!
FCP's titling tools are basic and silly; we've been screaming about them for many years. Apple's solution, like Media 100's before, was to give us some Boris tools with alien interface paradigms and unfinished adaptation such as annoying mode windows and lack of helpful previews.
Motion is a great titling tool once you get past the needlessly creative interface and, if you love After Effects, you may NEVER like Motion. Aside from that, as noted by others, Photoshop is likely to be your best option for titling in FCP if you are hoping for the (implied) elegance and efficiency of your Avid's tools. never used an
Avid myself.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: Titling Plugins? by Bob Flood on Jun 20, 2008 at 8:13:46 pm
Hi dave
FCP Has a great titler! Its called Photoshop!
and Synthetic Aperture has a plug in called Echo Fire which gives you video out from photoshop via firewire, or any of the FCP capture cards, like kona
Re: Titling Plugins? by walter biscardi on Jun 20, 2008 at 8:25:12 pm
[dave rawson]"I'm an AVID editor transitioning to FCP. So far I'm really dissapointed with FCP's titling. Besides going into Live Type or Motion, are there any cool titling plugins out there that people are using?"
We use the Boris 3D titling tool within FCP and Photoshop if needed. But Boris works quite well and is a vector based titling tool so it's extremely clean. The trick is to make sure you do all title placement in the Boris Control tool, not using the Motion Tab in the Viewer.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Chris Poisson on Jun 21, 2008 at 1:05:48 pm
I would stress Walter's advice about using the Boris controls, BUT, DON'T use Boris animation controls, especially animating tracking, they suck. Boris drop shadows suck even worse.
And to Mr. Bogie, had to laugh about the AE/Motion comment, because I love AE I've never been able to get my arms around Motion.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Andy Mees on Jun 21, 2008 at 12:43:08 am
A basic titling plugin that allows multiple fonts, styles and colors with live compositing over a preview window should be, in the grand scheme of things, a simple plugin to build using the FxPlug SDK .... I'll have a bash at it but I fear my programming skills are way below the "grand scheme of things" level
Perhaps Martin Baker / Digital Heaven would be interested in doing this. I've a feeling folks would gladly pay for it.
Re: Titling Plugins? by Peter Wiggins on Jun 21, 2008 at 1:06:38 am
[Andy Mees]"I've a feeling folks would gladly pay for it.
"
You think so? This plugin is pretty easy to write, however with motion being so good at graphics I can't see a market for it.
Peter
Re: Titling Plugins? by Andy Mees on Jun 21, 2008 at 1:28:33 am
well they're not going to pay through the nose Peter, but think how often we hear this complaint ... it seems plain that folks are generally averse to bouncing their clips out to Motion or Livetype in order to do basic titling tasks, and that they're unhappy with the basic titling plugins that are built-in.
as you say, it ought to be pretty straight forward to write ... so make it a freebie
Re: Titling Plugins? by Peter Wiggins on Jun 21, 2008 at 7:10:06 pm
No problem! glad it is in use :)
Peter
Re: Titling Plugins? by Micajah Smithson on Nov 4, 2008 at 7:08:43 pm
Peter
I'd be willing to pay for it, and I think there are many FCP editors who would also. If you account for your time spent switching in and out of Boris, Iit would pay for itself in one job.
I know you would like to point people to Motion as a resource, and I do enjoy using the IR plug-ins within it -keep up the great work.
But a straightforward title plug-in with kerning tools would be a killer.
Micajah Smithson
West Coast Projections
San Diego, CA
