Text and background

DWFII

I am a newbie to this forum and to videopad...although I used Windows MovieMaker quite sucessfully back when I was on XP.

I have version 3.02 of Videopad.

I am trying to edit a video and the first problem I've run across is that I would like to have an introductory/title clip running about 15 seconds. There are several problems I have encountered here that don't seem to be covered in the help files.

First, I can enter the text and change the font but changing the fill and the oputline doesn't seem to work. What am I missing?

Second, I would like to have some sort of background for the text--either an imported image or a coloured back ground or a snapshot (?) but i don't see any place where I can import an image or set the background colour (I don't like the default "checkerboard") or alter the background in any way. Again, am I missing something?

I may have a few other problems but finding an answer to these will at least get me started.

Thanks

borate

DWFII wrote:

I would like to have an introductory/title clip running about 15 seconds.

First, I can enter the text and change the font but changing the fill and the outline doesn't seem to work.

After entering text and clicking on ADD, click the large "T." You should then be able to alter the outline, underline, italics, size, etc. It works here, using version 3.10. Click on APPLY to save.

I would like to have some sort of background for the text--either an imported image or a coloured background or a snapshot but i don't see any place where I can import an image or set the background colour (I don't like the default "checkerboard") or alter the background in any way.

The text clip should be inserted on a track above the clip that is the background. Thus, the text becomes an overlay. The checkerboard is not a background, but an indication of where the background will be visible when the text is overlayed.

DWFII

borate wrote:

After entering text and clicking on ADD, click the large "T." You should then be able to alter the outline, underline, italics, size, etc. It works here, using version 3.10. Click on APPLY to save.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

So, the default for the text is Arial. I changed it to Wragler. I saw the results immediately. But I wanted it to be a deep red for the fill with a turquoise outline (well, actually, I just wnated to see what that looked like) and it just turned black.

borate wrote:

The text clip should be inserted on a track above the clip that is the background. Thus, the text becomes an overlay. The checkerboard is not a background, but an indication of where the background will be visible when the text is overlayed.

Oh I see, But am I correct that there is no way to create a static background (not part of the video) for the trext that is either one solid colour or is a jpg, for instance? I must be missing something...I'm not seeing any way to do either of those things in the help files.

borate

DWFII wrote:

So, the default for the text is Arial. I changed it to Wragler. I saw the results immediately. But I wanted it to be a deep red for the fill with a turquoise outline (well, actually, I just wnated to see what that looked like) and it just turned black.

That font isn't shown on my installation. Try another. And deep red can look like black. Several fonts tested here filled and outlined just as they should.

Am I correct that there is no way to create a static background (not part of the video) for the text that is either one solid colour or is a jpg, for instance?

You can. Simply drop a color board or pic (the background) onto video track 1, and drop the text (the overlay) directly above onto video track 2.

Bear in mind that video in higher numbered tracks will OVERLAY lower numbered video tracks. The text is a "key" signal. The checkboard is where the background - whatever its content - will show through.

DWFII

borate wrote:

That font isn't shown on my installation. Try another. And deep red can look like black. Several fonts tested here filled and outlined just as they should.

Well, now it's working! I didn't do anything different except I chose to colour the text before I chose the font. [sigh] Well, at least I know it can work.

You can. Simply drop a color board or pic (the background) onto video track 1, and drop the text (the overlay) directly above onto video track 2.

Bear in mind that video in higher numbered tracks will OVERLAY lower numbered video tracks. The text is a "key" signal. The checkboard is where the background - whatever its content - will show through.

So, bear in mind that I'm a newbie. Is there somewhere in the help files...or a video turtorial...that will show me how to do this. I have not...so far found it. I haven't even run across anything on how to create a second video track. I am looking for details, or at least detailed instruction, in hopes of reducing the learning curve just a little.

[deleted]

Assuming you have created your text image and dropped it onto the OVERLAY TRACK......

For a plain background to your text..

Click the "Add Blank" tab on the toolbar. In the window that follows...

Give it a name (if you want)

Click the "Fill Colour" box (Default is black)

Select the colour that you want followed by OK

This creates a blank image in the colour chosen and places it in the "Images" bin of the media list.

Simply drag and drop this onto the sequence line where you want it...say in front of your actual footage, or you can click it in the list and select to add it at a choice of positions depending on what you have set for this action under the "Options" tab. The duration of this blank frame will normally be 5 seconds by default but once on the sequence line you can drag the end of it out to the right to make it longer or go into storyboard mode and enter a new duration value for that image.

In timeline mode your text overlay which appears in a box above the main video can be positioned over your blank frame by dragging it along the track. It can be shortened or lengthened by dragging out the end of the overlay box in a similar way to the blank frame.

When the text box is clicked the clip preview (in this case the text image) appears in the left preview pane with a control panel beneath. Click the big T to change the properties of your text.

If you want to have your text appear over a static image (say a jpg) then simply load your jpeg image to the media list using the "Add File" tab and follow the steps outlined above for the blank frame.

If you want this text to fade in and out then it is best done in two steps.

Click the star at the left end of text box and in the new window click "Add Effect"

Select "Opacity" from the list

Check that the red cursor line for effect start position is at the extreme left of the box.

Slide the slider to 0% and click the green cross

Using the times divisions on the green bar drag the red cursor line along to about 2 seconds into the effect and then the slider once again, this time to indicate 100% opacity. You should now see that the Opacity effect line starts at 0% and rises to 100% at around 2 seconds where you have set the green keyframe markers.. You can play the effect to see how the fade-in looks and alter the markers by dragging them if necessary.

Now click "Close"

Back in timeline mode click the square icon at the end of the overlay box followed by "Fade" from the list.

Enter a value of 2 (seconds) for the fade-out of the text.

Click OK

Your text will now fade-in and fade-out. You can alter the duration of each by re-entering the values.

(N.B. I don't use the "Opacity" control to fade-out (although you can if you want) as the text re-appears for a split second after the fade has finished.

This happens in preview mode at least, but I haven't checked to see if it still happens after the sequence has been rendered as an avi)

Nat

DWFII

Nat,

thanks for this. I haven't had time to try it...back at work today...but am going to print it out and give it s shot this weekend.

DWFII

Nat,

Have been fooling with your instructions and have seen some possiblities although haven't yet accomplished what I want successfully.

I need to first clarify something...what is the "overlay track? " I'm not seeing it or anyway to create it

borate

An overlay is a video track that is above another video track. Drag your text to that position, and a new video track will be created.

Keep in mind that each video track will completely obscure the video of the tracks below it, unless it's a key (like your text) or a chroma key.

In that case the lower (background) video will show through in areas where the checkerboard is seen when setting up the key.

DWFII

borate wrote:

An overlay is a video track that is above another video track. Drag your text to that position, and a new video track will be created.

Keep in mind that each video track will completely obscure the video of the tracks below it, unless it's a key (like your text) or a chroma key.

In that case the lower (background) video will show through in areas where the checkerboard is seen when setting up the key.

How do you avoid that? It was one of the things that confused me to begin with. I created a text clip but it was running over the top of the start of my footage.

Another thing...if you create new video tracks how / where do they show up in the sequence.

Here...let me get specific. I have video footage. So I open the file and drag it to the sequence time line. An accompanying audio track is created.

Now I want to create a lead-in. A title. On either a solid background or on top of a jpg. I want to want to insert it ahead of the foot age, ahead of the video track and ahead of the audio track.

How do I do that?

I think I understand the simpler editing tools like cutting and deleting. But I'm just not finding much help in creating that lead-in.

borate

DWFII wrote:

So I open the file and drag it to the sequence time line. An accompanying audio track is created.

Now I want to create a lead-in. A title. On either a solid background or on top of a jpg. I want to want to insert it ahead of the foot age, ahead of the video track and ahead of the audio track.

Place your background (image, color board, etc.) at the beginning of the time line, ahead of the earlier clip that you dragged to the sequence.

Drop the title 'key' clip onto the video track (that will be created) immediately above the background. Check this out... http://tinyurl.com/l87wng9

Many more tutorials can be found via a search engine. Some are for VP version 2x, but the basics apply.

[deleted]

"I need to first clarify something...what is the "overlay track? " I'm not seeing it or anyway to create it"

Initially VP only shows two tracks. Video Track 1 and Audio Track 1. However, above Video track 1 is a grey area that can contain further video tracks but these will only appear when clips are dropped in this region (to save cluttering the lower area with unused tracks.) The Audio belong to any clips dropped here appears below Audio Track 1. These additional tracks, labelled Video Track 2...3.. etc are Overlay tracks.

"Here...let me get specific. I have video footage. So I open the file and drag it to the sequence time line. An accompanying audio track is created."

That is correct. The Sequence or Timeline is labelled Video Track 1 and as mentioned, above this (if it contains no clips) is a grey area, if you drag and drop another clip into THIS area it will create another track...Video Track 2. Each will have an Audio Track

Video Track 2 is an OVERLAY track and will play over any part of a lower track that it actually covers, (like Video Track 1) You can drag and drop your clips from the media list to any point on any track or create more overlay tracks which get labelled Video Track 3 etc. each one of which will play over the lower tracks.

If you are relatively new to editing, it is best to use just Video Track 1 and Video Track 2 .

If you click the "Options" tab on the toolbar, (click the chevron to the right of the "NCH Suite" icon) under the "Media" tab you can set where you would like new clips to be added. Set this to "Ask Me"

Now you can add clips from the Media list to a choice of places by just clicking them on the list without the need to drag and drop.

"Now I want to create a lead-in. A title. On either a solid background or on top of a jpg. I want to want to insert it ahead of the foot age, ahead of the video track and ahead of the audio track".

Create your title first. This will be added to the Media list under the "Images" tab and will consist of an image your entered text against a chequered background. The chequered area is transparent.

Add your JPG image to the Media list, or create your coloured blank frame using the steps I outlined in my post above.

If you have set the "Options" to "Ask me", just click the JPG (or the blank frame image) in the media list and when prompted select to "Place on sequence at start" Your JPG or blank frame will appear on Video Track 1 in front of your main clip.

If you haven't set the "Options" then simply drag the JPG (or blank image) to Video Track 1 and then to the left...you will see yellow bars to guide you...and drop it in front of your main clip.

In either case your main video along with is linked audio will be pushed along to the right along Video Track 1 to accomodate the length set for the image or your blank frame.

Drag the red cursor bar to the start of the sequence line and in a similar way as above you now can add the TEXT image to Video Track 2, (the Overlay Track .) i.e select to "Overlay on sequence at cursor" if you have set the "Options" or drag and drop it if you haven't.

Once it is on the track you can grab it and drag it left or right so it is positioned over the JPG image section of Video Track 1. and alter its length so it doesn't cover any of your main clip.

When you now play the sequence from the start, your text will appear overlayed on the image background. For fading etc, see my post above.

Hope this is clearer...

Nat

DWFII

I want to thank you both for your patience with a newb. I know it is frustrating esp. for people who are well-versed in a subject--these questions often seem so elemental and the answer so obvious..

It will take me a bit to digest and try what you both have posted. But just a quick reading fills in some blanks.

So again thanks.

DWFII

I'm not doing something right. What I did was drag my footage to the time line. Then I created a 30 second blank clip and coloured it green. I then inserted it at the beginning of the sequence. Then I added a 24 second text clip.

The first problem that I'm encountering is that the blank clip did not push the video or audio. What it seemed to do is overwrite/overlay the video clip so that that first 30 seconds of footage is obscured. I didn't push the audio back either so that now I have audio from the first 30 second of footage running while the green text / title is showing. The audio seems to stay in sync because when the 30 seconds of green and text are done, the footage resumes (30 seconds past the beginning) and the audio seems to be in sync with it.

What am I missing?

[deleted]

Using version 3.24.....

"What I did was drag my footage to the time line."

So far..so good. Your footage should now be on Video Track 1. By default (if the track was empty) it will be positioned at the extreme left.

"Then I created a 30 second blank clip and coloured it green."

O.K. This blank clip..will actually be an image of a green blank frame and should be on the Media list under "Images".

"I then inserted it at the beginning of the sequence."

That seems OK as well. Check...It should now also be on Video Track 1 positioned in front of your footage. Your footage should have been pushed to the right along with its linked sound on Audio Track 1

(Alternatively you could have added the image first followed by your footage.)

"Then I added a 24 second text clip."

This image clip should be placed on the OVERLAY track which is Video Track 2. and positioned OVER the 30 second blank clip by dragging it into place.

Both the blank clip and the Text clip will originally have had the same default duration (whatever was set under "Options" but you presumably have altered the Text clip to be less than the blank clip. The text clip (the overlay box) being 24 seconds long and the blank clip 30 seconds long.

OK, Now....As you say you are "losing" 30 seconds of your footage..the same as your green background...Check you haven't actually put your green background onto the Overlay track above your footage. It should be on the SAME track as your footage (Video Track 1). Only the Text should be on the overlay track (Video Track 2)

A further puzzle is that you say that the Green background and the Text are playing over the footage. Unless there is a major program fault, this will only happen normally if you have placed both the green background and the text on different overlay tracks. i.e Green background on Video track 2 and text on Video Track 3.both overlaying your main footage on Video Track 1 :blink:

Your description suggests this may be what you have done.

Nat

DWFII

That seems OK as well. Check...It should now also be on Video Track 1 positioned in front of your footage. Your footage should have been pushed to the right along with its linked sound on Audio Track 1

(Alternatively you could have added the image first followed by your footage.)

I have version 3.02. Could that be where the problem is?

I'm going to go back and try again and try the alternative too. That makes some sense...or at least offers some hope.

Maybe I'll do a screen shot...

DWFII

Did a quick test and the alternative method worked. Will report back after I get a chance to try the original approach....OR if I run across further difficulties.

taldag

smb could tell me Where Videopad save text clip in computer?

[deleted]

This really ought to be a new thread.

If you create a text file in VP, an image of the text on a blank background is produced that is stored in the cache file. Your text is in fact a .jpg file with a different extension (.cache) As such it can't be opened in regular viewers but you can change the extension to .jpg and then open it. (There will be two copies of the image file in the cache along with 2.kb INDEX files ....the second image file will be the the image file you require)

The cache file is usually to be found in

Username/AppData/Local/temp/VideoPadCache

Nat

taldag

Nationalsolo wrote:

Hi

This really ought to be a new thread.

If you create a text file in VP, an image of the text on a blank background is produced that is stored in the cache file. Your text is in fact a .jpg file with a different extension (.cache) As such it can't be opened in regular viewers but you can change the extension to .jpg and then open it. (There will be two copies of the image file in the cache along with 2.kb INDEX files ....the second image file will be the the image file you require)

The cache file is usually to be found in

Username/AppData/Local/temp/VideoPadCache

Nat

Thank you very much it was very very useful. if this question is not annoied - if VP convert text to .jpg so may be I could first to do this - long Hebrew text in Paint?

because work with it in VP difficuilt