Text Question

seanboypijn

Hi, I'm trying to add a basic effect to some text in my video and I'm having trouble figuring out how to do it.

To save time and simply things, I made a quick youtube video showing roughly what I'm trying to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvJZws35YY

I'm make a music mix video and when the songs are getting ready to transition, I want colored text (indicating the song playing) to slowly transition to white (color moving vertically from top to bottom) to the next line of text, and then repeat that process every song transition. Hopefully that makes sense. I don't know if this can be done with text or if I need to draw out the text so the insides can be masked. The text will be relatively small to fit the whole tracklist on screen (the video will be super simple, just the tracklist showing the whole time). Thanks for your time.

borate

Just one idea...

Track 1 - Two adjacent clips on the sequence of a png blue-line image grabbed from the WEB, with a dissolve transition between them

Using the SCALE effect and its base Y slider, both have been identically sized and positioned one below the other.

The line can be made transparent if desired, and superimposed over a lower track image

Another approach would be to use a single line clip and animate its SCALE effect base Y to change position. Then save the effect as a template, which can be applied to later edits. Two templates might be saved - one to move down and the other to move up after a song title is changed. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Tracks 2 and 3 - Simple text overlays, songs 1 & 2 respectively, for the duration of the sequence

Text can be loosely positioned by dragging it in the preview window

Song_title.mp4

seanboypijn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJ8pneT5IU

So this is where I am now, looks the same as your video. However, I don't understand how to make the blue line only appear behind the text. Right now I have:

Text on top

Blue line image under text

Blank clip (black) on the bottom

borate

If the blue line is on track 1 and text is on track 2, then the result should be just as it appears in your demo. To me, "text on top" means that the blue line is behind.

seanboypijn

My mistake, what I meant to say is I want the blue line to only appear "inside" the text and then shift down from one line of text to the next. I'm assuming I would have to use a mask of some kind? Would I have to add a mask to each individual letter?

[deleted]

Try this....

Switch into Dual Previews under Options/Display. This makes it easier to see what you are doing.

Place a blank Black clip (Add Objects tab) on Video Track 1 and drag it out to required duration
Place a blank Blue clip (Add Objects tab) on Video Track 2 and drag it out to the required duration.
Create a text frame containing your lines of text and place it on Video Track 3
Add a Crop effect to the Blue blank clip on Video Track 2 (Click FX and select Crop)
Using both the Preview windows adjust the frame in the Clip preview window until the blue frame is a narrow band behind the first line of your text. Your screen will all look a bit like this..........
When you want to move the blue bar down Add a Position effect toVideo Track 2 and adjust the position of the blue bar. Use Keyframes to time the movements.

Nat

seanboypijn

I appreciate the feedback, maybe I'm not explaining myself well enough. I want the blue rectangle to only appear INSIDE the text itself, literally inside the letters, not just sitting behind the text. To further complicate things (lol) I don't want the blue rectangle to be visible outside the letters, giving it a clean look. I made a video showing roughly what I'm trying to achieve here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_-3ylFSkI

I know how to do this with images but I want the blue rectangle to move inside the letters of my text, here's another example with text instead of images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvJZws35YY

[deleted]

OK. Gottit! but Sorry I don't think that is possible in VP

The blue bar can pass behind the letters as outlined in the previous post but this animation of the characters themselves where a band of color passes through the letters is not possible. (It's bit like the Shader app that was available for text in chat rooms text years ago.) Text is one colour only. How did you get that?

Make a suggestion, it might get implemented... Add a link to this forum page.

https://www.nch.com.au/suggestions/index.html?software=VideoPad

Nat

borate

What Nat sez. Something along these lines may be about as close as you will get...

Song_animate.mp4

seanboypijn

Ok, I had a feeling it wasn't doable after many frustrating hours! 🙂 I simply drew in the blue segments in MS Paint to illustrate what type of effect I was after. Thanks again guys, I'll leave a suggestion like you said and hopefully they will consider implementing it!

[deleted]

Hang on! I've had another look at this and something is possible-_- . (Can't play Borates clip so cant see what he came up with) but nevertheless try this..

Create a blank white clip and place it on Video track 1
Create a blue blank clip and place it Video Track 2
Crop the blue clip to a long rectangle about 1/2 the height of your proposed text.
Create your text clip with Text in White and with Full background Black
Place the text on Video Track 3
Add a Green screen effect to Video track 3 (the text) and set the colour of this to White.(The text colour) This makes the text itself transparent against a black background but it will appear to be white due to the blank clip on Video Track 1 which will show through.
Use the Position effect with keyframes to animate your blue bar.
You will then see the bar pass across the white text only. (In fact it passes between the "hollow" text, which behaves like a stencil, and the white background on track 1.)

I think this is something like you were after.

Nat

seanboypijn

Oh my god, you figured it out! 🤯 Your a genius my friend! I suspect I could go a step further and replace the blank blue clip with a video clip or image? I was thinking of adding a short video clip of water rippling and place that behind the text. Thank you again, I'll going to experiment with this now.

[deleted]

"........I could go a step further and replace the blank blue clip with a video clip or image? ......"

That's perfectly feasible although the transparent text would have to be fairly large and blocky to see the image behind moving. You wouldn't need to use the black blank image clip either.

Nat

borate

You might also add a NOISE effect to the line or change the color of track one, which would affect the text.

Song_line.mp4

seanboypijn

Hey guys, it's been awhile huh? 🙃

Well, after A LOT of work, I finished the first part of my mix. The music might not be your cup of tea,

but mainly I just wanted to thank you guys again (I gave you guys credits in my video description) and share

with you the finished project, showing off what I came up with using the advice you guys gave me. Honestly, I'm

very pleased with the results as I really tried to challenge myself and see how creative I could get. Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVEbpZyfPTw&t=44s

Let me know what you guys think if possible and take care!

[deleted]

Thanks for the feedback. Not everybody does.

"....The music might not be your cup of tea, ...."

A cup of coffee perhaps 😉........It would keep me awake! :lol: But that's an excellent job and you must have put in work there. ! The effects behind the text are great! Better than just a simple blue line. Clever use of text behind the text as well. Have you thought of using some of the coloured Chaos images that were in vogue some years ago? They would be interesting. Well done.

Nat