Re: emphasizing phrases in a newspaper

Hi Everyone,

In FCP7: I need to emphasize a line or paragraph in a newspaper. I've seen this done many times in documentaries, and can maybe figure out some methods--but in a clunky way. So request: I'm hoping a few people will tell me their favorite "look" for this, and tell me how to do it. For example it'd be cool to emphasize the text in white, and have the white bolded text slowly grow--and maybe have the background subtly get darker. How would I do this. Other ideas/looks?

Thanks so much,
Ellen

The easiest way off the top of my head I can think of to do it is to duplicate the video layer you want to have a highlight and put it on top of the other. Lower the opacity of the layer underneath to 50% (or whatever looks good to you). On the top layer use the CROP controls in the Motion tab to crop out everything but the highlight.

Joe's method is by far the quickest and most common method ... I've used tht myself many times. But if you want something a bit different and the newspaper font is common, create a text generator layer over the clip (I use Boris Title 3D) and duplicate the text as closely as possible (tracking, kerning, leading, etc.). At the point during the clip that you want the text to animate, keyframe the moves you need (scale, rotation, etc) over the remaining duration. At the same time, you can keyframe the opacity of the clip downward to de-emphasize the background. It will give the appearance of the text "lifting" off of the page.

-DH

Dave – that's a great idea. Thanks for putting it out there. JR

Thanks, everyone. That sounds way better than highlighting and other corny things I've done.

Best,
E