Final Cut Pro® Portable Genius

Chapter 6. Which Title Tool Should I Use?

There are ten different ways to create a title with Final Cut Pro. If you count LiveType and Motion, that brings the total to 12. Also, you can always use Adobe Photoshop or any other program that supports an alpha channel to create a title for Final Cut Pro. To help you narrow down your choices, you can perform most tasks by using either LiveType or Boris Title 3D. For example, if you are editing a car commercial, it may make sense to build all your titles using LiveType. If you need titles that have a 3D look to them, you can use Boris Title 3D.

• Understanding Alpha Channels

• Introducing LiveType

• Boris Title 3D

• Building Titles in Photoshop

• Improving the Quality of Graphics and Titles

Understanding Alpha Channels

In a very basic sense, an alpha channel represents a transparent area of an image. Imagine if you were able to design a logo on a piece of transparent glass. The glass would allow you to see what's underneath it. It's the same idea behind building a graphic with an alpha channel. The alpha channel allows non-linear editing systems to properly key graphic elements that contain transparency. In a typical scenario, these graphic elements are placed on a Video 2 track, which allows the graphic to be keyed over top of a Video 1 track.

Figure 6.1. The ...