In some of my videos I like to use title cards to separate subjects being discussed. I find that title cards are especially useful when creating videos that are based around a topical list of features. One such example being a recent video where I discussed some of the top iPhone tips that everyone should know.
Although it’s possible to quickly create these title cards in a third-party app like Affinity Designer, making them directly within Final Cut Pro X presents several key benefits. Watch this week’s Final Cut Friday video tutorial for the details.
Although creating title cards in a third-party app provides additional creative control and flexibility, doing so directly within Final Cut Pro X is beneficial for the following reasons:
- It saves time, because you stay in FCP X.
- You can quickly edit title text on the fly.
- You can quickly change the look of the title, including its background.
These are just a few of the benefits — there are certainly more. On the flip side, one could make the argument that making titles in a dedicated design app like Affinity Designer presents many benefits as well. It’s all about doing what’s best for your workflow, and what’s best for the particular project you’re working on.
Video tutorial
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How to create basic title cards in Final Cut Pro X
The backbone to any decent title card is a background. Although it’s possible to roll text directly on top of your video footage, that’s not always desirable, especially when you’re attempting to break up the video into separate, logical chunks.
The good news is that Final Cut Pro X has a variety of built-in backgrounds that you can use. You can find these backgrounds in the Titles and Generators sidebar in the Browser.
There, you’ll see a section with two subheadings: Titles and Generators. The Titles contain all of the available text, and may include third-party text plugins as well.
As you may have guessed, the Generators contain your available backgrounds. You may find third-party generator plugins here, too.
For this particular tutorial, I demonstrate how to create a simple title card with the Custom Solids generator. The Custom Solids generator defaults to black, but you can use the Inspector to make it any color you want.
Lastly, it’s just a matter of adding text to the background to complete the title card. You can add text from the same Titles and Generators sidebar in the Browser. I like to use the Basic title under the Bumper/Opener sub menu. The Basic title lacks any fancy animations, and you can use the Inspector to customize the font, size, and more.
Now you have a finished title card. If you wish, you can retime the card so that it stays on screen for a short period of time. You can also duplicate the card and then customize the text of each duplicate.
Of course, this is a very basic look at creating title cards in Final Cut Pro X. We’ll consider some more advanced techniques in future episodes of Final Cut Friday.
Do you like the idea of creating basic title cards directly inside Final Cut? Sound off in the comments below with your thoughts.
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