Final Cut Pro / Basic Instructions for Creating Text

1. At the top of the Canvas window, you will see 3 drop down menus. Click on the one farthest to the right to see a drop down menu appear. Scroll down and select “Show Title Safe”. This will active the Title Safe overlay, which lets you know where it’s safe to place your text in the frame. Be sure all text falls within the innermost or smallest blue square. Otherwise, your text will fall off of the edge of a TV screen or computer screen when your video plays.

2. Go to the Effects Tab in the Browser. Open the “Video Generators” bin. Within this bin, scroll down to open the “Text” bin. Within the Text bin, there are many types of text to select. For basic text, select “TEXT” and double click on it to bring it into the Viewer.

3. Once the text is in the Viewer, you’ll need to get a feel for how long you would like your chunk of text to be. Mark an IN point to begin, and then hit PLAY until you feel like the piece of text will be long enough. Then Mark an OUT point. Click in the center of viewer, and drag this chunk of text into the Timeline at the beginning or end of your project.

4. If you would like your text to appear over a shot within your video, drag the text clip into the Timeline to V2 or Video Track 2. Make sure the video clip is on V1 or Video Track 1. Your text clip should always be placed on a track above the video clip you wish to use. Be sure to check the Canvas to see that the text is legible over all areas of the video image. If white text doesn’t work, change the text color to something that will contrast better with the video image.

5. Next, double click on the text clip in the Timeline to make it active in the Viewer. Go to the Control tab of the Viewer to make changes to your text. Click in the box with “Sample Text” and delete these words. Type in your own text. If you want to create multiple lines of text, be sure to hit the RETURN key on the keyboard whenever you’re ready to start a new line.

6. Scroll down within the Control tab to select a Font and Size. Be sure to make your text at least as large as 24 to be sure it will show up on a TV screen.

7. Look over at the Canvas to see the position of your text within the frame. It should fit within the smallest blue square or “Title Safe” box. To move the position of the text around in the frame, go back to the Control Tab and click the “+” or origin key. Once you’ve clicked this “+”, you can click down on your text in the Canvas and move it to your desired position.

8. If you’re using white text on a black background, go to the Motion Tab of the Viewer. Scroll down to “Opacity” and click the arrow to open it. Here you want to move the opacity slider to change the opacity of the white text from 100 to 88. White letters at 100% opacity are too bright for many TV screens.

9. I recommend fading your text in and out for a smoother transition. You can do this manually by placing key frames on the clip of text in the Timeline with the pen tool.

10. If you like the pacing you’ve established in one chunk of text, and you want the rest of the text clips to follow the same pace, just highlight the original chunk of text and copy (Apple C) and paste (Apple V) the clip multiple times to create a series of identical text chunks. Any fades you’ve made with keyframes will remain the same. Simply type in new words for each new instance of text.

11. Some text types such as “Typewriter” and “Scrolling” need to be rendered. You will see a red line above the text clip in the Timeline, if this is the case. Hit Apple R to render the text.