Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're doing an interview as your movie, it's pretty common to have the person's
name appear in the bottom third of the frame, usually within a rectangle or graphic
bar of some kind (called a “lower third” in video world). The trick is to have the
background behind your graphic bar appear transparent, so it doesn't cover your
video with a solid white background. They're easy to create in Photoshop and then
take directly over to your timeline. Plus, the same technique we use for lower thirds,
you can use for bringing logos or other graphics into your timeline.
Creating Lower Thirds
(or Adding Logos)
Step One:
Start by creating a regular ol' new docu-
ment in Photoshop (go under the File
menu and choose New ). You want to
make this pretty close to the dimensions
of the movie you're creating, so from the
Preset pop-up menu, choose Film &
Video , and then choose a Size that is
closest to the size of what you're editing
(in this case, we're editing 1080p HD
video, so I choose the HDV 1080p/29.97
preset, as shown here), then click OK to
create a new blank Photoshop document.
Step Two:
Go to the Layers panel, click on the
Create a New Layer icon to create
a new blank layer, and then get the
Rectangular Marquee tool (M) and
drag out a long, thin horizontal selec-
tion like the one you see here (this
will be our simple lower third shape).
Press D to set your Foreground color
to black, and then fill your selected
area with black by pressing Option-
Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace) . Now,
while your selection is still in place,
click on the Create New Adjustment
Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers
panel, and choose Gradient from the
pop-up menu (as shown here). When
the Gradient Fill dialog appears, click
on the little downward-facing triangle
to the right of the Gradient thumb-
nail, and in the Gradient Picker, click
on the little gear icon, and choose
Pastels . Click Append in the dialog
that appears.
 
 
 
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