KINETIC TEXT FOR FINAL CUT PRO
In many options of the various choices of KineticText, you have four controls that will affect the whole of the title: Resize All, X Offset, Y Offset, and Rotation. Adjust any of these, and it adjusts the entire group as a whole. This is useful for resizing, positioning, and rotating the group of text so you can get it sized and positioned in the exact place you want. This is built-in because some of the titles will end up having issues if you use the native resizing tools in FCPX. Some animations that come into frame will seem to get chopped off or cropped if you use the native controls in FCPX. However, please note that there are some titles that don’t have these parameters inside the parameter options. In many titles such as “Flapper”, you will need to use the native scale and positioning controls inside FCPX. If you want to change the length of a title, manually stretch or shrink the title on your timeline. In most cases this makes the animation of the title go faster or slower and you can adjust the length of the title to match the time you want it to appear on the timeline. In the section called “3: Timing Control Titles” you can control the timing of each word and choose to offset them precisely for a more organically flowing kinetic typography.
Also, you may find that some titles have their text box published as part of the parameter. In these titles you can change the text right there in the parameter controls, otherwise simply choose the text you want to change, then go to the Text Inspector tab to change the text.
BASIC TITLES
The first group of title options are the Basic Titles. This group contains various fairly basic titles that are one or two word options. These come in handy when you want to use only basic words instead of several words together.
CONTINUOUS TITLES
The Continuous Titles are also very basic and use only one or two words at a time. However, they are made to be able to use several back-to-back linearly to create quick-moving words that create a continuous flow. These have a useful animation drop down option that allows you to use a start animation and an end animation. For example, if you take the “Image Swipe” title and place three of them back to back on your timeline, you can choose the first animation to fade in the Start Animation option. Then the middle title can have the start and end options both set to continuous. Finally, the last title will have the End Animation option set to fade. This way you have three titles that flow continuously one after the other.
TIMING CONTROL TITLES
In this section of Kinetic Text, you have a collection of titles that allow you to individually change the timing of each word as it appears on the screen. You get a maximum of 8 words that you can control when they come on the screen. You can have them spaced out equally, or stagger them to match a more organic feel like if someone is dictating speech or voiceover. Just use the sliders to dictate when the word comes onto the screen. You can use between 1 and 12 word sentences. You can also choose to arrange the words as a column or put spaces anywhere you like inside the text box: the text will still flow on in the order you set the sliders.
STACKABLE TITLES
Stackable Titles are new with version 2.0. This is an awesome way to be able to put the next incoming text, whether it’s one word or multiple words, exactly where you want them. Choose a stackable title and place it on the timeline. Then place it again on top of the last one at the place you want the next title animation to begin (if a title has a number 1 and 2, use them one after the other. For example: 1, 2, 1, 2, etc). The title you stack on top of the last one will affect the one below it and create a seamless matching animation. You can even mix and match the various stacking animations. Some work great when you mix and match them and some don’t.
SPECIALTY TITLES
This is where KineticText can get fun! There are many different options that have multiple words to create kinetic sentences. You simply drop an option on your timeline, change each word, then make adjustments accordingly. The animations are all done for you and many are very complex. Each title has the regular four controls that allow you to adjust the size, position, and rotation of the text group as one whole, but often, depending on your needs and font choice, you may need to make small size, X, or Y adjustments to make things line up the way you want. We have included these options as simply as we possibly could. You should have the ability to adjust the size of each individual text element with either controls in the parameter panel or by selecting the text and resizing it in the Text panel of the inspector window. If you come into trouble with resizing your text, it may be because we have locked that functionality in some of the titles: we have done this because it was necessary in order to keep things aligned properly and the animations rolling well. As a last resort, if you can’t resize the text and you still want to, you can always double click each word and resize it individually. You may also choose to have fewer words than are placed as default. Simply select the word you don’t want to use, and delete the text. Then you can reposition the other words to fit properly and look correct. PLEASE NOTE: try not to move the text around by selecting it and dragging it around. This may make the animations not work the way they were intended. Try and stick to the X and Y adjusting parameters that are available inside the parameter window.
ANIMATIONS
In many of the titles under the title parameters in the inspector window, you may often see a dropdown menu that contains various animation choices. These are available in some of the titles (not all of them) that we felt benefitted from a choice of in or out animations. There is also a separate animations section called “6: animations”. This section includes animation layers that can be placed over the background of the main image or at the ending of titles which don’t include ending animations such as “3: Timing Control Titles”. Place base animations such as “Blur In and Out” or “Hand Held” over the background image and stretch it across the entire image. Or choose ending animations like “Basic Ending Animations” and place them over the end of the title or layers you want it to affect. You can place the ending animations over any title, however, some titles have their own animations and would not benefit from these animation layers.