On Tue, 06 May 2003 12:51:46 -0700, James Gifford <jgifford@surewest.net> wrote:

>I am trying to get nice, crisp titles on my videos but it seems to be a

>little hit or miss - one time it will look as good as any broadcast work

>I've seen, the next I get nasty jaggies. I'm using both Premiere 6.5's

>built-in titler and creating my own slides in Photoshop.

>

>I have extensive experience with graphics (Photoshop etc.), so I

>understand all the basics and know what *should* work. I seem to be

>missing something critical about creating graphics for video output, though.

>

>All tips/tricks/tutorials/pointers to info appreciated.

>

>Is it better to output to 720x480, or some larger multiple and let

>Premiere downsample?

>

>I know strong reds often produce smearing and blur in video, and that

>moderate contrast between type and background is often best, but are

>there particular color combinations, effects, etc. that produce notably

>better or worse results?

In addition to what the others said, I do prefer to

import double-sized graphics - the results appear

better to me compared with "correct"-size graphics

(I also prefer to use 4:3 proportion...). Different

fonts will give different results, too, with ones

without thin sections working best. I envy the

ability of TV ads to use a half screen of VERY TINY

text (like in the Diteck [sp?] loan ads), which

remain crisp and readable on my TVs - in DV, even

with higher resolution than SD broadcast, and even

with the use of proper "white" on "black", similar

"fine print" text blocks cannot be done in D25, alas.

If you make the font size large enough in DV, choose

the font carefully, add edging, select colors

carefully, apply blur as required, use double-sized

graphics, and don't try to key text over motion-video

(WHEW!), text can look good in DV. (BTW, if you need

to do the last, CG-Infinity does the cleanest job of

keying text over motion-video of the software I've

tried [you must import the video into the titler,

and the font choices are poor, though...]). Do a

lot of tests - sometimes the results are surprising

(like finding that pure yellow edged in black can

be good for text in motion, keyed over

motion-video...;-).