- About Keying
- Getting Started
- Changing the Background Color
- Adding the Foreground Subject
- Creating a Garbage Mask
- Applying the Color Difference Key Effect
- Choking the Matte
- Removing Spill
- Keying Out a Background with the Keylight Effect
- Adjusting Contrast
- Adding the Background Animation
- Adding the Title
- Adding the Animated Logo
- Copying Effects Across Two Layers
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Adding the Title
Next, you'll add a text layer and create the title of the promo.
- Press the Home key to go to the beginning of the time ruler.
- Select the Horizontal Type tool in the Tools panel. After Effects opens the Character and Paragraph panels.
- In the Character panel, choose a bold sans serif font, such as Impact or Helvetica Bold.
- Increase the Font Size to 60 pixels.
- Click the Fill Color swatch and choose a light yellow hue, such as RGB 255, 242, 158 (see Figure 24).
- Click in the Composition panel to the right of the actor and type Tuesdays with Taryn, pressing Enter (Mac OS: Return) after each word (see Figure 25).
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Stylizing the Title
The text is okay, but a little boring. Spiff it up with a few adjustments.
- In the Timeline panel, double-click the text layer name to select all of the text in the Composition panel.
- In the Character panel, double-click the Stroke Color swatch. Set the color to black (RGB=0, 0, 0), and then click OK.
- Change the Stroke Width to 6 pixels, and then choose Fill Over Stroke from the Stroke Option pop-up menu.
- Change the Leading amount to 50 pixels, and change the Tracking amount to 25 pixels (see Figure 26).
It's getting better, but you're not done yet. The word with is not an important word in the title, so let's make it smaller to deemphasize it.
- Highlight the word with in the Composition panel and change the Font Size to 48 pixels, the Leading amount to 48 pixels, and the Tracking amount to 50 (see Figure 27).
- Double-click the text layer name in the Timeline panel to select all of the words again, and then click the Faux Italic button near the bottom of the Character panel (see Figure 28).
- In the Paragraph panel, click the Center Text button (see Figure 29).
There's a good chance that centering the text caused it to jump on the screen, so adjust its position.
- Using the Selection tool, drag to reposition the text layer in the Composition panel so that it's in the upper-right quadrant of the image (see Figure 30).
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Checking Placement
When positioning text, you should always make sure that it falls within the title-safe area of the screen. This is the area that will be visible to viewers watching the final movie at home on TV. To check your title's position, turn on the title-safe guide.
- Click the Choose Grid and Guide Options button at the bottom of the Composition panel and choose Title/Action Safe from the pop-up menu (see Figure 31).
- Use the Selection tool to reposition the title within the title-safe zone (see Figure 32).
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You can leave the guides visible for the remainder of this exercise, or turn them off, whichever you prefer.
Adding a Drop Shadow
The text looks pretty good, but you can make it even better by adding a drop shadow.
- With the Tuesdays with Taryn text layer selected in the Timeline panel, choose Effect > Perspective > Drop Shadow.
- In the Effect Controls panel, increase Opacity to 100%.
- Reduce the Distance amount (the distance of the shadow from the text) to 0.0, and increase the Softness amount to 80.0 (see Figure 33).
Now the title looks more dramatic.
- Choose File > Save to save your work.
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