Adding an arrow to my video

Hi all,
I'm working with some video and want to draw attention to a certain part of my image which is a CU of a person's throat. I want to add a horizontal graphic arrow that points to her adam's apple as she moves it up and down to demonstrate a vocal exercise.

Does Final Cut or Livetype have graphic arrows available for this purpose or do I have to have it created in another program, import it and add it to another video layer? I do have an arrow that I could grab from a powerpoint presentation, but I think I would have to cut out the background. Looking for a simpler solution.

Also, while I'm on the subject, how do I create a circle "highlight" to draw attention to a certain part of the video. For example, if I had video of a person with a watch on and I wanted to call attention to the watch by highlighting just the watch -- you know that "spotlight" look, kinda like you're shining a flashlight on the watch.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Shelleyrae

> Does Final Cut or Livetype have graphic arrows available for this purpose

Some fonts, like Wingdings and Webdings, have arrows you can put onto a Title 3D or Text object.

> how do I create a circle "highlight" to draw attention to a certain part of the
> video

Put a copy of the shot in question above itself on V2. Darken the bottom copy using Color Corrector or Opacity. Put a Mask Shape (Oval) and Mask Feather filter on the top copy, then move the center of the Mask Shape to where you want the center of the spotlight to be. Adjust the Mask Feather value to soften the edges. Instead of darkening the bottom copy, you could opt to brighten the top copy, but watch that you don't blow broadcast-safe levels. You can also do something a little more exotic, such as turning the non-spotlit areas black and white, or increasing the saturation and highlights of the spotlit area.

For the arrow, you can make a nice one in Photoshop on a transparent layer and bring it into FCP. Use cropping and positioning keyframes to put it where you want it, move it, and reveal it as you wish.

You might also check out Stib's free FCP plugins, which includes an arrow generator, at [www.fxscript.org]. Other arrow generators are out there, Google "fcp arrow generator".

Scott

Or just simply type an arrow into a text generator :-)
Open Character Palette, click Arrows and double click the arrow of your choice while the text generators text entry field is selected and then select the font shown in Character Palette.
You can also type a little hand showing it's finger to the point, or a pencil and then making a circle along the above described mask, finally you can type a lot of funny things into a text generator, when using Character Palette.

Andreas



Post Edited (06-01-06 11:21)

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Thanks everyone!