Live Type Titles too faint

I created a closing title in Motion using Live Type that writes iteself at the very end of a clip. However, the text is too faint to be read clearly. My background is busy, it's a bridge with the forest in the background. Even using red in the text and 100 opacity, you can't read it very well. Is there anything that can be done with the background, in terms of matting out or? to let this one line text show better? I tried going back to Motion and looking to increase the thickness of the font or anything that will beef it up but to no avail. It's a delicate script font.

FC 5.1.4
Motion-ver 2

did u add a drop shadow to the text? usually i go by 2 rules- if the text is in light colors, i'll add a dark shadow, dark colors light shadow...

Then i'll darken/lower the opacity of the background clip for the text.

and yea... the general graphic rules apply- complimentary colors to draw attention, light colors against dark background...

> Even using red in the text and 100 opacity

Red text on a busy background? Not my idea of clarity. Some backgrounds will also doom your titles no matter what -- you may want to apply some kind of darkening matte behind the text to darken the entire area behind your text. Drop shadow won't be enough. Hell, if the background is dense enough, you might even need to put up a solid banner behind the text. Choose a solid font with wide lines. Also, even more basically, don't watch titles and effects in the Canvas -- make sure you're watching on an external monitor:

[www.lafcpug.org]


www.derekmok.com

Red is not a very good color for text most times. It tends to bleed easy and is soft on the edges. Both make it harder to read. Try another color?

Andy

Alternatively, when all else fails, you could try matting an image over the graphics. (if you're onto medieval times, a scroll with lowered opacity superimposed over the images, etc... to play it in)

thx to all for the replys. Well, since I don't hang my hat on graphics, I did the following:

Chose a different font. The font looked good in Motion but after bringing it into FC and looking at the playback on my external monitor, there was a problem with the font actually being fully written-in terms of thickness, if that makes any sense. It writes out fine in Motion with plenty of time afterwards but doesn't look right in FC. I picked a different font with white text. Works better.

Second: I applied a fade across the background clip using the pen tool. As the text comes on, I'm fading the background. Looks and works beautifully.

thx again

Here's something you might want to try. Select your text gfx in FCP in the timeline. Hit CMD+2 to activate the Canvas. Hit OPT+(down arrow) to nudge the gfx down one scan line. I've noticed that text will sometimes disappear around the edges in a DV timeline at about every OTHER scan line.

Basically, when I drop a text into my timeline, I'll nudge it up or down a scan line to confirm that it's as sharp as it can be.

Andy

ahh... so there's that short cut! been trying to figure that out for a while now..