Suggestions/filters for creating a 'scoreboard' look?

I'm working on a quickie parody video with some shots of an electronic sign outside a stadium.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a cheap way to make text look like that electronic scoreboard style look?

[www.fontspace.com]

Should be able to color it in Boris Title 3D.

- Loren
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If it's a locked off shot you can even animate it by using a couple of keyframes to drag it across the screen and use a cropped copy of the background on V3 to create the edges.

Not sure if you're just going for a stable shot though. You could probably colour it with a bit of glow filter as well.

Here's a quickie I just did. Type some text with a cool font like Loren linked. Change the colour to red (or green, if you want a green one) set it to the right size and shape.

Then make a freeze frame of your text, so you can apply a filter. In this one I just used a bit of 'bloom'.



This took me about two minutes, so it fits 'quick and easy'. Lots more sophisticated things could be done if required.

Thanks, guys!

I was completely over-thinking this, and digging into my font library never occurred to me as a solution.

That little touch of adding a "bloom" effect is great.

Thanks again, it's appreciated!

Well, you outlined "a quickie parody video" so I assume ILM was out of the question ;-)

Cool, Jude!

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Play from In to Out with Shift - \ (Backslash) !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Gotta supply more info...depends what kind of electronic sign (and there's more than a few). Most stadium signs I have seen the text is made up of dots.





When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I was thinking of something pretty close to that bottom pic, Joe, with the Arizona Wranglers on it.

I think the dotted font might be acceptable, but if you've got a suggestion for making a better 'slide-on' effect akin to sequential bulbs lighting up as the text slides on, I'm all ears.

I broke down and posted my query when my thoughts hit this point: create a matte layer of 'dots' to replicate the bulbs, then use that as a matte over block letters, then nest that whole shebang on top of my lockoff sign shot. That would sort-of work, but sliding the letters on wouldn't animate the scoreboard effect properly.

In the end, this is kind of a one-off gag reel, so minimal effort is more of a priority than photo-realism. If you have a clever way to achieve this look (and my logic circuits keep buzzing that there must be), I'm all ears.

The fonts that Loren lined are dot versions. I just used one that I had in my kit, since I didn't have any dot versions. Same same.

I would probably work to keyframe slide them in, j, since the font it all dots, but you would need to add a crop to one edge to allow for the edge of the screen. Also, that depends on the length of your shot. If it's just an establishing shot you could just have it flash up using a quick fade, since those kind of boards do that movement too.

I don't have time to do a full tutorial, but here's something I whipped up in Motion-
[drop.io]

You can get the project file at [www.drop.io] so you can see how I did it.

It's still rough- I'm sure you can do better. But here's the basics-

I created a gray rectangle, and in the same group, animated white text moving right to left. I made the group fixed resolution, and the same size as the gray rectangle.
Then, I created a small circle, and replicated it. I set the Shape to "Image", and made the GROUP with the text and gray rectangle the Image Source.
Make enough rows and columns to fill the thing, and set the Color Mode to "Take Image Color."

A different font would probably be better. The Bloom filter makes it looks sweet. Good luck!

james -

That tutorial is AWESOME! Thanks for doing that!

I'm still learning the power of Motion, and feeding a circle shape into the replicator is the kind of great idea I'm not sure I'd have thought of.

If you're in the LA area, I owe you a beer. Thanks!

Jeff

Jeff-
Glad to help. Plus, it's kinda fun. I'm not in LA- but I'll take a virtual beer- or any job leads you may have in Denver :-)

And if you figure out a way to make it steadier or better- let me know. One idea I had was to add some definition to the circle, so it looks a bit more 3D.
James