How to make 2 column, movie style end credits?

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How to make 2 column, movie style end credits?

Has anyone ever made two column, movie style end credits (where the left column is justified right, and the right column is justified left, with a small amount of black in between) using Motion or Final Cut? I've been trying to do it in FCP but the two columns just won't stay lined up no matter what I do, even using Boris text.

Is there any built in way to do this with FCP, LiveType or Motion? What program would be best to use for this? I have After Effects, but have no idea how to use it, so I was hoping to find a FCP/LiveType/Motion solution. I'd be open to using AE if it's simple to do, I would just need a quick explanation!

Thanks for your help! I'm using Final Cut Studio 2.

Mac Pro Intel Quad Core, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Final Cut Studio 2

Posted on Dec 4, 2007 5:17 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 4, 2007 5:27 PM in response to abutler76

If you have Illustrator (or something similar) in addition to After Effects, it's quite easy. This should work for Motion as well.

You set your type in Illustrator and get all the formatting set up in there how you like it. Basically, you're creating a really tall document that you'll then move vertically in AE. Make sure to set guides for the title safe areas so you know how much room you have to work with.

In AE or Motion, you simply need to keyframe the position property of your Illustrator file so that it starts out of frame and moves vertically through the frame and out the other side. By adjusting the gap between the start and end keyframes, you can control how fast the scroll is.

In Motion, I'd guess that you'd use the throw behavior if you don't keyframe it.

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Answer 2

abutler76 Author

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Dec 4, 2007 5:35 PM in response to Steve Boultbee

Thanks for the reply! Ok, so the actual scrolling sounds easy enough. Unfortunately I don't have Illustrator. What other programs would work for this? The trickiest part seems to be getting the two columns that line up perfectly and have opposite justification. Is it possible to use Word and import into Motion or After Effects? Thanks!

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Answer 3

Dec 4, 2007 5:47 PM in response to abutler76

Word should work provided that you can get your formatted text out to an image format that either AE or Motion can read. Printing from Word to a PDF should work, although AE will only be able to read the first page. If your credits end up being longer than that, just make several one page documents and import them all into After Effects. Then line them up in a large enough composition, and then import that composition into another composition and animate the first comp's position property to create the movement.

You can also download a trial copy of Illustrator from Adobe's site. It's a fully functional 30 day demo before you have to purchase it.

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Answer 4

abutler76 Author

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Dec 4, 2007 5:53 PM in response to Steve Boultbee

Great, sounds like a solution. I'll give it a try and report back here. Thanks!

And it's good to know about the 30 day Illustrator trial....

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Answer 5

Dec 4, 2007 6:42 PM in response to abutler76

easiest way to accomplish this task is after every name, use *. For example is you wish to say "Tom played the role of banker", you would type Tom*Banker. As you can see, there is no space between them. Final Cut will space it accordingly. Of course I am assuming you know how to creat text in Final Cut

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Answer 6

abutler76 Author

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Dec 4, 2007 6:58 PM in response to Thomas Micah

Ah, this works great, thanks!

Now ideally I would have the left column be italic and the right bold. But is there a way to do this within the FCP text tool? I tried using the asterisks in a Boris text, but they didn't seem to work. Is there a similar trick using Boris? Then all of my problems would be solved and I wouldn't have to use any other programs....

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Answer 7

Dec 4, 2007 8:52 PM in response to abutler76

You can either use word or the text file in apple, then copy and past it into final cut. In text you can use different font, bold, etc. Glad to be of assistance

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Answer 8

Dec 5, 2007 12:36 AM in response to abutler76

Easy
Type in Pages or Word
Print as PDF
Open with Photoshop - inverse to negative look (background will be black and letters white.

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Answer 9

Vick_on

Level 1

20 points

Dec 5, 2007 4:42 AM in response to Hung Ton Quoc

If u r lazy like me, use 2 layers of text. Change position and font style but so that the alignment stays.

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Answer 10

abutler76 Author

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Dec 5, 2007 11:41 AM in response to Thomas Micah

I tried using Word, chose my font and color and everything. But as soon as I paste it into a text clip in FCP it loses all of its formatting. Am I doing something wrong?

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Answer 11

abutler76 Author

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Dec 5, 2007 1:26 PM in response to Vick_on

I tried using two layers of text, but I have 5 pages of credits and the amount of drift is unusable. Even if i use the exact same length clip and the exact font size and settings, it still drifts, and after a few credits they're completely out of line. Makes no sense to me!

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