Digital Juice

Let me put in a negative viewpoint . . . . I would make do with what I've got!

A couple of years ago I watched an excellent sci-fi short film and was told that the maker had paid someone a small fortune to provide a 5 second effect.

He could have used a slightly different technique available freely in FCP and the result would have been equally effective.

Needless to say, he wasn't too pleased to hear of the fast and free workaround.

The only people who are impressed by fancy titles, templates and effects are usually ourselves.

General audiences are often completely unaware of the marvels they are watching . . . . . especially if the ensuing film is not up to the standard of the opening titles.

I never cease to be amazed at how the thoughtful touches I give to my films are completely missed by the viewers . . . . . or it could be that my videos are pretty ropey!

Here endeth the sermon.

P.S. Undoubtedly others will answer the original question you asked.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

You get dozens of pre-built typography effects in Motion and if you have it, LiveType.
In both cases, you can modify those effects to create something more personal or even start from scratch.

In any case, you need to first look at what your text is for.
For the most part, it carries information -who is the person speaking, what they do or represent, where to get the product etc. If you build some dazzling effect, does it detract from the information that you are trying to convey?

Subtitles, for instance should be able to be read comfortably twice while it is on screen. The trick here is to paraphrase -not translate word for word.

If you are making a trailer, on air promo or sting, sure, go wild. Those things are short and should grab the attention, but not at the cost of the information.

A sure sign of an amateur is when their movie has some crazy transition or effect at every single scene change. It is annoying to the viewer and the only person who thinks it is good is the one who made it.

I have several of their products. When I was just starting out I went on a buying spree and bought too many. Now my shelf is full. I don't use them that much, but they have saved my life more then once. I have their music, stock footage, and several graphic packages. Juicer is pretty good. It gives you all the options you need for saving the correct size, codec, frame rate, and other settings so that it can easily import into FCP.

You are right, there are usually only 1 or 2 good items in a package. But who knows what you might need down the road. I will say that I have not tried any of their fonts or new Ready 2 Go packages.

As far as pricing they always have sales and deals.

Digital juice has saved the bacon on more than one occasion for me-- but the thing is, your show will look just like other shows that use it. Sure a premade bg or a set of wipes and transitions and lower thirds are pretty cool easy and foolproof, but...

I have several of their products, and most are done well. All are acceptable.

The Juice works just fine, albeit slowly because it accessed DVD data discs for the original footage.

But absolutely no problems.

I started to write a response, then realized focalpp hit all the points I was going to say. In other words, ditto his response.
I have probably used most the sound effects. Doesn't take much to add a little something to my photo montages. A little goes a long way, but that little can be just 'the thing'.
Sharon

Let's hear it for the salt and pepper school of sound editing!

You can use all of Motion's templates in FCP 7 without knowing anything about Motion or even opening it.