Re: MAGIX - MEP Titles

"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Terry Pinnell" <terrypin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:to99o3h447342c7n6bhbpgi1t4jkol9paf@xxxxxxxxxx
"Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hey, looks like I'm ahead of you here for once! As you saw from the
screenshot above, I'm just using the font type, colour and size
features to change selective parts of the title.


Well you have me there, I hadn't tried using different settings
for different parts of a defined object. Most of the time that has
been a questionalable practice. I did find that once you have
entered the text, you can highlight a portion of the text and make
changes that will (often) apply to just that portion.

I also found that some times the change would result in an
unexpected result in the preview. I never got the Gray text
you mentioned, but I did have a line of text disapear. When
I went back and changed to another color then back to the
color I wanted in the first place, it worked fine.

Yes, all pretty erratic. A few weeks ago, when I started with MEP, I
assumed that virtually every glitch/obstacle I encountered was down to
me. Many still are, but the ratios are changing. My first reaction now
is veering towards 'Hmm, another quirk/bug?', instead of 'What am I
doing wrong here?'! This titling area seems fairly typical. I'm sure
there's lots I can accomplish with the many features, but they sure
aren't yet intuitive or predictable IMO!


All programs make certain assumptions about the
workflow, and put "error" checks/handling in place to
address cases that seem to violate their expected
procedure. Some programs approach the workflow
and have procedures that may be different than what
you may be used to from past experience. MEP
has always been a little "different" than most consumer
editing in that regard, (most often brought about due to
implementing more sophisticated features like "Curves
Effects" and integrating some of its many audio features).
Another factor may be its attempts to provide more
consumer friendly features/wizard functions.

MEP proceeds on the assumption that your editing will
be repetitive in nature and that your last selection will remain
the one you want to work on until you expressly change it.
In time you may find that you prefer MEP's way of doing
some things over the procedure in another program and
for other things you will prefer the process in some other
program. ( The thing about MEP has often been that even
if it worked in an unexpected [even cryptic] method; it had
features, in an affordable package, that you might not have
access to without spending a very great deal more.)



(I used the "Standard" preset/template to make the same
title as the "Scrolling text on the right" preset except without
the vertical line .jpg or the white box, so it all fits on one track.)

Good thinking. Presumably all text titling effects that don't rely on
a separate file (like that JPG) can be implemented the same way.


The actual "effect" can be made, by you, applying the same
things as are implemented in the .tfx, including that .jpg or
any other separate file; that's what the 16 tracks are for. You
could look at the .tfx files as a sorta script to implement the
effect, as if it were a person/you adding things into the
timeline. All the effects/presets/templates are things you can
build yourself using the existing simpler functions, they have
just made some to get you started. You can create your own
as you are starting to do. ( Say you wanted your right scrolling
text to be separated by a column of jack-o-lanterns for a
Holloween movie or Christmas trees, you would just make a
.jpg (or BMP,GIF,PCX,PNG,PPM,PGM,PSD,TGA,TIFF,
PCD) in your favorite graphic editor and key it into your movie
placing it on a track under your "Standard" scrolling text. You
would Ctrl-click and select the two parts then group them and
save as your new preset - or just use it for that one movie.

Instead of a still image you could use a video clip, maybe
a column of dancing skeletons. Or a column of a kid's faces
looking all around, or watching the text scroll by, for a
personalized effect. (Perhaps the faces could react to
something they would like or dislike in the titles scrolling by.)

[ You can even use a clip made in the BluffTitler, for example.
But you can make the same layered titles right in MEP. ]

The main point is that the effects are not restricted to what
they used in the ones they supplied.

Great stuff, thanks Ken. I really like that column of faces idea.


Turning to the topic of templates. If I save this 2-colour combination
as a template, will it capture the separate style elements? Sometimes
it seems to apply just one style to all the lines.


I don't know what you mean by "style elements".

I was just trying to work out whether, when using the template in
future, it would reproduce exactly what you saw at the time you saved
it, such as the yellow Arial 12 header and the white Arial 10 detail
lines. That would have been intuitive, and a neat feature. The answer
appears to be No. You get just the top element. IOW, the detail body
lines are also formatted Yellow Arial 12 in this example.


The ones I've saved from the Title Editor seem to keep
the separate fonts and colors, in the few I've just tried. This
is a new approach for me, remember.

That's surprised me! I'll have to take another hard look. Mine
definitely came back up all on colour and size. I'm wondering if it
has something to do with what was selected at the time you used save
As Template? If it *is* possible to capture these multiple elements,
that's great! Hmm - do hope that's not a newly added feature in
MEP-12, that I don't have in MEP-11...

Since the effects are defined by these template (also called "title
presets" in MEP12) there is some real potential in gaining an
understanding of how they work. You may indeed be getting
ahead of me in that area. As you have found it is pretty easy
to make your own presets/templates. And remember that you
can use the Ctrl mouse to drag off copies of objects on the
timeline.

I'm glad you mentioned that, as it gives me a good excuse to discuss
another quirk! I've been using that approach a lot, ever since you
recommended it, and so far it's one reliable method in an uncertain
field. But it seems to me that MEP screws even that up.

With any title clip A on track 3, I Ctrl-drag it rightwards to make
another similar one, B. As I'd expect, A is now unselected (yellow)
and B is selected (red). I therefore use Ctrl+t to bring up the Title
Editor, make my changes to the text content, and click OK. But the
result is now in A, not B! More exactly, the clip on the left has the
new content. It is selected (red). The clip on the right has the
original content and is now de-selected (yellow). I have to manually
re-position it back to its original position, and drag the 'new' one
rightwards again.

Do you get same behaviour in MEP-12?


You can click anywhere else to unselect, then double click
on whichever title clip you want, and it will bring up the Title
Editor with that clip loaded. You can quickly check which
title you are working on, in the Title Editor, by using the next
and previous arrows (they are next to the Delete title button).

Yes, thanks, see my follow up shortly after the original on that
point.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

.