Protype Titler....Could this get more complicated?
 

I just recently started "playing" around with this this, and I have to say that I absolutely cannot figure it out. This is coming from a guy who knows squat about HTML a week ago, read a few paragraphs about it, and figured out why my friends webpage was misbehaving by reading the html code...anyway, I can't figure out this protype titler. On the left, you have curves, collections effects etc...how the heck do you use those? I get a circle with a line through it when I do anything with it...what's the difference between centered, center baseline etc etc...omg this thing is boggling my mind. Maybe it's because I have 5 beers in me and haven't slept in 23 hours....who knows. Any help would be appreciated.

I agree, I also found the interface very confusing. Like you, I thought I could sit down and figure it out the basics in a few minutes, but after an hour I couldn't do anything more advanced than I could with the old titler. I did switch over because I think the Pro Titler generates much cleaner and better looking text. But it's really, really frustrating not to be able to quickly figure out the new, cool, advanced features, especially when the rest of Vegas is so easy to figure out.

One of these days, I'll get the Pro Titler VASST DVD tutorial, but bouncing/flying text aren't really high on my priority list. So until then, that part of Vegas will just have to remain a mystery to me.

Go to you tube and search vegas pro 8 pro type titler.
I found a few very helpful.

I also posted this a while back it may help a little now or later
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=119727

I agree,the Titler is a bit confusing but i'm sort of getting to grips with it.

I also agree about youtube,i now search on there for tutorials before going anywhere else,,,reading how to do something in the vegas manual is one thing,but seeing it done on a video is so much better.

Paul.

I think it's the basic nature of all graphics programs. It's my livelihood to use these and there are no simple ones. The better they are, the more complicated they become. Some have generated whole libraries of fat how-to books and night classes everywhere.

Vol 5 #2 of my newsletters has an article showing some of the basics of the Protype titler.

Pro-type Title Reuse Trick
 

Scenario: You have a title and applied all the effects you wish to it, such as Drop Shadow, Dropping words, Font size, etc.

Goal: You want to reuse the same attributes for all other title supers for consistent look thru the whole production.

Issue: I found as I replaced one name with another in the super, as soon as I deleted the first letter in the title I lost all the attributes.

Solution: Instead of doing an insert edit (I-beam cursor) and deleting/backspacking the undesired letters out, instead "swipe" or "highlight" at LEAST the first letter (more is ok, but get the very first letter) of the first word in the title text.
Then ctrl-v pre-loaded text from the clipboard, or start typing your new text over the highlighted letter(s).
The attributes you wish to retain appear to be embedded in the very first letter of the very first word of the super text, so replacing this letter by highlighting it and typing new characters is ok, but any deletion of the first letter of the first word causes all the attributes to revert to defaults.

Then just "save as" with updated name. I use the clipboard, so after pasting the new title in the pro-type window, I ctrl-v in the "save as" box and use same name for veg file too.

Footnote: I just bought Vasst Protype DVD, but was in the middle of a project and unable to figure out the "official" way, so now things have calmed down, I hope to really dig into Pro-type. It looks complicated, but I sense there's real power in this tool. Quality is outstanding.

Titler has som neat effects, but it seems to fall in no man's land, between a barebone title and using Photoshop or something else to generate active text.

I found it very confusing even after spending $$ to get the "Seminar Series" from Sony and spending several hours trying to make sense of it all. I think I can conquer it, but it's not a very intuitive interface.

Fortunately most of my work requires only basic titles, so I haven't had to depend on Titler as of yet.

You may find the VASST Titler DVD helpful. :-)

The interface isn't intuitive at all, and it's definitely got some weird quirks and hidden features/workflows, but once you capture those and understand how it all works (cascading for example, isn't readily self-evident), then it begins to make sense.

Doug,

Of the plug-in titlers VASST sells, which one do you prefer (and why) and how does it compare with the Vegas Pro Titler?

I'm sure Spot won't mind me answering this.

[VASST doesn't (to my knowledge) sell any Titling tools ] - - - > edit: sorry, I was wrong about this. Thanks for setting me right Roger.

- Spot was talking about the excellent training DVDs that they offer.

The VASST web page shows they sell 3rd party plug-ins, and several mention titling:

http://vasst.com/search.aspx?categor...+Party+Plugins

Do plug-in's like Heroglyph and Heroglyph Rapid not work with Vegas?

My apologies - you are absolutely right, I should have checked. What I was really saying though was that Spot was referring to the VASST ProType training DVD in his response, rather than a specific titling plugin.

i got spot's vasst dvd ... helped a lot but still can get intricate and confusing at times ... i love Live Type...

Is Live Type a Mac only app though? Agreed it looks pretty good.

yes live type mac...

I was at an friend's studio yesterday and he showed me the titling he has done with FCP just using templates that came with, I was extremely jealous. ProType titler indeed has a long way to go.

Cheers! That one was driving me mad!

Like a number of Apple products, Live Type started out as a very innovative cross-platform application... it came from a company called Prismo Graphics. Once Apple engulfed and devoured it, the Windows version was killed... like Logic and Shake. Credit Apple for having the foresight to acquire great applications like these, but don't give 'em too much credit for actually building these apps from scratch.