pop up bubbles??
 

I want to add some voice bubbles ala "pop-up videos".

My initial thought was to make the bubbles as jpg files and then put them on higher tracks and fly them in and out via track motion tools.

Is there a better way to do this?

Sounds like that should work. You could also just have them suddenly appear. Or let it fade-in/out (or add a transition to the fade-in/out). Or use the new 3D tools to rotate it in. Lots of options are available.

Yes, lots of possibilities indeed. Do you have a font called Webdings on your machine? It comes free with several Windows versions, and you'll find it floating about the net, too. It has several figures like thought-bubbles, speak-bubbles that may make your task even easier. Choose one solid-coloured version and apply it in the text generator. Then you can make the front colour transparent - the background is transparent by default. Set outline, and reduce the thickness as much as you like. Even if you reduce it to zero there should be a very thin line visible. Use the placement function (in the text generator) or pan/crop to move the figure. Or let the thing mysterously appear by keyframing it in from full transparency on.

Hi,

My only comment is that JPEG files may be a bit too low res. Try Photoshop files or TIFF.

Using font is a good idea, but you wont be able to type a font within a font for the text on screen. The last post is correct in using photoshop. You will need a graphic with the included alpha matte so you can have a transparent background. A jpg is a rectangle that can be animated, but when you want just the odd shaped bubble to ramp in quickly and then anchor to one position, this will have to be a photoshop layer.

Using font is a good idea, but you wont be able to type a font within a font for the text on screen.

You are correct in that you cannot type both the bubble and the bubble contents in the same text generated media. However, you can add a SECOND text generated media on a track above the bubble to type the text that appears in the bubble.

My only comment is that JPEG files may be a bit too low res. Try Photoshop files or TIFF.

JPGs can have plenty of resolution to use. I'd stay away from TIFF as they require Quicktime to use. However, I agree that using a type that allows alpha channel would be best. So, I'd probably recommend PNG or PSD.

Awesome!
Thanks for the advice. I'll let you know how it turns out and try and get something posted

Reid,
Someone else recently asked about this, and so I posted a veg file using bezier masks. Using a bezier mask, you can cut a piece of generated media out, and then use that. If you add a compositing mode, you can make it more 'glass-like' or if you wish, you could just add a shadow with Track Motion and forget about doing anything else.
Of course, there are lots of WingDing fonts that have cartoon bubbles in them too.

Thanks Douglas,
I actually just found your vegs up on Sundance the other day. I appreciate the effort involved.

I did try the wingdings idea but that didn't work for me, cuase one I blew them up enuf they looked terrible.

I have an old copy of Paint shoppro which does have word bubble shapes. I created a couple of different ones as png files.

I just had them popin as they appeared on the timeline and floated the test above in another layer. I dropped in a little bubble pop noise and it actually looks good.

If I had more time I'd play around with bouncing them in but I need to go ahead and rap this thing up.

Thanks again everyone...

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel : My only comment is that JPEG files may be a bit too low res. Try Photoshop files or TIFF.

JPGs can have plenty of resolution to use. I'd stay away from TIFF as they require Quicktime to use. However, I agree that using a type that allows alpha channel would be best. So, I'd probably recommend PNG or PSD. -->>>

I concurr

Yeah.. I've done this before and you need to use PNG as it will allow you to save a transparent background. JPEG won't do it. Also, TIFF is too large. Anytime you need to bring in graphics from Photoshop/Illustrator the best format is PNG.

Anytime you need to bring in graphics from Photoshop/Illustrator the best format is PNG.

Actually, this isn't so.
TGA is a better format. Vegas and the way it reads SOME PNGs causes a color shift that several users have observed.

Reid, glad you found the popups, hope they were of some use to you.

>>>Vegas and the way it reads SOME PNGs causes a color shift

Is it known why this happens to some PNGs and not others?

Has it been established that the images in these "some PNGs" would not cause a colour shift had they been saved in another format?

I like to do quick & dirty graphics in PowerPoint. You can even add text. Just copy and paste into Photoshop.

For bubbles/thought graphics, look in AUTOSHAPES, under Call Outs.