I'm not advanced with Vegas 7 but I would like to be able to create a simple lower third to use over and over again in this DVD I'm making. Can someone help me do this?

simple, inside vegas would be to open a new video track and add the color of your choice from "media gens." open that track for track motion and move it down to the lower third area and select your opacity and add your text.

I made one, how does this look? Are safe regions still a big issue on today's televisions? I'm previewing this on a 20" samsung flat screen crt tv and when I put the text just inside the inner safe region, it looks so high from the bottom on the TV..

Are safe regions still a big issue on today's televisions?

Absolutely - if you want it to work on the largest number of displays possible.

Looks good! Yes, TV's can crop up to 20% around the edge. Use the guides and output to a few monitors if you can. You'll learn the safe areas pretty quick.

I'm just using the default safe zone areas then.. Does that frame capture look ok on your computer monitor? It looks really nice on the TV, but on my monitor, it looks really dark..

Does that screen capture look too dark for people who are going to buy the DVD that intend to watch it on a computer? I took the frame straight from the Vegas timeline..

I think it looks very pro. Not too dark at all.

Wow, very pro?? That's the first time I heard that with regard to my video editing haha. Thank you. Well I guess if it's not too dark on your computer monitor, it must mean that mine isn't set bright enough. Do others reading this thread agree with Brandon?

Wow, very pro?? That's the first time I heard that with regard to my video editing haha. Thank you. Well I guess if it's not too dark on your computer monitor, it must mean that mine isn't set bright enough. Do others reading this thread agree with Brandon?

Yes. It looks well done. Keeping in mind that this is just a screen grab, but judging it so far it looks very clean. No crap in the background like if it were filmed in a bedroom, living room. If the audio quality matches the screen grab then you have a quality product.

Yes, it's just a simple black background so there's no distractions from the subject giving the lesson. My concern was with the overall levels since it is looking great on the TV I'm using as a monitor, but looks rather dark on my LCD computer monitor. Is there any way of properly calibrating my computer monitor ? Then again I guess everyone has all their monitors set differently. The main thing I'm trying to avoid is having the overall levels look either washed out or too dark between the two viewing mediums.

Ulead Photoimpact 12 has lower thirds, which can be saved as jpegs, pngs gifs, and work pretty well, then use pan crop

Is there any way of properly calibrating my computer monitor ?

THe only wa to get nearly 100% sure answers to this question is to actually spend the several hundred and buy a calibrated monitor. Yes they are expensive (The DVInfo.net classifieds has one up for $600 right now).

I didn't know one could buy a calibrated computer monitor...

I didn't know one could buy a calibrated computer monitor...

For a lot less than $600 ($79 to $249 US), pick up one of the Spyder products (http://www.colorvision.com/product-mc.php) and calibrate yourself.

I didn't know one could buy a calibrated computer monitor...

You can also buy a gadget to calibrate levels and colors on your computer screens. I bought a Pantone/Gretag Eye-One Display 2 (http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=788) to calibrate my dual LCD screens...and my laptop...so they all look alike, and with standard brightness, color temperature and color rendition (as good as the LCDs can do). See review at Northlight Images (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/eye-one_display_2.html). It works great. It's not the same as having a professional calibrated broadcast monitor, but that's a whole different price range. (note, it won't do TVs, just PC displays).

(Noob question) Is there an easy way to do this in AE as well?

Thanks.

(Noob question) Is there an easy way to do this in AE as well?

Thanks.

AE would seem like over kill. Simply create a static file in Photoshop and then apply pan/crop motion to bring the file in & out of frame. But AE would be better for creating a motion lower third that would look a bit higher end.

VAAST has or had some lower 1/3rds called GrafPak that works but for the majority of stuff I either do it in Photoshop (if I want a static background) OR I use something called Texture Loopsthat I've had for years and simply resize/reposition them in Vegas for thirds that have movement.

I've created lower thirds in Photoshop or Gimp and saved as a PNG keeping the transparency. take them in as a layer and even though I have the positioned about right on the screen, I have used Pan and Crop to tweak the positioning a bit. I usually do the text within Vegas.

Free Texture Site.com (http://www.dougturner.net/blendersite/)
Image * After - currently 23913 free textures and images available (http://www.imageafter.com/)
[CG Textures] - The worlds largest free texture site (http://www.cgtextures.com/)

Enjoy :-)