Blog Archives

3D text is exciting because of its depth and the variety of textures available for each surface. But the real excitement comes when you start to play with lighting. Here’s a simple tutorial on how this works.

Apple Final Cut does not support exporting markers – or anything else – displayed in the Timeline Index. However, there’s a cool work-around that works perfectly. Here’s what you need to know.

Recently, I needed to export a list of chapter markers and their timecode positions from a sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro. It wasn’t hard, but it also wasn’t obvious. Here’s how.

CZUR has thought carefully about the features a book scanner needs to offer. The CZUR ET24 Pro is fast, flexible and provides key output options. It has limitations, but, for the price, it will do what needs to be done for most of us.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan explains what speech-to-text is in Premiere, then shows how to create transcripts from your sequences using it.

You need to animate some text. It needs to be flashy. It needs to be colorful. And, most importantly, it needs to be done yesterday. Apple Keynote to the rescue! In this short video tutorial, Larry provides an overview on how to create animated text using Apple Keynote for use in any video editor, such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro or Media Composer.

Apple Keynote, like Apple Pages, supports text styles. However, these are more limited than you might at first think. Here’s a tutorial that explains more about how to create and modify them.

This tutorial creates a 3D text template in Apple Motion that allows Apple Final Cut Pro to put moving video inside adjustable, textured 3D text. There are many creative variations on this idea.

Apple Motion is powerful software that can be used to create motion graphics for any video editor, not just Final Cut Pro. For example, you can use Motion to create animated text and graphics on a Mac, then export it …

Another new feature that Adobe added recently to Premiere is text gradients. These are easy to create, but a key switch you need to access this feature is somewhat hidden. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this works.

This is a very fast trick I recently learned which can save a ton of time when you need to change fonts in one or more titles in an Adobe Premiere Pro sequence or project.

In it’s latest release (Dec. 2021), Adobe added some some, but significant, features to Premiere Pro that make text easier to find and graphics more flexible. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on what these new features are and how they work.

The revised speech-to-text transcription and caption workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro is fast, easy to use and, now. extremely useful. If you haven’t looked at the new options for Speech-to-Text in Adobe Premiere Pro, now is a great time to start. This one feature can save you hours.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to export captions from YouTube, then what you need to do to convert them for import into Adobe Premiere.

“Ask Larry Anything,” is a free-form conversation about, well, anything you want to ask. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demos the new Speech-to-Text transcript and caption workflow options in Adobe Premiere Pro.

With the July, 2021, update, Premiere Pro now supports text with multiple strokes and shadows. If you are creating commercials, action comics or anything where “eye-catching” is a job description, you’re gonna have fun with this!

Adobe adds speech-to-text and native M1 Mac support to the July, 2021, version of Premiere Pro. Here’s the full list of changes.

Here’s another technique that I use all the time – creating highly-flexible custom Final Cut Pro title templates in Motion that I use and modify in all my FCP projects. This is fast, easy and saves TONS of time formatting and positioning titles.

These three custom shortcuts simplify and speed several repetitive aspects of my edit and I want to share them to save you time in your edits as well.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates the importance of readability – and other factors – when choosing fonts for a video project.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates several font design tips to help you choose which fonts to use in your next video project.

Fonts are the easiest way to telegraph an emotion – and they don’t require any design skills from us. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan demonstrates three font adjustment techniques that can make on-screen video text look better. While this uses Photoshop, we can actually do this in most applications on Windows or Mac.

New with the May, 2021, update to Adobe Premiere Pro, is the ability to add gradients to text. Here’s how this technique works.

“Ask Larry Anything!” is a free-form conversation about technical questions of interest to video editors. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows the best way to modify and copy titles and compound clips to retain position settings in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Here’s how to create a logo or shape in Photoshop, fill it with moving video in Final Cut Pro, then place that over a moving background. This works with video or stills and with any text, logos or shapes you care to use. Plus, it is fun to create – once you know how.

In March, Adobe released the new 2021 versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Media Encoder, and the rest of their audio and video applications. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to use the new media replacement feature in Motion Graphic templates in Adobe Premiere Pro.

With the release of the March, 2021, update to Premiere Pro, Adobe introduced a new caption workflow. You can create edit, stylize, and export captions and subtitles in all supported formats. Here’s an illustrated tutorial on how this new system works.

Auto-shrink is a new feature in Apple Motion that resizes text to fit within a specific area. This is a very useful tool when creating text graphics for Apple Final Cut Pro.

When using Premiere, caption timecode for importing captions doesn’t matter. But it DOES matter when exporting. Here’s what you need to know.

Many of the titles shipped with Final Cut Pro look, um, suboptimal. Here are some tricks you can use in both Final Cut and Motion, to make your titles look a WHOLE lot better.

Explore the capability of Apple Motion for your projects in more depth. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates how to create a curved path for text, then animate text along that curve using Apple Motion.

At first blush, many of the backgrounds included with Apple Final Cut Pro are mostly unusable for text. However, when you adjust their settings – and combine them with a few well chosen effects – you’ll discover a wealth of creative options to make your projects more visually interesting. Here are six examples.

In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to create, import, modify and export closed captions in Apple Final Cut Pro.

Two “Top Ten” lists of tips and techniques from “The Inside Tips” for 2020. The first is by number of views, the second is by reader ratings. These cover Adobe and Apple software, along with codecs, media, visual effects and production.

Here are some text tricks that can help position and display text in eye-catching ways using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Emojis are little icons that have taken over the world. In this short video tutorial, Larry Jordan shows how to add and modify emojis in a video project using Apple Final Cut Pro.

Motion graphic templates are created in After Effects for use in Premiere. This illustrated tutorial explains how to add, find, edit, modify and delete these templates.

Smart Conform, the new re-framing feature in Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.4.9, is a good start. It does what Apple says, but there are limitations. Here’s an illustrated tutorial showing how this works.

Captions are not titles. Understanding the difference is key to problem-free playback of your media. Also, you don’t get to choose the caption format – your distributor does. Learn more here.

An illustrated tutorial on how to create a scrolling credit list using Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop and Apple Final Cut Pro X (or Adobe Premiere).

An illustrated, detailed tutorial on how to create an effect in Apple Motion to be used as a template inside Final Cut Pro X.

A step-by-step tutorial, from Carleton Cole, on how to create scrolling text in Final Cut Pro X.

In this short video demo, watch as Larry Jordan shows how format 3D text, then add a cast shadow in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

An illustrated, step-by-step guide to creating a lecture video using video and PowerPoint/Keynote slides in Adobe Premiere Pro.

This is an illustrated, step-by-step tutorial on how to import SRT captions into Adobe Premiere Pro, adjust them, trim them for time, export them as a stand-alone SRT file, then import them into YouTube.

This is an illustrated, step-by-step tutorial on how to import SRT captions into Apple Final Cut Pro X, enable them, trim them for time, export them as a stand-alone SRT file, then import them into YouTube.

In this short video demo, watch as Larry Jordan shows how to create, import and modify captions in Apple Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro.

An illustrated tutorial on how to import, modify, adjust and export captions in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

An illustrated tutorial on how to import, adjust and export captions in Apple Final Cut Pro X.

Simon Says On-Prem is a secure, fast, and easy-to-use transcription system that supports all major NLEs. It’s designed for editors needing a high volume of accurate transcripts with absolute security. Here are the details.