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Rolling Credits II & III User Guide

Generator for FCPX

Rolling Credits II has been reworked from the ground up. It is a completely new template utilizing new features in Final Cut, and therefore will require version 10.3.4 or higher.

Rolling Credits III is a minor update and both are included with your download.

What’s new?

The original Rolling Credits applied text from the bottom up. Rolling Credits II applies text normally from the top down.

Auto-Shrink has been removed.

The original plain image (with border, or “photo” style) remains and three new ones have been added — 1) Slide, 2) Polaroid, and 3) Stamp.

Rolling Credits II Slide border

Effect Opacity has been added for fading in/out without having to go to the Video Animation Palette.

Rotation for the Drop Zone has been added (it’s amazing to watch as even the rotated images will align with the same text control!)

Offset Parameters for the Drop Zone have been added which means it is possible to animate the drop zone in your titling sequence.

The original Rolling Credits uses a different font (Model Parts One). At the time of the font’s creation, it was not realized how it would appear in font menus, so a new font has been designed and its name will appear appropriately. (All new fonts created for templates all begin with ZZSC. The ZZ drops the font to the bottom of your font menus so that they will not interfere with your regular font workflows. The SC stands for Sight-Creations. The new font used for this template is ZZSC Rolling Credits. This font must be installed before you intend to use Rolling Credits II Generator.

ZZSC Rolling Credits in menu
Redesigned Rolling Credits font displays normally in font menus.

Demo of the new version:

Workflow:

Add Rolling Credits II (RCii) to the storyline. It can be added over video, a still, a gap or directly into the storyline if no background is required. Move the playhead to about the halfway mark into the generator. The default length is 15 seconds which is about the time it takes for the default “content” to move from just below the Viewer (let’s call it a “canvas”) to just out of sight above. However much content is added will require an adjustment to the Animation Speed parameter. Overall timing can be adjusted by lengthening the Generator in the storyline and adjusting the Animation Speed parameter. Once you have designed a “starting” pane, it is recommended to Option-drag copies to create subsequent panes to be filled with new text.

When RCii is selected in the storyline and you mouse over the canvas, a “bounding box” should appear dileneating the default “paragraph” size alotted for the text area. If you double click on this region, a ruler will appear and the bounding box outline will display control points at the centers and corners. These control points can be used to reshape the text area in the canvas. You have complete creative control over the formatting of your text.

For the best workflow, it is highly recommended that you maintain the vertical region for a “pane” of text and use multiple “instances” of RCii to achieve the entire credits layout. The benefit to this approach is that you have the option to include one image (and that is still optional) for each pane’s worth of text and the rendering time it takes FCPX will be at its minimum. When text is added to one instance of RCii and is longer than the canvas, rendering times can increase dramatically!

It is also recommended that you prepare a “first instance” with a set height (pane) and animation, then duplicate it (option click drag a copy) to create subsequent panes as this is the easiest way to keep animation flow consistent over time (although it is not that difficult to match animation with animation speed changes if they are necessary).

The view at right shows the default layout of RCii with the ruler toggled on. Notice the bounding box is within the Title Safe region of the canvas. You are not required to stay within the Title safe region. In HD video, the “new title safe” is the old “action safe” bounds but there are no design laws that state you must stay within either. It should be noted that the drop zone automatically aligns to the bottom-most line in the text. Parameters are supplied for offsetting its position as well as the text alignments for left, center and right (to be used as starting points for the offsets).

Rolling Credits II default layout

If the ruler gets in the way or you’ve finished setting formatting tabs, you can turn its display off by clicking the small ruler icon at the top right corner of the canvas. If the ruler does not appear as expected, check the state of this icon, it may be necessary to turn the ruler display back on.

Right clicking in the ruler reveals the “Tab Stop” selection tool. To remove an unwanted tab stop, simply click on it and drag it off the ruler.

This text model appears to be an adaptation of the original Macintosh Toolbox TextEdit which has been included with Macintosh since the very first model which shipped with only MacWrite and MacPaint. How to use this “tool” should be a skill every Mac user has. However, one last thing to mention:

If you copy formatted text from an .rtf (Rich Text Formatted) file and paste the contents into this generator, the formatting should be retained, including font, size, style, and tab stops, etc.

Notes:

The difference between Native DZ Scale and Media in Char Scale:

The drop zone has two treatments: by itself and as a part of another object. The “Native” parameters are applied to the drop zone itself. The other parameters are applied to the object in which the drop zone appears (the “picture frame”).

Why are both required?

Drop zones are a little strange. They have to be flexible enough to take any aspect ratio media. There is a further “complication” that the container is “cropped” (usually somewhat square, by default). When you change the Size of the drop zone in the canvas, the Drop Zone will need readjustment. To defeat the cropping that is applied, use the Native Scale (this applies to pan as well) first by decreasing the value until you can determine the aspect ratio is correct, then use the Media in Char Scale to fill the frame/space of the drop zone. Native Pan might hide part of the media behind the original crop — using it to center the media is more appropriate at this level. Using Media in Char Alignment will align the media within the drop zone style frame.

DZ Fill Opaque is on be default (some media sizes can “glitch” if they don’t correctly fill the space). Fill Opaque generally fixes that problem. However, if you’re using a transparent PNG, turning off Fill Opaque will be necessary (as in the F•X logo in the demo video).

Published Parameters:

Start Position (Y) — Use this parameter to move the content of the credits/text below or above the viewer. This parameter can be key framed. This parameter as well as the Y Animation parameter should be set after you have designed your text and drop zone areas.

Animation Speed — Use this parameter to set the motion of the Rolling Credits. A positive value will move the contents upwards. A negative value will move the contents in a downward direction. Move the playhead to the end of the generator and after setting the Start Y Position, drag the value of the Y Animation until the text just disappears off the other side of the viewer. That’s all!

Opacity — Sets the overall opacity of the entire effect. Use to fade credits on and off.

Drop Zone Size — Point size of the drop zone “holder”.

Drop Zone Alignment — A menu selection to align the drop zone relative to its text boundaries (Left, Center, Right).

Drop Zone Style — A menu selection to choose “Photo” (or plain), Slide, Polaroid, or Stamp.

Photo Style Border — If using the Photo Style, this parameter is used to set the border width. Use ‘0’ for no border (or plain).

DZ Border Color — This parameter can be used to set the border color regardless of Style.

DZ in Scene— Section Marker – not a parameter.

Use Drop Zone — A checkbox to select whether or not to use the Drop Zone for this instance.

DZ Location Offset — You can change the location of the drop zone relative to its position attached to the credit text.

Drop Zone Rotation — New Feature! A parameter to rotate the orientation of the drop zone. Alignment (left right center) is maintained.

 

 

Media in Char Align — The drop zone is applied as a “layer” over a rectangular shaped text character. This parameter can be used to offset the alignment on this character. Usually used in conjunction with the Native DZ Pan (see below).

Media in Char Scale — The drop zone is scaled relative to the text character. Usually used in conjunction with the Native DZ Scale (see below).

DZ Specifics — Section Marker – not a parameter.

Drop Zone — The source well to drop your media. Media can be an image or video and includes support for transparency.

Drop Zone Fill Color — When using Native DZ Scale and scaling smaller than the media’s native resolution, the Drop Zone Fill Color is used to fill around the edges of the media. Used in conjunction with DZ Fill Opaque (see next). *Note: if scaling the drop zone small enough to see the background color, there is a possibility of the media “glitching” (jumping around in position) if the drop zone background is not filled opaquely.

DZ Fill Opaque — A checkbox to select the option to fill the Drop Zone “region” with a solid color. Uncheck this option to use with transparency.

Native DZ Pan — This parameter offsets the alignment of the media within the region allotted for the drop zone.

Native DZ Scale — This parameter scales the medie with respect to the region allotted for the drop zone. It may often be necessary to scale down the drop zone media in order to restore its actual aspect then apply Media in Char Scale to scale the media up to fill the “layer” used as the drop zone holder.

DZ Media Rotation — Not only can you rotate the drop zone (holder), you can also use this parameter to rotate the media within the drop zone region. Use this to creatively misalign an image within its frame to look more “personal” or amateurish, etc.

Text and Font Params Section Marker – not a parameter.

These are the same parameters you can find in the Text Inspector republished here for your convenience.

Font

Size

Alignment

Line Spacing

Tracking

Text Color

Use the Text inspector to edit the text style further.

Note:   due to an apparent bug in FCPX which may cause instability, make sure you add all of the text you intend for a segment before you add formatting tabs to the layout. Once formatted, any changes to the text have been crashing FCPX. If you suffer this effect, please Send Final Cut Pro Feedback from the Final Cut Pro menu to Apple. [This note is from the original Rolling Credits generator and may still be applicable.]

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