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TITLE SCREENS for My Favorite Things
To help students get caught up, this week will include re-recorded videos of Week 4 skills that can take you on a straighter path to having the text screens you will need for your video. Remember that it must be very easy to read the words on the screen - contrast between the edges of the letters and the background can be managed in several different ways. There are methods of calculating an actual value for contrast between to colors.
Step 1
A) Start the current version of Photoshop and click "New File"
B) Select the "Film and Video" tab and choose HDTV 1080p, the first option
C) In the top right, rename from "Untitled-1" to
230905 Titles for My Favorite Things - Lastname Firstname
D) As soon as it finishes opening, use "File --> Save As" and save it to your Project Folder
E) Look in the toolbar on the left to select the Text Typing Tool (its icon looks like a fancy "T", in other words)
Text in Photoshop
This video show you how to start the program and select the right size preset, 1920 x 1080. NOTE: Our project folder is now in the OneDrive folder, not in Documents.
Introducing Layer Styles
Plain text is not very interesting - Photoshop has powerful tools that, when combined, can make the words you need to show in your video even more fun to look at than the pictures you will be animating. Learning to combine layer styles for a unique look without destroying their legibility is an art, more than a science, although there are certainly tools to help you in your craft.
Things to remember about fonts:
1. Legibility is KING - choose a font that is easy to read at a glance.
2. Use solid fonts - letters with transparent parts will be harder to read with special effects.
3. If the font has a bold style available (just to the right of its name), select it.
4. Change the font size so it is nice and big but all the words are still visible.
5. Ctrl-A is the shortcut for Select All - very handy for selecting even text you can't see.
Ctrl-S is the keyboard shortcut to save your file whenever you accomplish anything. These programs will crash and you cannot count on any Autosaving. Use just your left hand - keep your right on the mouse!
Text Legibility
Text has to be easy to read, i.e. LEGIBLE. All fonts should be size 18 or larger. Color of text and its background must have sufficient contrast. Some colors are just not going to work! Some fonts are harder to read than others - fancy does not mean better!
You are not limited to the fonts that came with Photoshop and other Adobe programs. Adobe has a tool where you can browse hundreds of different fonts that can easily be added to your software. Not only that, but you can have it analyze an image and try and match the font in the photo! Very powerful stuff for making your artwork.
Step 2
Gradient Backgrounds
Solid color backgrounds are fine, maybe even the best choice depending on how crazy your text ended up. There is an easy way to create very unique backgrounds using the gradient tools you should know about, however. You should know that recent changes to these tools can make them behave very differently from previous versions.
Legible Layer Styles
Wild-looking difference mode backgrounds can make text hard to read. If the color of a background and your text are not very different, there are two layer styles you can apply that will separate your words from the background.
Step 3
Create 3 more text layers, one for each of your 3 different main categories. Make the words as big as you can without getting too close to the edges and try out different fonts and layer style combinations to see what you can create. Remember - use the eyeball icon next to a layer to toggle it visible / not-visible.
You don't have to make each one from scratch - you can copy a text layer and then change the text, font size and layer styles more quickly than starting over with each one.
Organizing Layers into Groups
As you make backgrounds and more text layers for your 3 categories, your panel may feel cluttered. Use "Groups" (they look like folders) to keep companion layers together. Then a single eyeball icon can toggle their visibility on and off.