Creating A Credit Roll

What is the oldest text animation effect in film history? You guessed right. It is the opening or closing credit roll. Traditionally a long page of text is rolled from the bottom of the screen revealing line after line. In the early days of cinematography a paper print was physically rolled before the film camera to produce this effect. Hence the name: Credit Roll.

A complete set of tools for creating credit rolls is included with Boris Graffiti, Boris RED, and Boris Blue. The same functionality is available in Boris Calligraphy which is bundled with Apple Final Cut Pro and Apple Final Cut Express or Boris Title Toolkit which is available for Adobe After Effects.

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For this tutorial, we will be using Boris Graffiti plug-in. To make a credit roll, first choose a clip or a still image of appropriate duration, say 5 or 10 seconds. Make sure to give your audience enough time to read the entire text before it moves off the screen.

Create a new text track in the Timeline with the Ctr+Shift+T command.

Set the Text Wrap option in the text window.

Now press the Center Justification button in the main tab (T)...

...and type the title for the credit roll, using Arial 24 point bold text.

Press the Return key two times.

Now we will be setting up a two-column credit page.

• Press Right Justification button
• Drag the Guide icon from the top left corner of the window to the right where the left column will be

• Press Left Justification button
• Drag the Guide icon to the right where the right column will be
• Press the Center button again

• Press the tab key and type the first character name
• Press the tab key again and type the actor name

Continue entering credit roll.

TIP: Use the tab key only to separate names of characters from actors. Never attempt to use the Return key

Close the Text Window. To open the Text Window again use the Window menu or double-click on text track in the Timeline.

Select the text track.

Add a new Title Container with the Track/New Title Container menu or Ctr+Shift+J

If your text has white fill as in the example above you need to turn off the checkerboard background in the Composite window to better see the text. Use the button at the bottom of the Composite window to un-check the Checkerboard background.

Now you should see your text in the Composite window.

While the Container track is still selected in the Timeline, turn your attention to the Controls window. From the Animation Style popup choose the Roll option.

Press the space bar to playback the roll and watch the text rolling from the bottom of the screen to the top.

TIP: to ensure appropriate speed of motion (300 pixels per second is industry standard) . use the Maintain Speed checkbox. You may have to adjust the length of the clip in the host software to match the resulting length of the roll.

Now, notice that I misspelled the word Characters. With Boris Graffiti text tools this is not a problem; I can always go back and fix any typo without a need to open another application.

TIP: When working on longer text rolls or when someone else's approval is required, type text in a text editing program and use the Import button to bring the text in Graffiti. Text remains fully editable after the import.

Credit rolls usually fade in at the bottom of the screen and out at the top. To achieve that, activate the Mask and Blend options provided in the Animation tab. Masking the top and bottom of a credit roll allows you to fit text in the broadcast Title Safe area of the screen. To see Title Safe area, choose it from the pop-up button in Composite window.

The outer white rectangle signifies the Title Safe area and the inner rectangle is the Action Safe area.

Set Mask Top and Bottom to 20. Set Blend Top and Bottom to 100 to achieve this look.

TIP: For best results use the 1:2:1 De-flickering option found in the Project Settings window.

Another useful option is Generate Safe Levels and Better Quality Field Rendering.

You're done with the credit roll!

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