Someone PLEASE help me learn to crop text

[ryanm38717117]

I can't stand tech stuff, I can never get it right! All I want to do is create text and crop it so that a square of text appears onscreen. Now I've been told by one video tutorial to take one composition and put it over another, then select crop to work area, but that option is now not clickable onscreen. Another told me to try to create masks, but all I seem to be able to do is create an oval around the words, and that only seems to be exporting as an aftereffects file, not a quicktime file.

Can you tell I have no idea how to work this stuff? Someone please help me, I'd like to finish a project I've been working on for three years!

[TheresaTob]

Hey, can you explain to me, what you mean, by cropping text? Do you want it to be cut out of a layer? so that the video is seen in the back of the text? Or do you mean, shorten the duration of the text?

[ryanm38717117]

I don't know what you mean by "cut out of a layer," but I just want a block

of text that I can superimpose over an image in final cut. So, like white

text in a black square.

On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 2:22 PM, TheresaTob <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[TheresaTob]

Okay I got it.

1. So you open a new compostion in after effects (in the project panel is a button looking like a film strip, which creates a new composition).

2. You press cmd+T and click on the big black window in the middle of After Effects. Now you can write your text. On the right side should be a panel called "Character" where you can adjust fonts, width etc.

3. Press Q untill in the tool-bar (on the very top of After Effects) a blueish square appears as seventh symbol from the left side.

4. Go in the big black window again, where your text is seen, and click+drag to draw a rectangle. If you want it to have equal sides, hold shift while dragging.

(In case your box is supposed to be black, you might consider turning on the transparency grid. To do so, in the big viewer, where you see your text, on the bottom of the viewer is a small button which has a white and grey checkerboard. If you click it, you change the background color from black to transparent.)

5. In the timeline on the lower part of After Effects, you will have to objects. Your written text and an object called "Shape Layer". Click on shape layer and pull it under the text. Now your text should appear on top of the square you drew.

6. Go to "Composition"-"Add to render queue" in the appearing window, down where the timeline was, Click on outpode Mode "losless" and change the RGB to RGB+Alpha (this way your background will not be black, but transparent)

Let me know, if you have any further questions

[ryanm38717117]

Well, what that did was to create white text that would appear plainly over the image, not white text that would appear in a black box.

[TheresaTob]

If you follow step 3 and 4 you create a black box. 

[Stefan Gruenwedel]

Ryan: Do Theresa's steps, as advised, work for you?

[Dave_LaRonde]

ryanm38717117  wrote

All I want to do is create text and crop it so that a square of text appears onscreen.

Got Illustrator?

Mess with your text until it's square, import into AE and put it in your comp.

You can do it in AE, but it gets techy... a state of affairs you'll eventually need to overcome for success in AE.

[eikonoklastes]

ryanm38717117  wrote

Another told me to try to create masks, but all I seem to be able to do is create an oval around the words, and that only seems to be exporting as an aftereffects file, not a quicktime file.

Click and hold the Mask tool icon on the toolbar, and you will see a Rectangle Tool, which will help you achieve what you're after. Hold Shift while creating the rectangle to make it a perfect square.

Make sure your text layer is selected when you are creating the mask.