How to Make Scrolling Credits in Premiere CS5

Reward your film crew by adding their names to your credits.

Part of the magic of watching a film occurs when the movie ends, the theater lights come up and the scrolling credits begin. These credits, which blend seamlessly into the movie, actually consist of animated text. You don't have to be a graphic designer to make your movie or video look like it came from a Hollywood Studio. Adobe Premier CS5 has a simple tool you can use to create customized scrolling credits that can make your movie memorable.

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Instructions

- 1
  
  Launch Premier CS5 and click "New Project." Type a name for your new project in the "Name" text box, and click "OK" twice to view the Premier's user interface.
- 2
  
  Right-click an empty area inside the Project window, and then click "Import" to view the Import window. This window displays your computer's folders and files. Locate a video file that appears in this window, and double click that file. Premier places an icon representing the video in the Project Window.
- 3
  
  Click that icon, and drag it to the Sequence window at the bottom of Premier CS5..
- 4
  
  Click "title," and then click "New Title." Type a name for the title in the "Name" box, then click "OK." Premier CS5 opens the "Title" window. A toolbar -- similar to one found in an image editing program -- appears on the left side of this window. A list of font styles appears at the bottom. Each font style has a thumbnail image that shows you how the font looks.
- 5
  
  Click the font style you would like to use. Click the "Type Tool" located in the toolbar, then locate the black editing box that appears in the middle of the window. This is where you type the text for your scrolling credits.
- 6
  
  Click inside the editing box, and type the text you wish to appear in the credits. For example, you might something similar to the following:
  
  Produced by
  
  John Doe
  
  Written by
  
  Jane Doe
  
  Your credits will probably contain more lines.
- 7
  
  Locate the small "Roll/Crawl Options" button in the Title window's upper right corner. Click that button, and then click "Roll" to select that option. Click the "Start Off Screen" and "End Off Screen" check boxes to place check marks in those check boxes. This causes Premier to begin the scrolling credits roll off screen and end them off screen. This creates the illusion that the credits slowly appear out of nowhere and scroll slowly up the screen.
- 8
  
  Click the "Close" button located in the Title window's upper right corner. An icon representing your title appears in the Properties window. Click the icon, and drag it to the right side of the video icon you added to the Sequence window.
- 9
  
  Press your Spacebar. The movie plays in the Program window's video player. When the video ends, your scrolling credits begin.

Tips & Warnings

A Properties panel also exists on the right side of the Titles Window. These properties -- such as Opacity, Font Size and Color -- allow you customize the appearance of your text. These properties have default values that Premier uses when creating the credits. Change a property by typing a new value in the text box next to the property's name. Remember that you are working with large text when typing in the Title box. The default font size is 75 pixels. This is a good size to use, but you can make it any size you like.
Position the text in the editing box by clicking the "Left," "Center" and "Right" alignment buttons at the top of the editing box.