How to Create Lower-Thirds Style Text in Final Cut Pro

Lower-thirds is the term used to describe the text that appears under people on television. Most commonly seen in news programs, they can be as simple as a name or fancier pieces incorporating animation and program logos. Recently complex CGI pieces advertising future programming have become the trend. Simple, traditional lower-thirds are easily created with Final Cut Pro, while complex pieces require Motion.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Click the "Effects" tab in the Browser.

2. Open Video Generators, and then open Text and select "Lower 3rd." In the Viewer, two lines of text (Sample Text 1 and Sample Text 2) will appear.

3. Select the "Controls" tab in the Viewer. New text can be entered in the rows titled Text 1 and Text 2.

4. Select Font, Style (Italics, Bold, etc), Size and Color as with any text features. The text can be previewed by clicking the "Video" tab. If transparent lower-thirds are desired, adjust the Opacity slider at the bottom of the Controls page.

5. Adjust the length of the lower-third clip by clicking the "Video" tab. A default run time of 10 seconds will be found in the upper left corner. Click on this time to adjust to desired length. After lower-thirds are placed in the Timeline, they can be trimmed and stretched like any other video tracks.

6. Drag the lower-third from the viewer to the v2 Timeline, and place it on top of the scene that is using it. Make sure that v1 and v2 are both enabled, and the lower-third text will appear over the scene.

7. Save project, render the video and save again.