Appendix 1

8 Titles for Digital Video
and Film
Managing Title Media
Entire books have been written on the subject of designing titles and titling software. As this is a
book on workfl ow, we’re not looking at graphic design or color theory, but at managing title media
and title workfl ow in the digital world and on fi lm.
Titles for Digital Video
The needs of each digital format are radically different and, therefore, the fi nishing format must be
decided on and all graphics and titles created for that format. Working copies can be compressed and
distorted, as long as the fi nal version is the best possible. Because of improper workfl ow, often the
reverse is true: the working copies are good, but on the fi nal video the titles and graphics look terrible
and are often unusable.
There are some basic problems when making titles and graphics for video. All video, be it interlaced
or progressive, is made up of lines. (For more information on video formats, see Appendix 1 on
understanding the NTSC video format and digital video.) All digital images are made up of pixels.
As title media will eventually be digital video as well, it, too, will eventually be made up from pixels.
It may be created directly from pixels from the outset, or it can be created with a vector system. A
vector system creates titles and graphical elements as vectors, layers of position maps and objects.
All title letters and fonts are vector-based graphical shapes. This is a resolution-independent system
where nothing exists as pixels until it is rendered. For this reason, the image size in pixels can be
changed at will to any size and rendered with no loss of quality.
The title generator in Final Cut Pro is a resolution-independent vector system. Titles made in Final
Cut Pro can be simply kept in place in online and rerendered in any fi nishing format. But the title
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