Avid Title Crawl for moving matte
One limitation within the standard Avid Xpress or Media Composer title tool is that you cannot create a title that is larger than your project's frame size. In many cases this will be 720 x 480 if you are working within a DV 25 project. If you create a title that extends outside the title tool window the title will be cropped.
By using the title crawl function, you can create your own moving matte. The trick is to create a giant crawling title and then perform a video mixdown to create a physical piece of media that can then be used in conjunction with a matte key.
Here are the steps:
First launch the standard Avid title tool and create your title. Use a font size of 400. The title will not fit the screen, and will automatically word wrap. Click on the crawl button in the lower right corner over the title tool window.
Make sure the title is the selected object, and then navigate to the object menu, and select make crawl. This will create a title that crawls across the screen.
Edit 5 seconds of the crawl to the timeline. If you are working with a new sequence it is best to edit the entire crawl to the timeline and then trim it to the desired amount. Remember, the speed of the crawl is based on how much content is placed on Avid timeline. Make sure you have the correct timing before perfoming a the video mixdown.
Mark in-out points for the entire crawling title, and then perform a video mixdown.
This will create a new piece of physical media. The Avid will place the video mixdown inside your active bin window. You will use this new clip as your black/white matte. Next, create a new sequence with three video tracks and composite your clips as follows:
V3 Video mixdown of crawling title
V2 fill that goes inside the matte
V1 background video
Open the Avid effect's palette Drop the matte key effect from the Avid effect’s palette onto V3.
Your timeline should look like this:
Since your title is white, you will need to invert the matte key in order for V2 to become the actual fill. To invert the matte key, you'll need to open the Avid effects editor window and click on the invert key button
The finished composite should look like this:
