Creating Titles

In the old days, video equipment that made titles for TV shows were called Character Generators. Today, titles are Computer Generated. So titles are often referred to as "CG's". Here are some simple tips that will make your CG's more pleasing to the eye.

1. Avoid thin lines.

Because of the way that our NTSC television system was designed back in the 1950's, thin lines will appear to flicker when seen on a TV screen. This has to do with interlacing, odd and even scan lines, and other technical stuff you probably don't care about. Just remember, if you make a title screen with a fine horizontal line, the line will flicker. Don't do it.

2. Computer screens and TV screens are two different things. Be ready for surprises!

When making CG's, some titles will look great on the monitor. When you drop them onto videotape & play back the results, your title might look awful. What happened? The RGB or computer monitor screen is much more advanced than the NTSC TV screen. What looks good on a 21st century computer monitor looks awful on a 1950's designed TV. Sorry. What do we do??

3. Stick with colors that work!

Never use highly saturated or "hot" colors on your CG. Bright red is awful, bright green is worse. Note that the most popular background colors are dark blue, grey and black. The most popular colors for fonts are off white, a golden yellow and grey. If you are using Photoshop or other photo editing software that uses RGB colors, never have your color values lower than 15 or higher than 235 (on a 0-255 scale).

5. Center your text

Don't put a lot of info on a CG screen. Keep the letters in the center, and away from the edges of the screen. Keep text in the "safe area" of your TV screen.

6. Step back to read it

After you make a CG, step back about 10 feet and see if you can read it easily. Look at your finished work the way your viewers will; step back from the screen.

7. And the most important tip ...
steal ideas from the professionals!

You watch the best tutorial for TV production every day in your living room. Multi-million dollar productions are broadcast just for you to pick apart and borrow ideas from. Watch the CG's on the air like a videographer would watch them. Notice the colors of the fonts and backgrounds. See how large the text is. How is the composition? The professionals show you their best work every day; it's up to you to learn from it.