Ever wanted your rolling credit sequences to fade in and out rather than just roll onto the screen from the bottom and roll off the top? This tutorial shows you how. This tutorial uses Premiere Pro version 2. However, it equally applies to all versions of Premiere Pro and the principals will translate into just about any NLE you might be using.

Introduction

In a recent short movie I added a slight 'twist' to my final credit roll sequence. I decided to make the credit sequence scroll up the screen as normal but decided I wanted it to fade in rather than just roll up on the bottom of the screen and then fade out near the top rather than just roll off the top.

I was later asked how I did this and duly replied with some quick tips but I've decided to write up the solution a little more formally. This proved a very good idea because in trying to recreate the effect I've seen some limitations in what I had done previously. This tutorial shows the problems in in my first version (and why I get away with it) and offers a more complete and 'better' solution to getting the effect just right.

Happy reading.

This is the effect I used in my recent short movie. Rather than a simple rolling credit and wanted a credit roll that fades in and out.

It's the simplest way I know of achieveing this effect and is as simple as it is purely because it has a nice convenient black background.

Start Premiere Pro and create a new sequence.

Hit F9 to open the in built titler.

Create your required title, remembering to set it as a 'roll' and to start and finsih off screen, as follows....

In Premiere Pro v2 titles are now saved as part of the project file. If you are using an earlier version then remember to save your title and ensure it is imported as an asset in your project.

Drag and drop your title to your sequence and stretch it to your desired duration. At the moment you have a very standard credit roll. nothing new here. Now comes the 'clever bit'.

All that's needed is to apply a suitable mask or matte. Open your favourite image editor and create yoursefl a nice gradient. What you are after is to create your image black where you want nothing to appear and alpha channle where you want your image to come through. Sort of like this, but this thumbnail JPG image can't show the alpha channel in a browser and 'paints' it white instead. Right click on the image below and select 'Save Target As' to download the Photoshop (PSD) file I used for this job.

Import this PSD file as an asset to you project.

Drag and drop the mask onto a layer above your scrolling title. The simple version of this effect is now done.

Adding the mask onto a second layer effectively changes this

into this

.

Click on these images to view the movie sequence to see the effect.

Well, it is good enough if this is what you are after. It occurs to me that this quick and easy version relies too heavily on the fact that the background is completely black. Supposing you wanted the credit roll over the top of another movie clip. It just wouldn't work at all.

So how can we do it? Well, when asked the first idea I had was to simply take out current fading credit roll (on Sequence 01 in our Premiere Pro project), drop it on top of our movie clip and then apply a simple 'Luma Key' so that just the 'white bits' will show up looking like this (click the image to see the clip)...

At first glance this looks pretty good. If the text in your credits roll is small and bright white then it will likely look really good. But it's just not right. Click on the picture, above, to see the clip. Notice how the colour of the words change as they fade in and out.

So why does this happen. It how the Luma Key works. This effect basically allows the image in the clip below to show through the dark areas of our credit sequenence. however, our credit sequence in not simply black and white is it? Where the words are fading in and out they are shades of grey and because of the luma key only partially lets our movie clip show through.

To doubly emphasise how this version falls short, open your credit sequence in the title tool and change the preset used for the text so that the words are no longer white. What you will see then is that the background movie clips shows through the credits text all the time. Try a dark colour and see how little you can actually read the text. You might decide that with your specific colour selection that you like the idea of your movie clip showing through slightly. Well, that's great but in this particular case, it's not quite what we after so we'll continue...

The full solution lies in use of a slightly modified gradient image and a different keying effect. We will use the 'Image Matte Key'. Let's try it.

Firstly, recreate your previous fade gradient but instead of an alpha channel make sure the image is black and white. Where you previously had alpha channel, nmake sure the image is white. Much as how our JPG version displayed earlier. You can download my PSD version of this gradient by right clicking here and choosing the 'Save Target As' option.

Start a new sequence (Sequence 04).

What we will do first is to create a rather stanbdard credit roll over our movie clip so drag and drop your movie clip onto layer one of the new sequence and your credit roll onto layer two. Render this sequence.

Create another new sequence. On this drage and drop your movie clip again onto layer one and then drag and drop your previous sequence (Sequence 04) onto layer 2.

At the moment this adds nothing but here come the magic. Drage and drop the 'image Matte Key' video effect (from Video Effects -> Keying) onto the copy of sequecne 03 which is on layer 2 as follows...

When the open file dialogue appear then find and select your new gradient image (Fade Gradient.psd?). The task is now complete.

Render this out and you will see that no matter what colour the text is it will show in it's true colour over you movie clip. Click on this image, below, to view the final rendered clip, showing our complete fading title, superimposed over our movie footage.

Download a zipped version of the Premiere Pro v2 project file and the gradients you will need to see how I put this together. Note though that when you open this project files in Premier Pro v2 you will find that I cave not included the movie clip I used in my examples. you will be asked tolocate it so I suggect you simply substitute a piece of footage of your own in place.

I hope this has proved both useful and interesting. Let me know what you think.