Hi,

As Jeff says, you will have to use separate titles for each "page." Set up the first one exactly the way you want it, then copy it - Ctrl+drag with left mouse button and place it after the first one. Change the text. Repeat.

I don't understand your problem "there is no simple way to time those out.  You have to manually adjust each box until it fills the entire end credit sequence." Can you explain better? The length of the object is 100% controllable - it is the time that the title will show on the screen. Simply change the length. Same if you want fade-in/out. If you need accurate fade-in/out durations, select the title object and then Shift+N to open the Object editor and change the fades to exactly what you want. Then replicate the title as above and change the text.

John CB

I don't understand your problem "there is no simple way to time those out.  You have to manually adjust each box until it fills the entire end credit sequence." Can you explain better? The length of the object is 100% controllable - it is the time that the title will show on the screen. Simply change the length.

That is not a simple way to do that. Especially when you have 20 boxes or more that you have manually adjust so that each one is the same length.

This is a widely used format, especially for television. Honestly, I'm surprised the ability hasn't been added in after all these years.

Hi,

I'm still lost. What do you mean by "length?" If you mean the time in seconds, then that is the length. When you copy the first one, the copy will have exactly the same length, no adjustment is necessary. Once you have the first one, select the two and Ctrl+drag and you will now have 4. Select the 4, Ctrl+ drag and now you have 8, etc. This only takes about 10sec to create all 20 titles, except that you now have to go back and open each one and change the text.

John CB

I'm still lost. What do you mean by "length?" If you mean the time in seconds, then that is the length. When you copy the first one, the copy will have exactly the same length, no adjustment is necessary. Once you have the first one, select the two and Ctrl+drag and you will now have 4. Select the 4, Ctrl+ drag and now you have 8, etc. This only takes about 10sec to create all 20 titles, except that you now have to go back and open each one and change the text.

John CB

Consider this:

You have an end title sequence that lasts 94.7 seconds.

You have 23 credit pages to run.

Go make that.

Now consider this rub: The first third must run slower than the last two-thirds (because those people have it contracted that their names must be displayed for a longer period).

Now go make that.

Not easy when you have to time out 23 different text boxes.

Now do that for episode two when some of the credits have changed, and there are now 20 credit boxes. Or 25.  Your timing is all messed up and you have to go and readjust every. single. box.

@lighthope

From your description is this what you are looking for (this is a quick and dirty example)

If so this is one of the Title templates, in this example the Aqueous template, as shown in the image below

As you can see from the timeline there are only two objects for the two different speed parts using the same template, the only difference is the second object was reduced in length after entering the credits by dragging the right edge - this speeds up the scroll rate.

HTH

John EB

Hi,

I see that you've asked this question before but never replied back to Terry.

You stated, "...when you have 20 boxes or more that you have manually adjust so that each one is the same length." I answered showing how easy that was.

Now you have different criteria.

If you want 23 credit pages, each of the same length, you have to calculate this out yourself and set the first title length to the correct length. Then replicate. Keep in mind that video programs work with frames and frame rates and that you cannot have a fraction of a frame. 94.7/23 = 4.11739s. Depending on your frame rate, this would be 4s 3.518 frames, which doesn't work, so you would have to either use 4s 3f or 4s 4f. Set the first title to this length and replicate. Or, do you mean that you had 20 boxes in one episode and 23 in the second? If so, then yes, you have a problem.

In your second example, you make the first one, replicate the number that you need plus 1, change the last one to a new length and replicate it, etc. So this is almost as easy as 23 equal length boxes.

In your third example, for episode 2, you have to either add or delete boxes, and still change text. If you want the same total running time, then yes, you have to go and adjust the length of every box.

Remember that probably almost no one using MEP is doing what you do - episodes of a show with different length titles/pages, so I doubt that Magix consider making a feature like what I think that you want.

The problem really gets down to the way titles are handled. Right-clicking on a photos or a bunch of photos allows you to change the length en masse. However, this feature is missing for titles, or at least I don't see it, even when they are track 1, and I'm using VPX. Your problem would be greatly simplified if this feature also applied to titles.

However, you can do something to greatly facilitate the task. Select the first title and use the Object trimmer with the shortcut Shift+N (N is for the Edit Trimmer for transitions - same interface). There you can quickly change the length of the title, give it exact fades, skip to the next, change the length, etc. This is the quickest way that I have found. I made up a video of the method. There are a few problems with the Object/Edit Trimmers but not much.

John CB

 

Right-clicking on a photos or a bunch of photos allows you to change the length en masse. However, this feature is missing for titles,

Hi John,

I am able to do it in MEPP 2016 in the familiar and intuitive way, by opening the Title Editor, selecting the target titles and adjusting all of them simultaneously. Or have I misunderstood the requirement?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

@lighthope

From your description is this what you are looking for (this is a quick and dirty example)

No, scrolling credits are not what I am looking for.

 

Right-clicking on a photos or a bunch of photos allows you to change the length en masse. However, this feature is missing for titles,

Hi John,

I am able to do it in MEPP 2016 in the familiar and intuitive way, by opening the Title Editor, selecting the target titles and adjusting all of them simultaneously. Or have I misunderstood the requirement?

That works, but when you shorten it, it leaves spaces between each text box. When you lengthen them, they overlap.

 

Remember that probably almost no one using MEP is doing what you do - episodes of a show with different length titles/pages,

Probably because there is no easy way to do it.

so I doubt that Magix consider making a feature like what I think that you want.

Pity. They should.

However, you can do something to greatly facilitate the task. Select the first title and use the Object trimmer with the shortcut Shift+N (N is for the Edit Trimmer for transitions - same interface). There you can quickly change the length of the title, give it exact fades, skip to the next, change the length, etc. This is the quickest way that I have found. I made up a video of the method. There are a few problems with the Object/Edit Trimmers but not much.

That's still a really problematic and frustrating way to do it.

Bottom line is that MEP just doesn't have the ability. Should. But doesn't.

@lighthope

Try the object editor. You can go quickly through the titles and adjust the lengths. I didn't find it frustrating but rather a good solution.

@terrypin

I didn't try that. It still has the problem of getting an exact length, to the frame. Strange that Magix uses tenths of a second and not seconds.frames.

What I tried was selecting 2 or more, then right clicking, change image length. It's not on the list. This would be the best solution.

John CB

"there is no simple way to time those out"

Like John CB, I don't understand your problem! Simply decide how long you want each page to be then copy it, doubling up each time. In a few repetitions of Ctrl+C, Click at end of that group, Ctrl+V you'll have 16, 32, 64 copies, etc. All adjacent. Remove any redundant ones. Then just make the necessary text edits to each one. And if you don't want a simple Cut transition, choose one of scores of others. Such as the Page Leaf I suggested two years ago to your original query.

Hi Terry,

The problem came down to duplicating the title credits for various episodes and the problems with that. It seems that the duration for all end credits is fixed. Episode 1 may have 23 titles, episode 2, 20, episode 3, 25, etc., and each time they have to have the same total duration. As an additional problem, some of the credit pages have to have a longer duration than others due to contractual conditions with the actors. From episode to episode. some credit pages are the same, but the duration may have to change. At least there are groups of 2 or 3 different durations, so the trick is to find a way to quickly make groups the same length.

Obviously, some calculation is required to get the new lengths. And, of course, some of the credit pages must be changed, some inserted, some removed. The computer cannot read minds, unfortunately, so one actually has to do some work. Given that the change length feature is not available for titles (to the frame level), the only way that I found to do this accurately, is using the Object trimmer. Once the titles are ready and the calculations done, I could probably go through the titles and change the lengths, get rid of any overlaps and gaps for 25 titles in probably less than 2 minutes, a lot faster than I showed in the video. Thus, I don't see what the frustration would be.

As I mentioned, this is a particular case that probably no other user would have. And on the comment that MEP should do this kind of thing, it is a consumer product, not a pro product that would normally be used in a TV production environment. Even VPX doesn't do this. I don't know if Vegas does it, but it might. I haven't go past starting it up to see if it worked (it did). This was v14 from Humble Bundle.

This was an interesting challenge and my solution of using the Object trimmer is one more example of its usefulness.

John CB