Text or no Text

[John Menszer]

In a Keynote presentation I want a slide of newspaper article to have text that enlarges, highlights and scrolls so people can read along. The newspaper article is a large image file. Should I create a quicktime movie? Should I use a crop of the actual image for the text or create a simulated text file that resembles the newspaper? What would be the best ways to generate the moves?

[Ben Balser, ACT]

You can do it in Keynote with an "Action". But, for simplicity sake, I'd do it in FCP, make a QT, and put that into Keynote. I'd not scan the actual article, but do text from scratch to make it more clear. As long as you site the source, you're fine. I assume you want to have some voice over during the scrolling of the text?

[John Menszer]

I attach a jpg of the newspaper article. Can I crop the text I want people to read and scroll that image with the article in the background? I realize it would be easier to retype the text but I like the way the aged paper looks.

[Ben Balser, ACT]

Yes, I'd put the article JPEG as your background, and lower the opacity.

I'd maybe even do all of this in Motion.

You can scroll the text, but it's a lot of text for FCP's Text Scroll tool. Maybe type it up in Photoshop or something. Or, I'd do it in Motion, as I think Motion's text tools can handle it better, and will give cleaner results.

And be sure you put a drop shadow on the text so it shows up much easier against the background.

You probably could just do it in Keynote, too. Same thing, but you'd scroll the text with an Action. It's not too difficult. My most current installment of "Cut Lines" in Event DV magazine covers using Keynote as a graphics tool, and doing Actions.

Keynote is VERY worth learning, too!

[John Menszer]

Thanks, I have the July issue of event DV on my desk.