maxent.org > Video > Title Jitters

Title Jitter

Jittering and bouncing titles are quite popular in hipster-genX-type productions and especially in horror films. The intro to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on television is a good example. If you analyse the effect, you can see that it is a two-layer composite of a solid title and the identical title with an out of focus jittery effect applied. You could recreate the effect with a blur filter and by hand animating the jitters, but there is an easier way. The following shows the technique in Vegas and Premiere, using Old Film effects (under the QuickTime FX menu in Premiere) on the jitter layer. Of course the easiest way is to just download the complete project files at the bottom of the page and enter your own text.

This sequence of frames shows the effect as best I can with still images. Check out this brief sample (321 KB) of the effect in a compressed format.

The timeline with the FX dialog on the lower track. Notice that the blur comes before the Film Effects and the 85.8% level on the track itself.

The sample timeline pictured here is from Vegas, but the concepts are identical in almost any app (although the z-order of the compositing layers may be different).

  • I found that I preferred having the jittery text underneath the clear title, but it worked fairly well either way.
  • The blur effect (your choice of how you do this - I used Gaussian) should precede the jitter.
  • Horizontal movement can occasionally be added manually using the motion tools (Track Motion in Vegas).
  • I emphasized Jitter and Flicker controls and lowered the level on the track to 85% to fade it a bit, while completely turning off any color, hair, dust or scratches. This makes the effect more clear for my example, but they look really cool when added.
  • Of course a fade in/out is really effective. Try making the jitter layer fade in first, and then fade in the clear title.

Below is a project file for Vegas 3.0. I may do it in Premiere if I get motivated, but don't hold your breath. This is a very render-intensive project, with my 1.1GHz PC taking about 19 minutes 35 seconds on a 10-second title (my Athlon 2000+ system handels the same project in 5:48).

vegas_jitter01.veg


Created: 10 January, 2003  
Updated: 22 May, 2003  

maxent.org > Video > Title Jitters