You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and when it comes to films and videos, a lot of that responsibility falls on the titles you choose for your intro. Designing the look of your titles can really be a challenging endeavor, especially if you're not well-versed on graphic art, but don't worry. Film Riot's Ryan Connolly offers up a ton of tips that will help you create great titles by explaining many of the elements and features effective ones tend to have.

Even though we're only talking about slapping a couple of words up on screen for a few seconds, there are many things to consider when designing your titles. 

  • Choose the right typeface: Make sure the font matches the tone and context of your project. Is your film a dark sci-fi thriller? Then try to find a typeface that looks distressed or ominous, which will match the dark tone, as well as futuristic, which will match the sci-fi context.
  • Contrast: Create enough contrast between your title and the background so your audience can easily see it. This includes choosing the right color, making it big enough to read, spacing out each letter if you need to, and finally, placing it in a part of the frame that makes it visible.
  • Font sources: So, where do you find fonts to use? Connolly mentions Google Fonts, which is 100% free and open sourced, and Adobe TypeKit, which requires a subscription plan to license their full library. Dafont is also a pretty good resource that offers a wide variety of free, though sometimes glitchy and low-res, fonts.
  • Animated titles: Adobe After Effects has a lot of tools for creating animated titles, lower thirds, and transitions, and the Dynamic Link feature can help you seamlessly switch back and forth between it and Premiere Pro. Also, Red Giant's most recent update of Universe includes a ton of great, highly stylized text plugins, including Luster, Ecto, AC Club, Title Motion, Long Shadow, and Glo Fi II.

What are some other things to think about when designing titles for your film? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Film Riot

titlesTitle sequencetitle design
Editing & Post-Production