As of version 0.938, ZS4 can create single lines of text a.k.a. text strings.  A text string track is a media track which can be manipulated just like other video/picture tracks (ex. moved, changed over time, have effects applied etc.).

This tutorial describes how to make titles or credits which fade in and out in the center of the screen. 

Step 1

Click on the f/x tab in the lower left area.  Open the folder effect/video effects/signal generators/text generators.  Select "string" and drag it into the track arrangement area onto the MediaMixer track.  (The MediaMixer shows the end composite of all tracks, and all tracks are descendents of the MediaMixer)


 
Step 2

Since the length of a newly created track is only 1 second long, you might consider changing the length to 30 seconds.  Do this by clicking the i icon on the track which brings up the track properties tab above.


 
Now select duration by clicking the arrow (see picture below. default parameter is start time) and typing 30 into the text entry field next to it.  Click the = button to change the track length to 30 seconds.


 
Step 3

To add the actual text to the text string track, click on the vars tab (next to the f/x tab) and then click the variable properties button to the right of the text string variable (bottom variable).  The variable properties button is the the one with the plunger and the hammer.  This brings up the track variables tab at the top.  Type the desired text into the text entry field and press the = button.  It should show up now in the current tab and on the track as a fairly small green string.


 
Step 4

You can change the size of the font just by clicking on the font size variable strip, or, for more precision, bring up the variable properties tab by clicking the button to the right of the font size variable and enter the size in pixels into the text entry field (then press =).


 
Step 5

You may notice, if you made the font very much bigger, that the t@b default font does not scale very well.  To use a truetype font instead, click the font tab (next to the f/x tab) and open the ftfont folder.  Here you can select one of the fonts ZS4 found on your system and drag it onto the text string track (this should work if you are viewing either the current tab or the arrangement tab).


 
Step 6

Now for the fade in and out part.  A text string track functions the same as any other video track, you fade it in and out using the output opacity variable. 
So presuming we are still at time 0 (and if not, you can press the leftmost arrow button to the left of the time slider below the arrangement window to go to time=0), we'll give the opacity a value of -1, which is the minimum value, completely transparent.  You can easily accomplish this by hovering the mouse pointer over the output opacity strip and press the down arrow on your keyboard.  This creates a keyframe of opacity=-1 at time=0 and turns the strip yellow as indication.
 

 
Step 7

To advance a certain number of seconds in either direction along the timeline, you can use the controls which are located below the time slider, to the right of the coloured buttons.  In this example i want to move forward exactly 1 second, so i type 1 into the text entry field and press the right arrow button. (You can also go to a precise position using the = button.  If you want to step ahead by frame, you might type something like 0.04 for 25 frames/second video)


 
Step 8

Now that we're at 1, we can set the opacity to the default value (opaque areas appear opaque) by hovering over the opacity strip and hitting the enter key on the keyboard.  Now the text string will fade in over a period of 1 second.


 
Step 9

To make this string appear on the screen for 3 seconds, go to the 4th second by typing 3 into the time slider controls and pressing the right arrow (or 4 and then =).  Now hover over the output opacity strip and press enter again.  This sets another key frame with the default value (0).


 
Step 10

And to fade out, advance 1 second ahead and press the down arrow while hovering over the opacity strip.  If you want it to stay faded out for a second, advance another second and set the opacity to minimum once more. 
You'll get an envelope drawing showing the location of the keyframes if you look at the track arrangement tab.  (You can jump between key frames using the yellow arrow buttons in the vars tab)


 
Step 11

Now that the first string has faded out, its safe to change the text string variable to a new string.  Press the variable properties button next to the text string variable strip again and enter a second string into the text entry field and press the enter button.


 
Step 12

Fade this one in using the same process as outlined for the first string.


 
Step 13

You can apply any effects you like to your text string.  For example, if you don't like our default green colour, you may want to change it.  One way to do this is to grab an adjust hsl effect from the video effects/pixel filters/adjust color folder and drop it onto the text string track.


 
To change the colour, click on the angle variable strip.  This sets a key frame.  You can change the colour over time by setting key frames with different angle settings.


 
Thats all for now, if you have any problems or questions, use the comment form below.

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Text String