Creating titles in blanking masks

Hello Community,

I have a documentary I am working on that is finishing in UHD and has some 4x3 standard def material in it. I have used the clip blanking override (in the color page) to apply black "curtains" on the sides of the image.

I now need to add some titles that will go into the black curtain area and the blanking mask is cutting them off. I would prefer to keep my clip mask on these clips because it ensures a mathematically consistent blanking between other 4x3 sources. I'm guessing I could use a crop in the edit tab, but I'd prefer to keep it as a blanking mask.

I even tried a sub title track but the mask cuts that off too.

Anyone have a strategy for this?

Thank you.

I'm thinking you went to the Output Sizing section on the bottom right of the Color page... which changes the node tree header to "Timeline" instead of "Clip". Thus the curtains apply to all media, including your titles.

That leaves, as you said, using cropping. If helpful, you can use the Edit Sizing section on the Color page (two icons over from Output Sizing), which has a Cropping subsection that is linked to the Cropping you see on the Edit page.

Permutations for the curtains to be consistent:
* you could put all the 4:3 clips into a group on the Color page, then set the node tree to Group post-clip, and put the cropping on a node there

* you could put an adjustment clip in a dedicated layer of the Edit page above the 4:3 images, and crop that, then put titles on a higher layer.

We generally create a Textless version as a flattened file, in a visually-lossless format, and then add additional graphics to that as needed.

If it were something like a 4x3 clip in a 16x9 timeline, I might consider creating the left & right mattes a different way, like with a Power Window, then adding the graphics as another layer above that clip. This might be a better method than trying to crop the 4x3 clip with Timeline blanking.

BTW, you may want to consider using the OFX Blanking Fill option as a way to "fill the space" around the 4x3 clips in this format. I was told this technique was invented by the technical director of Entertainment Tonight, when they were faced with using lots of 4x3 stock clips and interviews when the show went fully HD in 2008. I find the "blurred borders" method can be acceptable with 4x3 clips and is less intrusive than most other methods.

I'm thinking you went to the Output Sizing section on the bottom right of the Color page... which changes the node tree header to "Timeline" instead of "Clip". Thus the curtains apply to all media, including your titles.

That leaves, as you said, using cropping. If helpful, you can use the Edit Sizing section on the Color page (two icons over from Output Sizing), which has a Cropping subsection that is linked to the Cropping you see on the Edit page.

Permutations for the curtains to be consistent:
* you could put all the 4:3 clips into a group on the Color page, then set the node tree to Group post-clip, and put the cropping on a node there

* you could put an adjustment clip in a dedicated layer of the Edit page above the 4:3 images, and crop that, then put titles on a higher layer.

@bouncehouse I like the idea of creating a crop with the edit section in Sizing. I'm curious how the method of an adjustment layer in the edit page would be interpreted for a DolbyVision XML. These are really good ideas that I wouldn't have thought of. Thank you.

We generally create a Textless version as a flattened file, in a visually-lossless format, and then add additional graphics to that as needed.

If it were something like a 4x3 clip in a 16x9 timeline, I might consider creating the left & right mattes a different way, like with a Power Window, then adding the graphics as another layer above that clip. This might be a better method than trying to crop the 4x3 clip with Timeline blanking.

BTW, you may want to consider using the OFX Blanking Fill option as a way to "fill the space" around the 4x3 clips in this format. I was told this technique was invented by the technical director of Entertainment Tonight, when they were faced with using lots of 4x3 stock clips and interviews when the show went fully HD in 2008. I find the "blurred borders" method can be acceptable with 4x3 clips and is less intrusive than most other methods.

@marc I like how precise the output sizing blanking is. I like the idea of being able to punch in a mathematically derived number that the software will scale perfectly depending on if I am in HD or UHD. I appreciate the suggestion of the blanking fill OFX. That is definitely something I will be exploring.