LiveType

Infobox_Software
name = LiveType



caption = LiveType version 1
developer = Apple Inc.
latest_release_version = 2.1
latest_release_date = March 30, 2006
operating_system = Mac OS X
genre = Video editing
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/livetype.html LiveType]

LiveType is a software program developed by Apple Inc. to create animated title sequences for video projects.

History

LiveType had its origins in a product called India Titler Pro, by the Oregon based company, Prismo Graphics. The company and software was acquired by Apple in June 2002.

The program first appeared as part of Final Cut Pro 4 in April 2003. It was updated to version 1.2 in the following year; this version was then included in Final Cut Express HD in 2005. Version 2 of LiveType was then released with version 5 of Final Cut Pro, and this was included in version 3.5 of Final Cut Express in May 2006. The program is packaged only with Final Cut Studio and Final Cut Express; it has never been available to purchase separately.

See also a release history in context with the rest of Final Cut Studio.

Features

LiveType 2 includes nearly 11GB of content - including fonts, textures, objects, templates and effects. It can import any standard media files and can create text tracks whose style can be meticulously specified. In the canvas, the contour that the text follows can be edited, so that the titles can be on curved or shaped paths. All attributes of each title or character can be changed and keyframed, including the size, drop shadow, outline, extrusion, glow, opacity and tracking of the text.

LiveFont

A 'LiveFont' is one of the program's key features. These are fonts with animated characters. Examples of the LiveFonts shipped with LiveType are animated handwriting, smoke writing, fire, and blinking LED characters. It is also possible to create custom LiveFonts, but the necessity of generating a separate movie file for each letter makes the file sizes very large.

Effects

Various animation effects can be applied to type, either LiveFonts or normal system fonts. There are, for example, glows, scrolls, fades and zooms. The timing of the effects can be customized and new effects can be created from scratch using keyframing.

NOTE: Ever since an Apple Update changed Quicktime version 7.4.1 to 7.4.5, the Effects feature of LiveType has been rendered unusable and, according to numerous reports from users of both Final Cut Pro (FCP) and Final Cut Express even previously rendered files with effects are no longer usable in the edit environment. Except for a complete uninstall of FCP and FCE and re-installing previous versions of either, along with earlier versions of Quicktime, no solution has been found to solve this problem. Even at that, the earlier versions of FCP are very difficult to locate as they are no longer available from Apple and many embedded features in their ProApps update may still, according to some users, cause this problem. As of 9-5-08, Apple has made no response to its customers as to a fix for this problem and those affected remain unable to use the LiveType software. One of many threads on this subject may be found at this link: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/73/855599

Templates

Apart from text, there is a wide range of animated objects and textures that can be added to a sequence, and there are a number of templates - such as title themes and lower thirds - in both PAL and NTSC formats that can be opened. Any image or movie file can also be placed and edited on the canvas.

Workflow

The roundtrip process goes like this: you set the in and out points for the part of your Final Cut video that you want to export. Then you select Export for LiveType in the menu. This does not compress the entire movie for output - it merely creates a reference file. This reference file can then be placed as the background movie for the LiveType project. There is an option for not rendering the background when exporting. This is useful, because then when you import the LiveType project file into Final Cut, you just get the animated overlay - and not a duplicate of the source video too. It is then possible to edit the overlay again and again by choosing Open in Editor, whereupon LiveType opens with the project. When it is saved and closed, the overlay has automatically updated in Final Cut.