Coming Soon: Essentials Page – Lower thirds
Soon, we will be releasing an “Essentials” page to this website, and have a lot of different essentials that you can use in your video editing. One of the essentials will be Lower Thirds, they will be totally free.
What is a lower third?
A lower third is a graphic placed in the lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it as the name suggests. Lower thirds are commonly found in television-news production, and documentaries, and other forms of video. Recently they’ve been known to give the view more information about the video, or what to do; (e.g. a tutorial).
What types of lower thirds are there?
Lower thirds are divided and arranged into different tiers,
(These aren’t the only use, but these are some uses that are used by commercial companies like ABC.)
One-tier lower thirds – Usually used to identify a story that is being shown, or to show a presenter’s name.
Two-tier lower thirds – Used most often to identify an object on screen. Often the object’s name will appear on the first line, with its place of residence or a description below it. Two-tier lower thirds may also be used as “locators” to identify where a story is taking place.
Three-tier lower thirds - These lower thirds add more information to the tier one and two thirds. Commonly the first tier is used to tell when the video was shot, if it was not shot the day the newscast is airing.
What format will these lower thirds be in?
The majority of the lower thirds will be in the image format of PNG, which will keep the transparency. The images will come with a semitransparent alpha channel; so no transparency adjustments should be required. Though, because they’re in the image format, you can easily add your custom transitions, and even add your logo if wanted.
How do I use them?
The lower thirds will be very easy to use, you will simply download them (in a package, or separately), then drag them intro your desired video editing application; e.g. Sony Vegas. Make sure that they’re above the footage you want it to display over. Add your transitions, make any adjustments needed, and then put your custom text over them. There will be a video tutorial on how to do this coming soon.
What’s the licence?
You are free:
to Share – copy and distribute and transmit the work
to Remix – to adapt the work
to Use – you are free to use the work without any credit, you are allowed to make revenue off of this work (e.g. the YouTube Partnership Program)
When we release this work, we hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave any feedback or suggestions below, thanks, The Team.
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