Getting started on YouTube - how do I make intros like Marzia's?

August 12, 2015 6:36 PM

Hi everyone! Not looking to copy or plagiarize - but I am just getting ready to launch a YouTube channel and I don't know what software I'm going to use to edit videos or much about how to get going. I really like the type of introductions used by YouTuber Marzia. Do you know what tools she uses to make them? More in post.

Here are a few examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITXnOfp2Pkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsoUu7X1teo

I like how she has artistic openings that have a cute animation and neat fonts. I just have no clue what she is using to make these intros! I will definitely make mine a lot different from hers, but I just need a push to get started in the right direction in terms of tools. Thanks in advance everyone!

posted by valmonster to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

You need some layers in the image to make a video intro like that. That's how she's getting the opaque effect in the second link - it's layers of images, with animations for the letters.

I use Adobe After Effects, and the way I'd do that is have a background picture, then put a mask layer over it (the opaque rectangle), then use one of the fonts/animations for the letters for the top layer.

But After Effects may be overkill if you don't have a strong background in editing. I had done video editing for a while before getting into AE.
posted by guster4lovers at 7:09 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would make in After Effects but that's maybe overkill if you're using it just for Youtube intros. There are some text tools for animating letter by letter or word-by-word that would work like what she's doing in those two videos.

It might be overkill for you, but could still make sense for Marzia to use A.E. because she's much more popular. But I don't know for certain what she's using.

A lot of the effect will come from collecting a lot of background and fonts. I sometimes take blurry photos of things with nice colours just to use as background gradients, and that's probably what's in the second one.
posted by RobotHero at 7:29 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks! It makes sense that she would use Adobe After Effects - I will look into doing that. And great tip about the blurry photo used as a background!
posted by valmonster at 7:35 PM on August 12, 2015

I'm also an advocate of sometimes seeing what you can do without A.E. and playing it up as a stylistic choice. For example, print something out, cut out the letters, then stop-motion them into place. Draw them in chalk. Do collages from cut-up magazines. Play with the lighting, the camera, to get unusual looks. Cut them from cardboard and back-light them. Shoot a close-up photo of the words on a computer monitor.


Also you might get by with Premiere Elements. It can do a lot of basic layering of video, and Adobe still outright sells the Elements versions, instead of renting through Cloud. You could buy Premiere and Photoshop Elements for less than six months of A.E. and you could do everything with those. I think the only thing you might miss is the fancy text tools I linked above. You'd have to set a keyframe for each letter instead, and maybe there's something in P.E. that I'm not aware of.
posted by RobotHero at 9:18 PM on August 12, 2015

If you are on a Mac, check out Apple Motion.
posted by hz37 at 11:35 PM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you're on a mac, you can do some pretty groovy things with iMovie.
I use ScreenFlow as well for simple editing and titles, etc.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 4:57 AM on August 13, 2015