Facilities | Production Tools | Studio 5 Resources
CHYRON GRAPHICS GENERATOR Instructions
Orientation to the Lyric Program
The large window in the center is called the Canvas. (The blue title bar at the top tells you which message you are looking at and the location where the message is stored. For example: “Msg: 2 Dir:\ALL-T283\t283-trAM\Messages”)
The window at the left is the Browser window, where you can see either a list or thumbnails of the various message pages you have stored.
The Properties window on the right is where you modify the text on the message pages.
The Timeline window at the bottom is where you set durations for credit rolls.
The text graphics you create with the CG, short for Character Generator, will be keyed, or electronically inserted, over another video source via the switcher.
Before you begin to create any graphics
You need to change the directories for BOTH the canvas and the browser windows.
1. Select the Canvas window.
Starting at the top menu bar
Config > Preferences> Default Paths >Messages.
Your “default paths” need to be in the folder for your corresponding section of class (T283tPM for T283 Tuesday PM, for instance).
2. Click “Create/Select Project Hierarchy”
Look in the D drive>All T283 folder> and select your class folder.
3. Click “OK.”
4. Select the Browser window
Starting at the top menu bar
Browser > select/create database
5. Select your class filename and assign by clicking BOTH the “set font source” and “set message source”
6. Click “OK”
Now all the paths are reset so that Lyric knows where to store your files.
If you don’t do this every time lyric is started, you risk losing your message!
To build a text graphic:
1. Click in the large black Canvas Window. Clicking in a window tells lyric what you want to work with. Note that each page you create is referred to as a “Message” in this program.
*To create a new, additional text graphic, select Flie>New>Canvas
2. To create a 2D text graphic, click the “ABC” button in the toolbar at the top. (If you type without pressing this button, the default option creates 3D text, which is not what we want right now.) Type the text you want inside the box.
3. To modify the text properties, you must first select the text object in the Message window. To select all the text in the window for alteration: left-click and drag a box around it for a few words, select a row of text, or press Ctl+A to select all the text, or double-click on a specific word to choose that one word. If the text is selected, and red dotted line will box the text in. If a word is not selected in the box, do NOT drag the edge of the box (this will stretch the selected text)
4. Use the “Properties” window to the right of your workspace window to alter the text settings. Within the Properties window there are tabs located across the top. The “2D Font FX” tab is where you find basic font properties, spacing, shadows, borders, etc. Select the detail of what you wish to adjust in the drop-down menu located toward the top of the Properties box. (You can change the color of the face, drop shadow, or edge of the text)
Make your choices.
Once you like the look of the text (which will appear in the small window in the lower left-hand corner of the box), click the “Apply” button at the bottom of the window to affect the text in the Message window.
TIP: To change the background of the Message window—sometimes necessary to see text borders and other effects—simply click the rectangular button that’s half black and half white, located in the top row of the Lyric tool bar.
5. To move the text box within the canvas frame on the y-axis, move the arrows connected to the dotted lines underlining your text. To move it along the x-axis, simply select the chunk of text you wish to move, and drag it. Also, you may grab (with a mouse-click) the “2D Text 1” title bar within the message window, and drag it in any direction.
To adjust the size of the text box click and drag the edges of the text box to where you wish them to be. Adjusting the size of the box allows text to be seen across the whole screen.
To create a credit-roll select the button in the toolbar (looks like a page of words with arrows pointing up). Insert several blank lines at the top of the scroll before typing (this is so the credits start off the screen). The text can be adjusted through the Properties window (just like 2D text).
To import a picture (not full screen) select the button in the toolbar with the yellow circle. Select where the file is located “Look in:” drop down menu (the file will probably be in either “Desktop” or “Removable Disk F”. Press OK. Position the image within the Message window.
To have a background color or image (full screen and behind text), click the button in the tool bar that looks like a picture. Select either “Solid/Ramp Color” or “Graphic File”.
Solid/ Ramp Color: select either ramp or solid in the upper left-hand corner. In the mode box, select either Ramp or Solid Color. (for ramp, you can adjust each corner to a different color, or leave them as Choose your colors by clicking the pick-up on the right hand side and adjusting your contrast. Press OK
Graphic File: For imported photos, selected where the file is in the “Look in:” drop down menu (the file will probably be in either “Desktop” or “Removable Disk F”. Press OK
6. Save your message by assigning it an unused number, (consecutive numbers in show order work best). Type the number using the keypad on the keyboard and the number will appear in the lower left window of your canvas. (To save an edited message, you can type in the same designation number that it already has) You can’t click to a different message before recording the one you are working on, or else it will be erased by Lyric (you can always go back and work on a message later, and re-record to the same number designation).
Now press the “Record” button at the top right of the keyboard, which brings us to:
Orientation to the Duet Keyboard
• The Erase button on the keyboard itself will clear your workspace and start you on a new “untitled” message, so watch out for that. Only hit erase if you want to get rid of the entire message! To remove anything else (a row of text, a word, etc.) hit backspace or delete.
• The “XFer” button must be pressed in order to send the active message to the switcher board, and make it visible and available in the CG monitors under the main computer monitor. Or, you can double click the message in the Browser window. The left-most monitor below the computer monitor in front of you has a red tally light on it that tells you when your graphic is on air.
The Record button will record your message, and display them in the Message window. To designate the message, use the number pad to make a new number (will appear as the red number in the bottom of the Canvas Window.