How to make a lower third for a video

A lower third is ready-made in Video by Zaweba. Choose Lower third from the Graphics menu and you get a name caption sitting in the lower part of the picture; type the person's name and role, put it on a track above their shot, and set how long it stays on screen. From there you can restyle it, animate it and save it for reuse.

The name comes from where it sits: in the lower third of the frame, out of the way of the face. It tells viewers who's speaking without interrupting them, and it's one of the quickest ways to make an interview look professional.

Placing your first lower third

Find the moment the person first speaks on camera. Put the lower third on the track above their clip, starting a beat after they begin talking, so viewers look at the face before the text. Type the name on the first line and a short role or description on the second.

Keep it on screen long enough to read twice at a relaxed pace, typically a few seconds. Too short and people miss it; too long and it gets in the way.

Making it your own

Titles in Video by Zaweba offer fonts with bold and italic, alignment, letter and line spacing, gradient fills, outlines, soft shadows at any angle and a rounded box behind the text. Match the font and colours to the rest of the film or to a brand. A box behind the text keeps it readable over busy backgrounds.

For more elaborate designs, Graphics > Graphic with layers builds one clip from text and shape layers. A shape can be pinned round a text layer so the box grows with the words, which means a long name and a short one both look right without redrawing anything.

Animating it in and out

A lower third that simply appears can feel abrupt. Give it an entrance and an exit from the title animations, which include fades, slides, pop, zoom, wipe and typewriter. A slide in from the side is a common choice for lower thirds. Intro and outro animations keep their length when you stretch the clip, so you can change how long it stays on screen without the animation speeding up or slowing down.

Keeping every name consistent

An interview film might need ten lower thirds, and they should all look identical. Text styles help: create a style from your finished lower third, apply it to the others, and if you change the style later every linked title updates. Graphics > Templates lets you save the design as your own template and insert it again whenever you need it.

If you have a long list of people, such as speakers at a conference, a template can make one copy per row of a CSV file, with each person's name and role filled in from the spreadsheet.

Small details that matter

Check spelling against a reliable source; names are easy to get wrong and embarrassing to publish. Keep the text out of the very bottom edge, where some players put their controls. And don't crowd the picture: one or two short lines are plenty. When the lower third is right, it barely gets noticed, which is exactly its job.