<p>I assume that you want to add <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_third" rel="nofollow">lower thirds</a> or logos to your videos. You also seem to have already an NLE (video editing program) for cutting your videos. Choosing one would be out of scope of this question. </p>

<p>There is a simple way of creating high quality vfx graphics for videos:</p>

<ul>
<li>Design them as static images in photo software like the Gimp or Adobe Photoshop</li>
<li>The image resolution should be the same as your video resolution</li>
<li>Use transparency for all areas where the video should show through</li>
<li>A practical advice: I usually put one frame of my video on the lowest layer and design the vfx on an upper one. This is to have a visual reference how these two would fit together</li>
<li>When finished, make the lower layer with the video frame invisible, so that you only see your vfx on the transparent background </li>
<li>Save it as PNG image with transparency</li>
<li>In your NLE, add a new video track on top of the other ones and put your PNG image on it</li>
<li>To add a bit of animation, you can fade this image in and out, or let it move in from one side and move out to the other side </li>
</ul>

<p>These animation effects are very basic, but usually you don't need more for lower thirds. If you need more animation, you should look into software like Adobe After Effects, Blender, Nuke, Fusion, ... But these are more difficult to use than creating a single image with the photo software of your choice. </p>

<p><strong>Update</strong></p>

<p>Since the OP asked if there are free solutions, I add the following:</p>

<p>You can use free software like the Gimp as well as paid software like Adobe Photoshop to design these lower thirds. Any photo software that can work with transparency and layers can do this. Having linear gradients in image as well as layer masks would benefit your results, though are not strictly necessary. </p>

<p>The key point is that you use the software that you are already familiar with, to have some quick, but professional-looking results. </p>

<p>If you want to go the way of software explicitly designed for VFX, then you have some free options too with Blender, Natron (both open source) or Fusion (commercial, but has a free version).</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-21T05:13:46.020Z
Are these free?
Jeff
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-21T07:46:00.540Z
@Jeff I just added a section about the free options that you have.
Fred42vid
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-18T19:30:32.807Z
2015-11-21T08:04:30.877Z
2015-11-21T08:04:30.877Z
Fred42vid
<p>I am planning to make my own movie and I need a software that produces high quality video graphics. I am new to this and am sorry if this is not the place to post this.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-18T15:21:33.513Z
Welcome Jeff :) Please specify your question. This is a Q&A site - your question is too broad for this format at the moment. What exactly you are trying to achieve? BTW: Please start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour Anyway, enjoy video.se!
p2or
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-11-18T20:33:15.100Z
What kind of graphics do you want? 2D? 3D? Do you need anything to stick to surfaces (motion tracking)? If you want to do 3D stuff, Blender would probably be a good start, but if you just want 2D, you might want to look at HitFilm Express or AfterEffects depending on how much money you have to spend.
TARDIS Maker
<video>
Any software with high quality vfx graphics?
Jeff
# Any software with high quality vfx graphics?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-11-18)

I am planning to make my own movie and I need a software that produces high quality video graphics. I am new to this and am sorry if this is not the place to post this.

**Tags:** video

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome username_0 :) Please specify your question. This is a Q&A site - your question is too broad for this format at the moment. What exactly you are trying to achieve? BTW: Please start with the tour: http://video.stackexchange.com/tour Anyway, enjoy video.se!  
> **username_2**: What kind of graphics do you want? 2D? 3D? Do you need anything to stick to surfaces (motion tracking)? If you want to do 3D stuff, Blender would probably be a good start, but if you just want 2D, you might want to look at HitFilm Express or AfterEffects depending on how much money you have to spend.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2015-11-18. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

I assume that you want to add [lower thirds](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_third) or logos to your videos. You also seem to have already an NLE (video editing program) for cutting your videos. Choosing one would be out of scope of this question.

There is a simple way of creating high quality vfx graphics for videos:

* Design them as static images in photo software like the Gimp or Adobe Photoshop
* The image resolution should be the same as your video resolution
* Use transparency for all areas where the video should show through
* A practical advice: I usually put one frame of my video on the lowest layer and design the vfx on an upper one. This is to have a visual reference how these two would fit together
* When finished, make the lower layer with the video frame invisible, so that you only see your vfx on the transparent background
* Save it as PNG image with transparency
* In your NLE, add a new video track on top of the other ones and put your PNG image on it
* To add a bit of animation, you can fade this image in and out, or let it move in from one side and move out to the other side

These animation effects are very basic, but usually you don't need more for lower thirds. If you need more animation, you should look into software like Adobe After Effects, Blender, Nuke, Fusion, ... But these are more difficult to use than creating a single image with the photo software of your choice.

**Update**

Since the OP asked if there are free solutions, I add the following:

You can use free software like the Gimp as well as paid software like Adobe Photoshop to design these lower thirds. Any photo software that can work with transparency and layers can do this. Having linear gradients in image as well as layer masks would benefit your results, though are not strictly necessary.

The key point is that you use the software that you are already familiar with, to have some quick, but professional-looking results.

If you want to go the way of software explicitly designed for VFX, then you have some free options too with Blender, Natron (both open source) or Fusion (commercial, but has a free version).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Are these free?  
> **username_3**: @username_0 I just added a section about the free options that you have.  

---

