Creating Lower Thirds in Camtasia for Mac

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When editing a video, lower thirds are a great way to identify your speaker, topic, or point. In this video, I’ll show you how to create two examples of lower thirds using Camtasia for Mac. If you use Camtasia Studio 8, many of the same principles will still apply.

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About Ashley Pennell

Ashley is a Digital Media Intern who sometimes dresses up as a superhero. She also lived in Japan for a while so she will still talk anyone's ear off about it that will listen (and even those that won't). She dreams of owning a ranch full of capybaras.
  • grewest

    Hi Ashely, this is great. I never thought of creating a lower third right inside Camtasia.

    One question, in Photoshop, what would be the size of the lower third you created?

    thanks, greg west

    • Ashley Pennell

      Hi Greg! Thanks for the comment.

      The length should be how wide your video is. For example, if your video is 720 x 480 make your length 480. To make it easier to create the lower third, create a new document in photoshop that is the same size as your video (for example, 720 x 480). Take a screenshot or still of one frame of your video and make that as one layer. From there, create your lower third on top of that image.

      When you have created your lower third, delete the video screenshot layer and make the background transparent. When you import your lower third into Camtasia, it should now be the correct size.

      Also, I would keep your .psd file in case you want to resize anything later. Especially if you want to create the actual text in Photoshop.

      If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

    • Ashley Pennell

      Hi Greg! Thanks for the comment.

      The length should be how wide your video is. For example, if your video is 720 x 480 make your length 480. To make it easier to create the lower third, create a new document in photoshop that is the same size as your video (for example, 720 x 480). Take a screenshot or still of one frame of your video and make that as one layer. From there, create your lower third on top of that image.

      When you have created your lower third, delete the video screenshot layer and make the background transparent. When you import your lower third into Camtasia, it should now be the correct size.

      Also, I would keep your .psd file in case you want to resize anything later. Especially if you want to create the actual text in Photoshop.

      If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!