How to stop a title zooming with the shot behind it
Tell Vizard Agent which part of the title should change and which should hold. A title composited into the same layer as the picture inherits every camera move applied to it, so the fix is to separate them and animate one, not to fight the scaling with a bigger font.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Name the parts. "Make the title smaller" describes three different results depending on which layer you meant, and all three are reasonable readings of the same four words. If the title has a backing plate, decide what it should do separately: Vizard Agent can move either one, but not by guessing.
During the opening zoom, keep the lettering the same size and shrink only the cream background behind it.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It looks at how the title was built before it changes anything. A title that is a separate layer is trivial to animate on its own; a title that was rendered into the footage is not, and the difference decides whether this is a small change or a rebuild of the opening. In the session behind this article it:
- Checked how the opening title had been built, which layers existed, and how the title behaved through the zoom on the opening frames.
- Separated the title from the footage so the two could scale independently.
- Kept the existing stew zoom untouched and changed only the title's size and spacing.
- Rendered it, checked it, and reduced it further when the first pass was not enough.
- Later reversed the choice entirely, holding the lettering and shrinking only the cream plate, a small adjustment because the layers were already separate.
- Also lifted the title at three seconds, where the new framing brought the food up into it: a position change, not a size change.
When does this not work well?
When the title is burnt into a delivered file and you no longer have the project. Separating it then means removing it from the picture and rebuilding it, which leaves the area behind the words to be reconstructed, and Vizard Agent will say that is the job. It's harder again over moving detail: a word over boiling liquid doesn't separate cleanly.
Common questions
Why did the title shrink in the first place? Because it was in the same layer as the footage, so the zoom applied to both.
Can I shrink the plate and keep the text? Yes, and it often looks better. Say it that way and Vizard Agent does exactly that.
How do I know the margins are safe? Vizard Agent checks the top margin across every animation frame rather than at the ends.