Discover how to enhance digital imagery through the addition of animations and text overlays. Learn practical techniques such as using the rectangle tool, manipulating opacity, adding text frames, and creating buttons to highlight specific photo details.
Key Insights
- The rectangle tool can be used to create a background for added text, with the option to change the fill, stroke color, and opacity level to best suit the image.
- Adjustments can be made to text added onto an image, including changes to font, size, color, and placement. The hyphenate option can also be removed for a cleaner look.
- Buttons can be created using the rectangle tool, with the ability to adjust the shape, color, and size. These buttons can be used to reveal or hide additional image details, enhancing the user interaction with the image.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video, we're going to be completing our image here and beginning to work on some animations. So let's zoom in to Page 3.
The first thing we're going to want to add is our black rectangular background. To do this, let's utilize our Rectangle Tool, and we're simply going to drag a bar within the first two sections, about this size. We'll swap the Fill and Stroke so that it's entirely black, and let's change our Opacity in the Control Bar by dropping it down to 70% and hitting ENTER.
Next, let's add some text. To do this, we'll utilize our Type Tool, and we'll drag a Text Frame the same size here. We'll change our font to Chivo—specifically Chivo Regular—and let's increase the size to 15 points.
In addition, because it's a black background, we want the text to stand out, so we'll change the color to Paper. Finally, we'll right-click and add some placeholder text. Here we go—this looks good. We're going to remove about half of it since we don't want too much of a description here.
We'll highlight and delete the extra text, and I always like to hit CTRL+A to select all. If we go into our Properties Panel—making sure that if you don't see it, you enable it—we’ll simply go to the bottom and uncheck Hyphenate. Here we go—get rid of this last word.
Next, with this text, let's work with our Frame Options. We'll go to Text Frame Options by right-clicking, and we're going to utilize our Inset Spacing again. In this case, let's increase it to 20 points and see what this looks like.
We'll leave it there—click OK. Additionally, we can now decrease the size of the actual frame, and let's position it right about here. We can also center the text within our frame, and we’ll resize the back rectangle to match the size of the Text Frame.
If we hit W on the keyboard, we can see what this looks like. This is a nice little pop-out description of the house on 44th. Looking at this now, while I like the description and where it's located, it would be nice to see the entire image without the description—or at least have that option.
In this case, because it's a digital file, we can create a Button that allows this text to appear and disappear. To do this, let's first create that Button. We'll utilize our Rectangle Tool, and if we hit W on the keyboard, we can see our guides. Let’s create a rectangle the same exact size in this third section.
We'll then swap the Fill and Stroke, and rather than making this one black, let’s change it to white. Additionally, let's decrease the size. We'll click on the corner and, while dragging in, hold CTRL+Shift+ALT so that it's still centered on the right-hand side.
We'll release it right about here. This feels a little sharp as a square Button, so let's make it a rounded Button. To do this, we’ll go to the right-hand side. Sometimes it's easier to switch workspaces, so let’s go back to our VDCI workspace.
Here, we can actually change our rectangle. We'll go to the Properties Panel, and within Properties, we’ll edit the corners. Let’s select Rounded. We’ll scroll to the right a bit so we can see more. If we zoom in, we’ll see that we now have rounded corners.
If we want them to be more rounded, we can increase the corner radius, and eventually, they'll be rounded all the way through. Finally, let’s now add some text on top of our Button. We'll utilize the Type Tool and create a Text Frame the same size. In this case, we’ll type “Photo Details.”
If we zoom out, let’s match the same style as our title. We'll hit CTRL+A on the keyboard and use the Eyedropper Tool to copy the same formatting from the title text, then click on the new text. While this is obviously too large, we can decrease the size. I think, rather than keeping it bold, let’s step it back to Regular.
If we click outside, we'll see what this looks like. Let’s center it within our Text Frame. Zoom in a bit. I still think it’s too bold, so let’s remove the All Caps setting. Now we have “Photo Details.” Again, looking at this text, it’s not quite vertically centered. So let’s right-click, go to Text Frame Options, then Baseline Options, and change the alignment to Cap Height, which provides better vertical centering for this font. Click OK.
Finally, if we click outside and zoom out, we’ll see that we have our Button and text over the background. To preview how this will look, we can go into our Layers Panel, drop down Layer 1, and select our text first. Here we have our text—let’s rename this by clicking it and titling it “Description of Photo, ” then hit ENTER. Next, let’s select our rectangle—this is our “Photo Details” Button, so click and rename it “Photo Details Button, ” then hit ENTER.
Let’s rename the text on the Button “Photo Details Button Text” and hit ENTER. Then, select the bottom rectangle—this is the background for our description—so we’ll name it “Description Background” and hit ENTER. Lastly, we have our title and our final rectangle—rename that “Title Background” and hit ENTER.
Now that we’ve labeled everything in the Layers Panel, we can select both the Description Background and Description of Photo. If we remove their visibility, we’ll see what this will look like before we begin animating it.
From here, let’s now save our work by hitting CTRL+S on the keyboard. In the next video, we’ll actually create the animation for this text and background so that when we click “Photo Details, ” the text and background appear.
See you there!