How to Create Watermarks and Other Text Media in Sony Vegas

Have you ever wondered how professionals add watermarks to their videos? Well, here I'm going to show you exactly how to add text elements, such as watermarks, to your videos in Sony Vegas.

Step One:Insert Video

Open up the video you want to put text on by clicking "File - Open" or "File - Import." It will probably land in the media bin under the timeline. Drag the video into the "video" section on the timeline and drop it at the beginning. Make sure everything is edited to your liking before moving onto step two.

Step Two: Insert Text Media

In the "text" section of the timeline, right click with your cursor and select "Insert Text Media." This will open up a detailed dialogue box where you can make several changes to your text. Your first step will be to type in the text you want to insert. This could be the URL of a web address or the watermark of your company, just about anything you'd like.

Step Three: Placing Your Media

Highlight the text in the media box and select the font, size, and other formatting in the first box. When you're finished, toggle over to the next tab in the dialogue box labeled "Placement." Here you can drag the text wherever you want in the video. In the preview box below the timeline you can watch the media moving around as you drag it with the cursor. Once it's out of direct line of view and aligned where you wish, drop the text.

Step Four: Formatting Your Media

In the next two tabs, "Properties" and "Effects," you can add color, styles, and background colors for your media. These are fun to play around with. As a suggestion, try to make the font easy to read, like Arial or Times New Roman, and don't add too many effects, as they can make the text puffy and distorted once they are rendered in the video. Make sure the colors you pick can be read during any part of the video, and aren't too dark or light for the background.

Step Five: Stretch Your Media

By default, the text media usually stretches for about five seconds of video. To expand it across your whole video, simply grab the right edge of the text and drag it for the duration of the video.

That's it! It's that simple to create textual media in Sony Vegas.