Glitch title reveal

Glitch title reveal

A chapter or topic title that crashes onto the footage. A white title on a near-black box arrives broken (torn into slices, split into red, green and blue, chunks pixelated, flickering), resolves in under 0.75 s, holds clean in the lower left, glitches once mid-hold and glitches out. It is a full-frame transparent overlay over the user's own footage; the footage gets a light film look (scanlines, vignette, a colour fringe) so the damage feels part of the picture. Builds on tella-title-cards (titles and their placement) and tella-motion-design (timing, overlays, checks); load them first. For a glitch on a cut between shots, use a transition skill instead.

Ask once

Work out yourself, never ask: the title and the word it lands on (from the transcript: the chapter or topic the speaker names), where the footage is busy (keep the box off faces), and the brand colour (from the workspace or the message). Then ask one ask_form, every field prefilled, so the user can just submit:

No media is needed: the title goes over the video's own footage. If the user wants it over other footage, look for it in the message's attachments, then the media library; else ask with ask_question ("Which clip should the title sit over?") and fall back to the video's own footage. A title longer than 22 characters: shorten it to the speaker's key words, never wrap it to two lines. If the user skips the form, build with the prefilled values.

Timing

• The overlay starts 0.1 s before the word it lands on; the entrance glitch lasts 0.73 s, so the box is clean by the end of the word. Never land it over a second name or a number.
• Every time below is a formula of the length L (the On screen for slider), in seconds from the overlay's start; the example is L = 4.6:
  • Entrance: 0 to 0.733 (fixed).
  • Crash: starts C = L/2 − 0.167, ends C + 0.4 (example 2.133–2.533). Only when L ≥ 3.8; below that drop the crash, or it would sit within 1 s of the entrance and the exit.
  • Exit: starts E = L − 0.667, title gone at E + 0.267 = L − 0.4, envelope 0 at E + 0.4 = L − 0.267 (example 3.933, 4.2, 4.333).
  • Canvas duration L; overlay durationMs L × 1000.
• Worked: L = 3: entrance to 0.733, no crash, exit 2.333, gone 2.6, clean 2.733. L = 8: crash 3.833–4.233, exit 7.333, gone 7.6, clean 7.733. Only L = 4.6 has been built; other lengths are untested.
• The overlay belongs to one clip and can't span a cut between clips: if the clip ends before landing time + L, shorten L to fit (not below 3 s), or land it earlier.
• Every key is a hold key on a 1/15 s step, and seed steps 15 times a second. Smooth easing turns the damage into a blur.
• No two crashes within 1 s and no white flash frames, for viewers sensitive to flashing.

The look (values from the example, 1920 × 1080)

• Box (slab): rect #0E0E0F, square corners, x 120, y 730, 933 × 170 for THE PAPER TRAIL. Width = the title's width + 43 px each side.
• Title (title): Inter 800, 104 px, line height 1, letter spacing −4.16 (−0.04 em), #FFFFFF, left-aligned at x 163, y 770 (43 px in, 40 px down from the box's corner).
• Positions: lower left as above; lower right, box's right edge at x 1800, same y; centre, box centred horizontally with its top at y 455.
• Colour pairs: white on black #FFFFFF on #0E0E0F; black on white #0E0E0F on #F3F1EC; brand, the brand colour on the box.
• Glitch (references/type-glitch.sksl) on the card group: rgb 8, slice 40, mosaic 0.3, seed = floor(composition seconds × 15) + 37. The amt envelope below is at full strength; multiply every value by the strength (0.55 in the example). Values every 1/15 s from each part's start:
  • Entrance at 0 s: 1, 0.85, 1, 0.9, 0.7, 1, 0.8, 0.55, 0.35, 0.18, 0.08, 0.
  • Crash at C (L ≥ 3.8 only): 0.35, 1, 1, 0.75, 0.4, 0.15, 0.
  • Exit at E: 0.3, 0.8, 1, 1, 0.6, 0.25, 0.
• Flicker: card opacity hold keys 1 at 0, 0.35 at 0.067, 1 at 0.133, 0.5 at 0.267, 1 at 0.333 (entrance, fixed), 0 at E + 0.267 = L − 0.4 (4.2 in the example).
• Fringe on the type: an adjustment group aberration above card with fx.chromaticAberration amount 4, unkeyed, 0 to L. The clean type keeps a faint red/blue edge, which is the look.
• Film look (one more overlay, from the clip's start for the clip's whole length, independent of L, above the title): a transparent full-frame rect with references/alpha-vignette.sksl (amount 0.5, size 0.42, softness 0.5), and a black full-frame rect at opacity 0.22 with fx.venetianBlinds (completion 0.5, angle 0, width 4, feather 0) for scanlines.
• Footage fringe (example only, see gotchas): the clip's footage re-placed in a full-frame overlay under the title, scale 1.015 about the centre, fx.chromaticAberration amount 6.

Building it

1. create_motion_document with the video's id, name Chapter title: <title> (block glitch), then canvas.set duration to L. Add slab (addShape rect) and title (addTitle), group them as card.
2. addEffect kind shader on card with the full text of references/type-glitch.sksl as source, unchanged (no backdrop). Set rgb, slice, mosaic; bindProperty seed to the expression; write the amt keys with setKeyframes by the field: path inspect_motion_node_properties lists, easing hold.
3. Key card opacity as above. Add the aberration adjustment group (addAdjustment, then addEffect fx.chromaticAberration).
4. get_motion_frame at 0.033, 1.0 and 2.2 s (startTimeMs) to check the box, then add_overlay with motionDocumentId, at the landing time, 1920 × 1080 at 0, 0.
5. Film look on: a second document Look: scanlines + vignette, the clip's length, the two rects above; add_overlay it above the title (higher zIndex), from the clip's start.

Checking it

get_filmstrip on the video at every 1/15 s through the entrance, crash and exit, plus 0.1 s either side: the first frame is already broken (no clean frame before the glitch), the last step leaves the box exactly in place, nothing tears outside the box, and no frame is blank or flashes. Then one get_video_frame at 1920 on a clean hold: the title's right edge sits 43 px inside the box, the box is clear of faces, and the scanlines don't make the title shimmer. Report the time, the word it lands on, and the title.

Gotchas

• The shader goes on the group, never a backdrop. A backdrop shader in an overlay sees the video beneath it and tears the whole frame.
• A shader on a group gets resolution = the whole canvas and canvas-pixel coordinates; slices still only move what the group drew, so tears stay inside the box's rows.
• Inter 800 at 104 px is wide: size the box from a rendered frame, not by eye, and check the right edge at full size.
• bindProperty on a wrong path says "numeric properties only", which really means the path doesn't exist. The amt storage index changes after removeEffect/addEffect: read the path again.
• The footage fringe re-plays the clip's footage inside an overlay. It only stays in sync on an uncut clip with the overlay starting at the clip's start; on a cut or talking-head clip skip it (the film look and the type's fringe are enough).
• The scanline rect is opaque black with a venetian-blinds mask; at opacity above 0.3 it dims the footage noticeably.

Variations

• Calmer: strength 30%, mosaic 0, drop the mid-hold crash.
• A second line (untested): a kicker above the title in Inter 600, 28 px, tracked 0.18, uppercase, inside the box, box 50 px taller.
• No film look: switch it off for clean, modern footage; the type's own fringe still carries the glitch.