5. Page Styles

In Cinecred, a page is either a title card or a section of rolling credits. The exact behavior of pages is defined by page styles. You create these styles in the styling window, and then assign them to the pages in the Credits spreadsheet. This article explains the configuration options of a page style.

Name

Like all other styles, page styles have a unique name. It is used to reference them from the Credits spreadsheet.

Afterward Slug Duration

The credits will show a blank screen for this amount of time after the page has concluded. Negative durations are also admissible and cause the next page to commence while the current page is still running. For example, you could let a copyright title card fade in while the credits are still rolling out of frame.

Behavior: Card

When the Behavior setting is set to “Card”, the page behaves as a title card. That is, it fades in, stays still for some time, and then fades out again.

Card/Fade In/Fade Out Duration

These settings specify how long the title card will stay fully visible and how long it takes to fade in and out. Notice that the fading times do neither include black nor fully opaque frames. For example, setting the Fade In Duration to “2” frames will generate one frame with ⅓ opacity and a second frame with ⅔ opacity.

Behavior: Scroll

When the Behavior setting is set to “Scroll”, the page slowly rolls down the screen at a constant speed.

Melt with Preceding/Following Page

If enabled, the scroll page absorbs the neighboring page into a bigger page. For example, say that a scroll page is melted with a following card page. The scroll first commences as usual, but then at its end actually includes the card and stops on it; the card then takes over and finally fades out after its display duration has passed. You could use this feature to, for example, stop the credits roll on a final copyright notice, which then gracefully fades out.

There is no limit to the type and number of pages you can melt together. For example, you could melt two scroll pages back-to-back. Or you could have an elaborate sequence of cards and scrolls all melt into a single page, which then looks like a single scroll that pauses multiple times.

Scroll per Frame

The scroll page will scroll down this amount of pixels in every frame. For 2K resolutions, a speed of 3 is a good tradeoff between rapidity and readability. Analogously, a speed of 6 is well-suited for 4K resolutions. Other choices can of course also be valid.

Attention! It is highly advised to only use integer speeds here. If you use a fractional speed, the text’s alignment relative to the pixel raster changes every frame, which causes the pixels to be filled differently. This often leads to undesirable shimmer.