One of the toughest and most annoying parts of creating a video project is building a good looking lower-third graphic. When many people add names and titles in post, they often just use a standard font with nothing that looks like an actual lower-third graphic by a professional. This makes the video look amateur.

I recently was working on a project where I shot some video on my iPad and used Premiere Clip to start the editing process before finishing in Premiere Pro CC. I was on a plane with minimal leg and arm room (I won’t name the airline), and I wanted to do as much as I could on the iPad. With Adobe Comp, I started thinking about how a video guy could use the app to build graphics, and it’s quite easy.

First, you have to start with creating a new template in Comp. I went with what I call “poor man’s HD” – 1280 x 720.

Then I started building my concept. I used shapes and pulled in graphics I had built in Adobe Shape or the Creative Cloud Market. I added some text and adjusted the opacity of the waves to give my graphic some texture. Notice that I don’t have any background. Comp automatically makes the white background into transparent when you send to Photoshop CC. If you need a guide, you can add a screenshot of your video (if you are doing an interview) and then delete that layer later in Photoshop or before you send it to the desktop.

Next, I tapped the share icon and then tapped “Send to Photoshop.” In about 10 seconds, it popped up on my machine that I was logged into the Creative Cloud with. The great thing about this is I actually was able to send it from my iPad and open it up as soon as I got home on my other computer with Creative Cloud on it.

I changed the text on the graphic in Photoshop and saved a copy for each graphic I needed. You can also create copies of the graphic in Comp and change the text there. 

Finally, I imported the .PSD file into Premiere Pro CC and laid it on a new video track. I added a few dissolves at the beginning and end of the transition to make it fade on and off.

The time I saved here was significant because I am not a Photoshop nor Illustrator expert. I was able to create a simple graphic with a mobile workflow. What are some other projects you have used Comp for?