How to put text behind you in a video

How the effect works

1. The bottom layer is your video, untouched.
2. The middle layer is the text, placed where your head and shoulders are.
3. The top layer is the same video again with the background removed, so only you remain.

Because the top and bottom layers are the same footage, they line up exactly. The only thing that looks different is the text, which is now hidden wherever you are.

Doing it by hand in a layer-based editor

1. Put your clip on the timeline and place a copy of it directly above, at the same start time.
2. Remove the background from the top copy with the editor's background-removal or cut-out tool.
3. Add a text layer between the two copies.
4. Make the text large and position it so that your head overlaps part of it.
5. Play it through and look at your hair and hands, where cut-outs fail first.

The names of these tools differ from editor to editor, but any editor with layers and background removal can do it. The slow part is not the layering; it is checking the cut-out on every part of the clip.

Doing it automatically in Anteras

1. Upload a video of you talking.
2. Open Effects and choose Backdrop word, Glass type, Orbit or Cover story.
3. Type the word, or leave the field empty and the strongest word you say in that part of the video is used.
4. Choose when it plays: the start, the middle, the end or the whole video.
5. Watch the free preview, then export in 1080p.

You are found in every frame and lifted off the background, and the text is scaled to fit the frame. Each effect plays for about four seconds unless you choose the whole video, and a video can have up to three. The tool page: text behind you.

Four things that make it look good

• A short word. The word is scaled to the width of the frame, so six letters come out far bigger than twelve.
• Room above your head. If your head fills the frame, it covers the word. Film with some space above you.
• Contrast with the background. A cut-out is cleanest when your hair and clothes differ from the wall behind you.
• One person. The cut-out is built for a single speaker. A second person can come out with rough edges.

When it goes wrong

Other things to put behind you

The same cut-out makes other effects possible: a glass card above your head that lists your points as you say them, a dimmed and softened room so graphics read clearly, or a new background without a green screen. They are part of the same Effects panel. For where an accent fits in the whole edit, see how to edit a talking-head video.