Title Cards: Animate the Entrance, Then Hold Still to Be Read
A title card needs about 2 seconds plus 1 per 3 words, with the words dead still while they're read. Five genre cards show the entrances and exits.
A title card needs about 2 seconds plus 1 second for every 3 words, from the first frame of its entrance to the last frame of its exit. Inside that time the motion has one job: bring the words in, go completely still while they're read, then take them away.
Everything that makes a card look designed happens in the entrance, in the frame around the words and in the exit. The words themselves don't move while someone is reading them. The film at the top of the page runs five genres on that rule, and each section below takes one part of it.
The film at the top of the page, from one prompt. Made with FrameCall.
Show the prompt
Prompt: "Make a 25-second film that shows off what a great title card can be: one continuous piece that moves through five title cards from five different genres, each one designed like a real main-title designer made it for that show. 1) A nature documentary: 'The Long Migration', thin elegant serif, the letters gathering out of a drifting flock of tiny birds that settles into the words. 2) A horror film: 'Nobody Answered the Phone', the type flickering on like a failing fluorescent tube in a cold green-grey room, with a slow creeping push-in. 3) A kids' cartoon: 'Pip and the Paper Moon', chunky rounded letters bouncing in one by one with squash and stretch on bright paper-cut colours. 4) A tech review channel: 'Part 2: Battery Life', a bold electric-lime panel wipes across black and the title slams in with a short motion blur and a hard stop. 5) A 1940s noir: 'Chapter Four' over 'The Rain Kept Every Secret She Told Me That Night', typewriter-style letters under venetian-blind shadows and falling rain. The rule that makes them work: each card makes its entrance in its own style, then everything on the words goes completely still so the viewer can read it once comfortably, and the cards with more words stay up longer. Only the background is allowed to keep living during the read (rain, dust, the flicker of the room), never the words. The transitions are the showpiece: every card's exit should grow into the next card's entrance instead of cutting, so the birds scatter into the darkness of the horror room, the flickering light snaps on into the cartoon's paper sky, a paper cutout tears away to reveal the lime panel, the panel wipes into the venetian-blind shadows. Real typography for each genre, no corner HUD text, no generic glow or particle bursts beyond the birds."
The entrance tells the viewer the genre
Before anyone reads a word, the way the card arrives has told them what they're watching. "The Long Migration" gathers out of a flock of birds drifting over a dusk sky, which says nature documentary. "Nobody Answered the Phone" stutters on with a failing fluorescent tube in a tiled room, so the dread is in place before the sentence is.
Pick the entrance from the subject. Squash and stretch on each letter of "Pip and the Paper Moon" reads as a cartoon, and the same bounce would undercut a documentary. A glow or a particle burst could sit on any card, which is exactly why it says nothing about this one. A logo sting follows the same logic, as the guide to AI logo animation shows.
Hold still long enough to read once
Once the words land, stop moving them. Nobody can read a line that drifts, scales or shimmers, and every frame of motion on the text is time the viewer spends tracking it. Then hold for the reading time, about 1 second for every 3 words, with the entrance and exit added on top.
"The Long Migration" is three words, so it needs about 3 seconds in total. The noir card, "Chapter Four" over "The Rain Kept Every Secret She Told Me That Night", has 11, and it stays up longer than anything else in the film. Its typewriter entrance prints the title in reading order, so the viewer starts reading before the line is finished. Then the type sits dead still while rain and blind shadows move behind it.
A card the viewer has to remember, like a date, a name or a warning, needs about twice the reading time, because they'll read it twice.
Still words, living frame
Still words don't need a frozen frame. The background can keep moving through the hold as long as nothing in it competes with the text: slow, low in contrast, and never crossing the letters with anything bright. In this vertical opener for a cooking series, steam curls up through the frame for the full 18 seconds while each card sits still.
Show the prompt
Prompt: "Vertical opener for my cooking series on Instagram and TikTok, about 18 seconds. It's called 'Slow Sundays' and this episode is French onion soup. I want it to feel warm and handmade, like a cosy food magazine come to life: a deep cream and brown palette, one tomato-red accent, a soft paper texture, and steam that curls up through the whole frame the entire time. It plays as three title cards that flow into each other. First the series title 'Slow Sundays', big bold condensed letters that rise through the steam and lock into place with a red underline that draws itself. Then 'Episode 3' over 'French Onion Soup', where thin illustrated onion slices spiral in and settle into a ring around the words. Last, a chapter card, 'Step one: Caramelize the onions slowly, it takes about forty five minutes', set in a friendly serif. Each card enters with its own gesture, then the words sit completely still for long enough to read them once, longer for the longer card, while the steam and a gentle light keep drifting behind them. Each card should hand off to the next with a transition made out of what's already on screen, like the steam thickening into a cloud that clears on the next card, or the onion ring spinning away. Keep all the text in the middle of the frame, well away from the top and bottom where Instagram and TikTok put their buttons and captions."
The three cards get different holds. "Slow Sundays" and the episode card are short and move on quickly. The step card has 11 words, so it stays up longest, and its italic second line arrives a beat after the first, in the order the sentence is read.
Let each exit become the next entrance
In a title sequence or a run of chapter cards, the moment between cards is where the craft shows. A hard cut between unrelated cards reads as a slideshow. Build each exit out of the card it leaves: here the cartoon sky tears open on the lime band of the tech card, the band smears sideways and splits into slats, and the slats become the venetian-blind shadows of the noir card.
A single card works the same way on a smaller scale. Give its exit about half a second, and let it reverse the entrance or carry something into the next shot, so the edit flows on instead of stopping.
Keep text away from the edges
TVs can crop the edge of the picture, and phones cover it with buttons. On a 16:9 card, keep every line at least 5% in from each edge. For Reels and TikTok, Meta's Reels ads guide suggests leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text, which is why the cooking opener keeps all three cards in the middle. Meta wrote those numbers for ads, and the same buttons and captions sit over every vertical post.
Make a title card from a prompt
In FrameCall you describe the card in the prompt box: the exact words in quotes, the genre or feeling, how it enters and leaves, and that the words hold still long enough to read. The preview plays as soon as the first version is written, you send a follow-up to change anything, and you export an MP4. The prompt guide has more to start from, and the free kinetic typography generator makes a few lines of moving type with no prompt at all.
New accounts get 100 free credits with no card, and a new video on the Quality tier, which made both films here, typically costs $1 to $2.50 in credits.
Text that has to sit over running footage is a lower third, not a title card. If you'd rather set every keyframe by hand, the After Effects alternatives compare the timeline tools, and the guide to making motion graphics without After Effects walks through a full build in FrameCall.
FAQ
How long should a title card stay on screen?
About 2 seconds plus 1 second for every 3 words, counted from the start of the entrance to the end of the exit: 3 seconds for a three-word title, 5 for nine words. A date, a name or a warning the viewer has to remember needs about twice the reading time.
What is the difference between a title card and a lower third?
A title card fills the frame and stands between shots. A lower third is a name or caption that sits over footage in the bottom part of the frame while the video keeps playing.
Can I make a vertical title card for Reels and TikTok?
Yes. Start a 9:16 video and keep the text in the middle: Meta suggests leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text, because the app's buttons and captions cover those areas.
Can I export a title card with a transparent background?
Not from FrameCall, which exports MP4 (H.264) only. Make the card full frame and cut it into your edit as its own shot, or build an overlay in a tool that exports alpha, such as After Effects with ProRes 4444.
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