A character generator (CG for short) is a device or software that produces static or animated text (such as crawls and rolls ) for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are actually computer-based, and can generate graphics as well as text.
Hardware CGs
Hardware CGs are used in television studios and video editing suites. A DTP-like interface can be used to generate static and moving text or graphics, which the device then encodes into some high-quality video signal, like digital SDI or analog component video or even RGB video. In addition, they also provide a key signal, which the compositing vision mixer can use like an alpha channel to determine which areas of the CG video are translucent.
Manufacturers of Hardware CGs include:
- Chyron
- Aston
- PixelPower
- Pesa
- Inscriber
Software CGs
Software CGs are used in nonlinear video editing applications, and are often integrated into video editing software. Some stand-alone products are available, however, for applications that do not even attempt to offer text generation on their own, as high-end video editing software often does, or whose internal CG effects are not flexible and powerful enough. Some software CGs can be used in live production with special software and computer video interface cards. In that case, they are equivalent to hardware CGs.
Software CGs include:
