Animated Lower Thirds in vMix with Alpha
vMix reads the alpha channel of ProRes 4444 MOV files, so a Titlo lower third can be added as an ordinary video input and fired on one of vMix's overlay channels — no chroma key and no GT Title template required.
What you need
- vMix (any edition that supports overlays and video inputs).
- A lower third exported from Titlo as MOV ProRes 4444, at your vMix project's resolution and frame rate.
1. Add the lower third as an input
- Click Add Input, choose Video, and select your
.mov. - Open the input's settings and make sure Loop is off, so the animation plays its intro, hold and exit once.
2. Fire it on an overlay channel
Every input has buttons 1 to 4 under its preview: they send it to overlay channels 1–4, layered on top of whatever is on Program. Click 1 to bring the lower third on air, and again to take it off. The overlay channel settings let you choose the in/out transition and an automatic duration, and vMix triggers can take the overlay out when the video completes — handy so nobody has to remember to remove it.
vMix also has an option to restart a video input automatically when it transitions on air; with it enabled, every trigger replays the lower third from its first frame.
3. Optional: key & fill to a hardware switcher
If your show is switched on an ATEM or another hardware mixer, vMix can output the graphics as two signals — fill (the picture) and key (the alpha as a black-and-white matte). This needs a supported Blackmagic card (DeckLink Duo 2, Quad 2, 4K Extreme, UltraStudio 4K and similar): in the External Output settings, the Alpha Channelsetting sends key and fill on two separate SDI ports. See vMix's Key and Fill documentation for the exact options, and the ATEM guide for the switcher side. The external output carries the whole vMix output, so the usual setup is a vMix dedicated to graphics.
Troubleshooting
Black box instead of transparency
The file has lost its alpha channel — typically after a conversion to MP4/H.264. Use the MOV ProRes 4444 straight from Titlo.
Playback stutters or vMix feels heavy
ProRes 4444 is high bitrate and uses GPU memory while loaded. Keep clips short, store them on a local SSD, and remove lower thirds you no longer need from the input list.
Make the lower third first
Titlo is a browser editor for animated lower thirds: design on a timeline, export MOV ProRes 4444 with alpha or a transparent PNG. The free plan exports 720p with a watermark (MOV up to 4 s) — enough to test the whole workflow in this guide.
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