Lower Third Generator
Six broadcast layout families, animated — exported as full scenes, and honest about it.
A lower third is most of what makes footage read as news: the headline bar, the crawl beneath it, the bug in the corner, the timestamp. Breaking News Maker builds the whole package in six genuinely different layout families — the classic red chyron; a navy evening-bulletin arrangement with a circular logo; a cable layout with floating tabs and the logotype set into the headline bar; an opinion-cable look where a red alert bar carries the crawl; a financial-TV treatment with a two-line sentence-case headline and amber crawl; and a retro 80s set — plus a custom builder for your own colors and text. Every element animates: typewriter headline, looping crawl, pulsing LIVE badge.
Now the honest part, because video editors will ask: exports are full scenes — MP4 or PNG of the entire frame, backdrop included — not transparent overlays with an alpha channel. You cannot drop just the graphics band over your own footage the way you would a .mov with alpha. What does work: set a plain, flat-color backdrop, export the PNG, and crop the lower-third band in your editor — it composites cleanly as an opaque insert over a matching strip, and many news-parody edits simply cut to the full bulletin frame as its own shot, which is the strongest look anyway. If your pipeline strictly needs alpha, a dedicated overlay tool is the right call; this page won't pretend otherwise.
What you get
Six layout families
Not six color schemes — six different arrangements of headline bar, crawl, bug and badge, each drawn from a real broadcast genre, none from a real network.
Fully animated
The headline types, the crawl loops at 60fps, the LIVE badge pulses, the clock runs — motion designed as broadcast graphics, not a static PNG band.
Custom builder for brand work
Your own colors, banner text and bug — useful when the lower third needs to carry a fictional channel you've invented for a sketch or series.
Full-scene MP4 and PNG
8-second 60fps MP4 of the animated scene, or a PNG still — in 16:9 (1920×1080), 9:16 or 1:1.
The cutaway workflow
For editors: use the bulletin as a full-frame cutaway shot, or crop the band from a flat-backdrop PNG as an opaque insert. Both patterns work today; alpha export doesn't exist.
How it works
- 1
Pick the layout family
Match the genre of your edit: evening bulletin, cable, alert-style, financial, retro — or build the look in the custom station builder.
- 2
Write the graphics
Headline, crawl text, bug and timestamp — everything on the band is your text.
- 3
Export for your edit
MP4 for a cutaway shot; PNG over a flat backdrop if you're cropping the band as an insert.
Frequently asked questions
Can I export a transparent lower third for Premiere/Final Cut/OBS?
No — being upfront: exports are complete frames (backdrop included) as MP4 or PNG, with no alpha channel. If a transparent overlay is a hard requirement, a dedicated overlay tool fits better. Where Breaking News Maker wins is speed to a finished, animated, correctly-typeset bulletin scene.
So how do editors actually use it?
Two patterns: cut to the bulletin as its own full-frame shot (the news-parody classic — it reads as 'we now go live'), or export a PNG over a flat-color backdrop and crop the lower-third band as an opaque insert in your NLE.
How different are the six layouts really?
Structurally different — the crawl moves between a standalone bar and an alert bar, the logo moves between a corner bug, a navy box and inside the headline bar, the headline switches between one-line caps and two-line sentence case. They parody different broadcast genres, which is why they don't look like one template recolored.
What does it cost?
Free to start with a Google account; free exports carry a small watermark. See the pricing page for current plans.
Related tools
Try it now — free to start
Open the editor, type your first headline and watch the bulletin animate instantly — then sign in to export.
Open the editor