Lower third
Also searched as: chyron, name super, name strap, identifier strap
Canonical Definition
A lower third is a graphic overlay positioned in the lower portion of the screen that identifies a speaker, location, or subject without obstructing key facial features.
Enter: 15-20 frames; Hold: 90-150 frames (3-5s); Exit: 15 frames
cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)
Originating in television broadcast news, lower thirds are essential for documentary, podcast, interview, and testimonial video. They present two levels of information: primary (who is this person?) and secondary (why should I listen to them?).
In modern 9:16 social video, lower thirds must be re-engineered: interface furniture (captions, like buttons, profile pills) consumes the traditional lower margin, requiring compact, elevated layouts.
Editorial Accent Bars & Modern Straps
Minimalist horizontal rules that animate with directionality
A clean bar slides into the frame, wipes open a container for the name, and holds stably while the speaker introduces their premise.
How this works: A clean horizontal accent rule reveals the speaker's name and title with crisp left-to-right clipping masks.
- Parametric name and title strings with automatic width calculation
- Directional wipe masked to container boundary
- Contrasting kicker bar for brand accent color
Bold Modern Pill and Card Layouts
High-contrast geometric containers for noisy live-action footage
When footage backgrounds vary in brightness, a translucent or solid dark container guarantees legibility without needing ugly black dropshadows.
How this works: A stacked pill lower-third that anchors the speaker's organization and title on contrasting background plates.
- Staggered entrance between kicker and name
- Rounded pill backdrop with background blur
- Safe-area compliant vertical positioning
Engineering Guidelines & Common Pitfalls
Best Practices (What to do)
- Always ensure the name is visually prioritized over the title (e.g. 18px Bold vs 13px Regular).
- Animate out smoothly before the camera cuts to a different angle.
Common Failure Modes (What to avoid)
- Placing lower thirds right at the physical bottom edge where TikTok/Reels captions cover them.
- Keeping them on screen for 10+ seconds until they distract from the speaker's face.
Working catalog implementations
Typed Remotion components ready to drop into code.
Lower Third — Clean Bar
Minimal white-card lower third for podcasts/interviews: accent tab, name + role, clip-wipe entrance
Lower Third — Kicker Name
Cardless lower third with an accent eyebrow/kicker tag, heavy name, and a drawn baseline; for footage
Lower Third — BILD Style
News-style lower third with tight-fit text boxes: white headline bar with red drop-shadow, red sub-line with white drop-shadow.
Neon Border
Two arcs of light travel the edge of a rounded panel and snap corner to corner, trailing a soft three-layer bloom. A lower third for a name and role.
Build lower third in Animatiq
Prompt our motion agent in natural language. Get back typed Remotion React code with custom easing curves, brand palettes, and frame-accurate timing.
Related motion principles
Word-level captions
Word-level captions are subtitles timed to individual words rather than full phrases, where each word dynamically scales, highlights, or enters at the exact millisecond it is spoken.
Motion FundamentalsAspect ratios & safe areas
Aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between a video frame's width and height (16:9 for landscape, 9:16 for vertical reels, 1:1 for square feeds), defining compositional margins and UI safe zones.
Motion FundamentalsB-roll & cutaways
B-roll is supplementary footage, device mockups, or motion diagrams cut over primary footage to illustrate the speaker's words and seamlessly conceal edit seams.