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Getting Started: Black Card with Transparent Letter Cutouts

The dramatic version of a title card. You'll end with a black PNG whose letters are transparent holes. When you drop it into ForgeAssembler, the letters reveal whatever is behind the card — the next clip, a held frame, a color, anything.

This is the "scope reveal" / "reverse silhouette" look common in film trailers. Slightly more involved than a plain white title, but still beginner-friendly.

If you've never used Figma before, follow every step. It assumes no prior knowledge.

What you need

Step 1 — Create a new Figma file

  1. Sign in and click the blue + Design file button on your dashboard.
  2. Rename the file at the top-left to Title Cards — Black Cutout.

Step 2 — Create a frame at your target resolution

A frame is your fixed-size export boundary — pick one that matches the output resolution you'll forge at.

  1. Press F (Frame tool).
  2. In the right sidebar, set W and H to the pixel size from the table below.
  3. Click on the canvas to drop the frame.
  4. Rename it in the Layers panel (left sidebar) — e.g. Title / 1920x1080.

ForgeAssembler resolutions

Name in ForgeAssembler Width × Height Aspect
1080p (default) 1920 × 1080 16:9
1440p 2560 × 1440 16:9
4k 3840 × 2160 16:9
uw_1080p 2560 × 1080 21:9 UltraWide
uw_1440p 3440 × 1440 21:9 UltraWide
4_3_hd 1440 × 1080 4:3
3_4_hd 1080 × 1440 3:4 portrait
9_16_hd 1080 × 1920 9:16 portrait (TikTok/Reels)

If unsure, start with 1080p.

Step 3 — Fill the frame with pure black

  1. Click the frame.
  2. In the right sidebar, find the Fill section.
  3. Click the fill color swatch and enter hex 000000.
  4. Confirm opacity is 100%.

The frame is now a solid black rectangle.

Step 4 — Add your title text on top of the black

  1. Press T (Text tool).
  2. Click in the center of the frame and type your title — e.g. WILD RIDE.
  3. In the right sidebar:
  4. Font: pick something bold. Inter Black, Bebas Neue, or Montserrat Black all look great cutout.
  5. Style: choose the heaviest weight available (Black, ExtraBold).
  6. Size: pick from this table and adjust to taste:
    • 1080p → 200–280
    • 1440p → 260–360
    • 4k → 400–560
    • uw_1080p / uw_1440p → experiment — you have more horizontal space
    • 4_3_hd → 160–220
    • 3_4_hd / 9_16_hd → 140–200
  7. Fill: any color for now (white is easiest to see while you work). The fill will be replaced by transparency at the end.
  8. Alignment: Center.

Step 5 — Center the text on the frame

  1. Select the text layer.
  2. Hold Shift and click the frame so both are selected.
  3. Use the alignment buttons at the top of the right sidebar — Align horizontal centers and Align vertical centers.

The text sits exactly centered on the black.

Step 6 — Convert the text to vector outlines

The boolean "subtract" operation requires vector shapes, not live text. This step flattens the text so the letters become paths. Duplicate the text layer first so you can edit the wording later if needed.

  1. Select the text.
  2. Press Ctrl/Cmd + D to duplicate it.
  3. Click the eye icon next to the original text layer in the Layers panel to hide it — this is your backup.
  4. Select the duplicate text layer.
  5. Right-click on the canvas and choose Outline stroke (or Flatten selection, depending on your Figma version — both work for pure fill text).

The duplicate is now a set of vector paths shaped like the letters. You can confirm by looking at the Layers panel — its icon changes from a "T" to a vector shape.

Step 7 — Subtract the letters from the black frame

This is the magic step.

  1. In the Layers panel, select both the black frame and the outlined text (hold Ctrl/Cmd and click each).
  2. Look at the top toolbar for the Boolean operations icon — it looks like two overlapping squares. Click the dropdown arrow next to it.
  3. Choose Subtract selection.

The black rectangle now has transparent letter-shaped holes in it. You should see the canvas background (usually gray checkers) through the letters.

If the result looks inverted (letters are black, everything else transparent), you selected the order wrong. Press Ctrl/Cmd + Z to undo and try again — in Figma's subtract, the top layer is subtracted from the bottom layer. If your text is underneath the frame, pull it up first.

Step 8 — Export as a PNG with alpha

  1. Click the frame in the Layers panel.
  2. In the right sidebar, scroll to Export and click +.
  3. Settings:
  4. Format: PNG
  5. Scale: 1x
  6. Click Export and save the file — e.g. C:\Users\bruce\Videos\title_cards\wildride_1080p.png.

Open the PNG in any image viewer that supports transparency (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, Firefox). You should see a black rectangle with transparent letter-shaped holes.

Step 9 — Use it in ForgeAssembler

A cutout title card works best over a second layer of something, since the letters are transparent holes. ForgeAssembler composites it for you natively — you don't need to flatten the PNG against a reveal image yourself.

Via the UI

  1. Launch ForgeAssembler.
  2. Add the segment you want the cutout to appear over first (e.g. the preceding video clip).
  3. On the Build tab, use "Add a title card (PNG still)":
  4. PNG file — the cutout PNG you just exported.
  5. Hold seconds — how long the cutout should stay on screen (e.g. 2.5).
  6. Background — select "Previous segment's last frame".
  7. ForgeAssembler extracts the last frame of your preceding clip, composites the cutout PNG over it, and holds the result for the duration you picked. The transparent letter-holes reveal the frozen frame underneath.
  8. Optionally add audio — a replacement MP3/WAV sting, or silence.
  9. Forge.

Via project JSON

A cutout-over-held-frame segment looks like this:

{
  "id": "seg-reveal-1",
  "type": "segment",
  "video": "C:/Users/bruce/Videos/title_cards/wildride_1080p.png",
  "still_duration_s": 2.5,
  "background": "previous_last_frame",
  "audio": {
    "mode": "replace",
    "file": "C:/Users/bruce/Videos/title_cards/sting.mp3"
  }
}

The segment immediately before this one in the project's items list supplies the frame that gets frozen behind the cutout letters.

Why not just use a black background?

If you set "background": "black" (or leave it off — that's the default), the transparent letters render as black against black and you won't see the cutout at all. That mode is intended for the white-on-transparent workflow covered in the companion guide, where the visible pixels are the text. For the scope-reveal effect of this guide, always pair the cutout with previous_last_frame.

Step 10 — Export more resolutions

  1. Select your finished frame.
  2. Press Ctrl/Cmd + D to duplicate it.
  3. Click the duplicate and change W and H in the right sidebar to the next resolution.
  4. The duplicate may distort — re-center and re-scale the cutout text until it looks balanced.
  5. Export each frame as a separate PNG with a clear name.

Troubleshooting

  • Subtract inverts the result (letters are black, rest transparent). Layer order is swapped. Undo, move the text layer above the frame, and subtract again.
  • Exported PNG shows a solid black background with no visible letters. The subtract didn't actually happen, or the letters are rendered in the same color as the background. Re-check Step 7.
  • Letters look jagged. Figma's boolean at export is clean — if the PNG itself looks jagged, your viewer is displaying it at less than 100% zoom. In the video output, it will be smooth.
  • Cutout shows black in the forged video, not a reveal. You left the Background set to "Black" (or omitted it). Re-add the segment with Background: Previous segment's last frame (Step 9).