Text-behind-subject
A title layered behind a cutout person or object, so the foreground hides part of the letters and gives the shot depth.
See it
What it is
Text-behind-subject places a title between the background plate and a cutout of the foreground person or object. The letters disappear where the foreground matte covers them, creating depth even though the shot is still assembled from flat layers. The cutout usually comes from rotoscoping, a tracked mask, or a clean alpha channel. Poster design has used the same trick for decades, tucking the title behind the actor's shoulders.
Reach for it in introductions, music videos, sports edits, and short social clips when a title should feel embedded in the shot instead of stuck on top. Let a shoulder, hand, or edge cross the type while enough of each word remains visible to read at normal playback speed.
Gotcha: the illusion lives at the matte edge. Hair, motion blur, and fast gestures can produce a bright halo or a mask that chatters from frame to frame. Refine the edge at full resolution, match the title's motion blur when it moves, and never hide the few letter shapes a viewer needs to identify the word.
Ask AI for it
Create a text-behind-subject title in Adobe After Effects. Duplicate the footage, isolate the foreground person on the top copy with Roto Brush 2, refine hair and motion-blurred edges, and Freeze the propagation. Place the title between the cutout and the original plate, keeping at least 70 percent of every word readable while one shoulder crosses the letters. Feather the matte by 2 px at 1080p, remove any edge halo, and enable motion blur on the title if it animates.