Animated Text After Effects.. at DVinfo.net

Russell Pearce · October 5th, 2006, 02:29 PM

I'm pretty new to AE, a client has asked for animated text, basics are ok
but in one part they want certain letters to drop away and the letters left will spell out a new word eg:

"premier"

the r,m,i would drop away and then the remaing letters would close together and the word "peer" would be formed

Ive got a feeling this might not be easy or certainly alot of graft!
any pointers in the right direction would be most welcome

cheers Russ.

Jim Montgomery · October 5th, 2006, 04:39 PM

Russell

The easiest way would be to put each letter on its own layer. Then you could keyframe the position of the letters that you want to fall away and then keyframe the remaining letters to come together to form the new word.

Jim

Shaughan Flynn · October 5th, 2006, 07:40 PM

What Jim said. It's pretty easy that way =- should take you less than 30 minutes to do it.

Russell Pearce · October 6th, 2006, 03:22 AM

cheers lads :)

Pete Bauer · October 6th, 2006, 08:32 AM

Your problem caught my interest and I fiddled a little bit last night in AE, but ran out of time. It looks like you could do this with as few as two layers; one containing just the characters that are to drop out and another for the characters that will squeeze together to fill the space (you'd use keyframed kerning and word tracking to do the "squeeze").

With a lot of tweaking, I think it might even be done with one layer using Animation Groups and keyframes for character kerning and position, and tracking...but probably more hassle than just doing each letter individually as Jim said.

Conor Ryan · October 6th, 2006, 08:59 AM

As Pete suggests, an alternate method would be to write your text and then add an animation to it. Open the text layer in the timeline and you'll see a button called animate. Add a position animation, one for each letter, and set your range selector (expand the options for the animation), to the left and right of the letter you want to drop. Then you can keyframe the Y value of the position for each, and control the letters drop speed independently.

October 5th, 2006, 02:29 PM	#1
Russell Pearce Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Birmingham England Posts: 69 Images: 1	Animated Text After Effects.. I'm pretty new to AE, a client has asked for animated text, basics are ok but in one part they want certain letters to drop away and the letters left will spell out a new word eg: "premier" the r,m,i would drop away and then the remaing letters would close together and the word "peer" would be formed Ive got a feeling this might not be easy or certainly alot of graft! any pointers in the right direction would be most welcome cheers Russ.

October 5th, 2006, 07:40 PM	#3
Shaughan Flynn Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 272	What Jim said. It's pretty easy that way =- should take you less than 30 minutes to do it. __________________ B-Scene Films

October 6th, 2006, 08:32 AM	#5
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	Your problem caught my interest and I fiddled a little bit last night in AE, but ran out of time. It looks like you could do this with as few as two layers; one containing just the characters that are to drop out and another for the characters that will squeeze together to fill the space (you'd use keyframed kerning and word tracking to do the "squeeze"). With a lot of tweaking, I think it might even be done with one layer using Animation Groups and keyframes for character kerning and position, and tracking...but probably more hassle than just doing each letter individually as Jim said. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

October 5th, 2006, 04:39 PM	#2
Jim Montgomery Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Vero Beach Posts: 392	Russell The easiest way would be to put each letter on its own layer. Then you could keyframe the position of the letters that you want to fall away and then keyframe the remaining letters to come together to form the new word. Jim

October 6th, 2006, 03:22 AM	#4
Russell Pearce Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Birmingham England Posts: 69 Images: 1	cheers lads :)

October 6th, 2006, 08:59 AM	#6
Conor Ryan Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 67	As Pete suggests, an alternate method would be to write your text and then add an animation to it. Open the text layer in the timeline and you'll see a button called animate. Add a position animation, one for each letter, and set your range selector (expand the options for the animation), to the left and right of the letter you want to drop. Then you can keyframe the Y value of the position for each, and control the letters drop speed independently.