Text Matrix plugin.
Flashing, streaming numbers and characters are an often-requested effect. In many cases, you don’t even
care what the text says. You just need some garbage text flickering away
to provide a background texture for the important part of
the project. But random, pulsating text effects are often very time consuming. Enter Text Matrix!
Move text along streams.
The Text Matrix plugin moves
text along streams. At a very basic level, this plugin creates
'matrix-esqe' effects, with text raining down. Our example below
is exactly that. No keyframes, only one layer. Just create a solid,
apply the plugin, and make a few parameter tweaks.
You can certainly get some
interesting effects beyond the defaults by playing with just a few
sliders. But there's a lot more to Text Matrix. This plugin goes
deeper to create layered visuals with no keyframes and only the
initial solid it's applied to. |
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Use Time Offset for great results.
Another useful feature in setting Text
Matrix is the Time Offset parameter. This lets you time-remap
the text streams. It's also great for scrubbing through your animation to make sure it has the look you want.
Let's say you like the way the filter looks on frame 90 and want to use that as your starting frame. You COULD grab the layer and move it so it starts 3 seconds before the beginning of the Timeline.
Or you could set Time Offset to 90. That tells the composition to move forward 90 frames, when it starts the animation. It's a lot simpler. |
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This project by Reid Roberts combines Text Matrix, a dingbat font, and After Effects' Polar Coordinates filter [play] |
Design your own text path.
A cool feature of Text Matrix is its ability to use Bezier paths to control the streams and text characters. Simply create a mask to control where the streams go. Create outlines around shapes, undulating waves of text, or anything else that uses static or animated masks. NOTE: Bezier paths only work in After Effects, not in Final Cut Pro.
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