1-

Slow down the text speed in Text Grid.

2-

Can I create text in 3D?

3-

What are 'Randomness' parameters?

4-

The difference between TypeOn and Screen Text.

5-

Create an effect of letters flipping upwards.

6-

Are there any templates for the text effects?

7-

Difference between Cool Text and Spiral Text.

8-

Difference between Cool Text and Spiral Text.

Q

I've been playing with Text Grid, but I cant seem to slow the speed that the text appears. It's so fast that it just look awful. I've made is a simple square grid in the corner of my screen and I want the text to randomly change, but slowly.

A

Change the 'Rate Of Change' parameter. It works in frames, so if you change it to 6, all the characters will change every 6 frames. If you want the characters to change at somewhat different times, set the 'ROC Randomness' to something like 50%.

Q

Does Text Anarchy animate in 3D space? I'd like to move the streams in Z-space without moving the layer.

A

No. this text is only 2D. You can fake the effect in After Effects by applying our plugins to a 3D layer and moving the layer, but that only sort of works. We suggest looking at Zaxworks' 3D Invigorator.

Q

What do the 'Randomness' parameters do exactly?

A

A ‘Randomness’ parameter helps you vary the values of the parameter its associated with. These options are great for creating wildly varying animations.

You can do this work in seconds, literally, often without having to set keyframes or give up overall control of the animation. Randomness parameters exist in Text Anarchy and Geomancy plugins. Read more about 'Randomness' params on this page.

Q

Two plugins in Text Anarchy seem to both simulate a typing on effect. What's the difference between the Screen Text and TypeOn plugins?

A

Basically, TypeOn is used when trying to mimic a human. Screen Text is used when you're mimicking a computer.

Type On gives you a high degree of control over how and when text appears on screen. You can manipulate the 'Completion' parameter and the speed curves to easily mimic the uneven typing rate of someone using a keyboard. Additional params like 'Cursor' and 'Blink Speed' further reinforce this effect.

Screen Text is better suited to generating random text streams. You can control when the text appears by manipulating the 'Rate of Change' param. By adding Random Characters, you can quickly generate grids of text that mimic 'data' being spit out by a computer.

Q

I'm trying to recreate the look of an old train's arrival board. The letters flip down sequentially, until the train flips all the letters in order to read out the city's name. I think this may also be an old way the stock ticker worked. Can your filter do this?

A

The Text Hacker filter in Text Anarchy sort of does what you're looking for. However, it mimics a digital display, which won't immediately give you that 'flipping card' type of feeling. You _might_ get the effect if you add a Directional Blur and have a 3D layer rotating rapidly in the background.

Q

I'd like a simple way of starting out with Text anarchy. Do you have any templates for the effects that I can then customize for different projects?

A

We have downloadable templates for Text Anarchy in After Effects. These are called 'Animation Presets', and they are After Effects files that you load into your timeline through the Effects palette. It is a simple, standard After Effects operation. You can download the presets from this page.

Q

I'm trying to figure out when I would use the Cool Text plugin isntead of Spiral Text plugin, or vice versa. They seem to have overlapping functions.

A

Cool Text allows the user to set an effect in motion that would span the text much like a wave or ripple. By combining several of the available effects such as Color and Blur and changing their Positions in tandem, you can create a moving element with definable properties, within words or lines of text. These effects could also be set to Affect All and to fade up or down.

Spiral Text allows you to 'blend' geometric and/or color properties over the length of the specified text. By setting different rotation, tracking, color, opacity, font size, and additional properties for the Beginning and Ending Params, each character lying between the Beginning and End would take on a unique value. Subsequently animating the Beginning and/or Ending Params sets into motion a wave or ripple of geometric and/or color effects.

Path Controls further expand the applications of these effects. By defining a Preset or user-defined path and animating the Start/End Point, users can use text to create complicated textures that follow simple geometric shapes.