Simulating Handwriting
Simulating Handwriting- special effects and filmmaking
It probably isn't SFX, but it's close enough. I'd like to be able to simulate someone writing the text for my title scenes. I don't want to simulate a hand or anything, I just want the text to appear gradually, as if someone were writing it.
The obvious way to do it (I thought) was to do it manually. I created a filmstrip of my (finished) title card, and, working from the last frame and going backwards, slowly erasing pieces of the lettering. Well, I figured it would take 20 seconds to write out the phrase I'm using, and, even at 15 frames a second, that's still 300 frames to animate. I don't have that kind of patience, especially on something I'm not getting paid for.
Anybody have any other ways of doing this?
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TL
daa Productions
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I had to do something like this for a multimedia project about 2 years ago. I used deluxe paint animator to erase back wards part of each frame. Yup it was a pain in the ass. Its a bit quicker with a 2d animation program like deluxepaint animator,pro motion, aura, or ulead video paint. Now you could do it in a 3d program like lightwave that has effectors that will erase/reveal stuff as they pass an object. You can create the text in 3d and then the motion path of the effector to reveal the text over time. I can't think of how to do this in after effects, anyone? Masking or something with paths?
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