Writing with Particles
by Geno Palazzari
on
Oct 4, 2008 at 9:01:34 pm
Howdy! I am working in After Effects 7.0 (trying desperately to get the company to upgrade).
I was messing around with the Star Trail animation preset and I thought it would be cool to write stuff with it and then have it fall as it faded out. I figured I would just set up a simple paint layer using the write on effect and then somehow (here's the problem) get the producer to follow the paint stroke as it goes through the words. The error I get is you can't mix spatial (producer) and temporal (paint write on) keyframes. I understand the error, but that still isn't helping me to solve my problem.
I may be going about this completely wrong too. If anyone has suggestions, I would appreciate it.
Have a good weekend!
G
Geno A. Palazzari
Creative Services Commerical Producer
KAAL-TV
Rochester, MN
Re: Writing with Particles by Dave LaRonde on Oct 5, 2008 at 6:59:12 pm
• Make a solid that's the same size and pixel aspect ration as the comp.
• Make a mask (or masks) to create the word.
• Highlight the mask, make a keyframe for it, and copy the keyframe.
• Paste the information into the producer point's position property.
It ought to work.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Writing with Particles by mark harvey on Oct 6, 2008 at 12:51:53 pm
You can also use the masks to create the word using the stroke filter. Then create a duplicate of the that layer and animate the stroke in and out so that the numbers are very close (ie in 0 out .2 then end 99.8 out 100)....Now this will create a dot that follows the masks....now simply motion track this dot and use the particle producer point as the target.
Re: Writing with Particles by david bogie on Oct 6, 2008 at 3:24:38 pm
Writing on the screen is never that simple. You must change some of the keyframes to holds to simulate pen lifts between words and to dot the Is or cross the Ts.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: Writing with Particles by Geno Palazzari on Oct 6, 2008 at 4:05:13 pm
Acutally, I just make a keyframe where a word or letter ends and then copy and paste that keyframe a few frames laternsimulate the lifting of the pen. Didn't think about holding keyframes... Might have to try that for fun. Thanks for the suggestion.
Geno A. Palazzari
Creative Services Commerical Producer
KAAL-TV
Rochester, MN
