Typewriter effect

Discussions about animating in SOFTIMAGE©
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nospitters
Posts: 52
Joined: 06 Jul 2012, 18:08
Location: bremen, germany

Typewriter effect

Post by nospitters » 20 Jan 2014, 14:45

hi all,

i need a typewriter effect animation in xsi and i am hoping that someone can help me out.
my first try was to generate the text with the "curves to mesh" tool and then with ice-topo to delete the polygons inside a simple animated cube.
but the characters-mesh generated by the "curve to mesh" are not only one polygon big (especially if the characters have holes), so not the whole character is visible at once.
does anybody know another workaround for this...
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luceric
Posts: 1251
Joined: 22 Jun 2009, 00:08

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by luceric » 20 Jan 2014, 15:18

you might be able to yourself a lot of trouble by just animating a black rectangle that hides and reveals the text, and composite that render on the background . no need for ice.

Letterbox
Posts: 391
Joined: 17 Jun 2009, 14:49

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by Letterbox » 20 Jan 2014, 15:24

or if you have After Effects, visit youtube and search "after effects typewriter effect".

nospitters
Posts: 52
Joined: 06 Jul 2012, 18:08
Location: bremen, germany

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by nospitters » 20 Jan 2014, 15:40

yes thats possible.
but the the typewriter effect has to correspond to an animated camera within xsi and other animated object in the scene.
also i want to keep everything in xsi to be more flexible if something will change in the text or object animations.
i also deal with a lot of text and animating a "mask" within xsi so that every character is visible at once (like a cursor) is painfull.
also the workflow between AE and xsi is also not so ideal...
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NNois
Posts: 754
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 20:33

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by NNois » 20 Jan 2014, 15:43

for this effect I rely on:
- jj island indexer http://julianjohnsonsblog.blogspot.fr/2 ... lands.html
- em tools http://www.mootzoid.com/plugin/emtools

then do the magic :
- on the polymesh apply "nnMT Initialize Island Data.xsicompound" who calculate and pass island data onto emTools "emVi datas"
- create an ice tree and use "nnVI Create Particles from Island Centers.2.1.xsicompound" who create the particles and set back the particle animation to the original geometry
- Use the supplied "Modify Position/Modify Rotation/Modify/Scale to move/scale rotate the particles
- The original Island ID are reordered internally to pass U/V/W Normalized "Step" as introduced by Gustavo here, so it's compatible http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/mtools/
- I introduce here a Time Modulating Compound to auto animate stuff with "nnMT Modulate Value Over Time.1.4"
- I introduce here also a layer system for complex transformation stacks

Please find in the link bellow a very all compounds + a simple sample scene
it's all automated just change values in the modulate time compound

For your typewriter effect just animate the particles In Z + scale, you can now for example link this Z to your camera position if needed etc, no limits ;-)

PS: Posted in a rush tell me if it's incomprehensible !

++
Noël

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hzppbjrdgaywbv7/zfeD9vEg2E
Attachments
iceTreeCapture.png

nospitters
Posts: 52
Joined: 06 Jul 2012, 18:08
Location: bremen, germany

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by nospitters » 20 Jan 2014, 16:11

thanx a lot. but i could nor open the sample scene because i am on 2013 sp1.
also i get an error that some compounds are missing "nnMT Particle Transforms"...
The Soulcage Department
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nospitters
Posts: 52
Joined: 06 Jul 2012, 18:08
Location: bremen, germany

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by nospitters » 20 Jan 2014, 16:23

ok i got it, without the missing componds.
i just plugged a "test inside geometry" and modify the particle scale by an animated cube.
cool...
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http://www.soulcage-department.de

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Daniel Brassard
Posts: 878
Joined: 18 Mar 2010, 23:38
Location: St. Thomas, Ontario
Contact:

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by Daniel Brassard » 20 Jan 2014, 18:26

If you want to keep everything in XSI, don't forget the FXTree.
$ifndef "Softimage"
set "Softimage" "true"
$endif

NNois
Posts: 754
Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 20:33

Re: Typewriter effect

Post by NNois » 20 Jan 2014, 21:05

ok sorry, the missing compound is here now.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hzppbjrdgaywbv7/zfeD9vEg2E

PS:you can do what you whant how you want in place of the "nnLayerMT" things. Like a get particle scale > modulate by volume > set particle scale. But keep in mind than the power of my method is you don't ever have to create a keyframe ;-)

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