Best way to make text appear like it was typed.

Nat wrote on 1/21/2003, 3:33 PM

Hello, I am trying to do this effect where you see some text on the screen and it appears like if you were typinf on a computer. This is to simulate a DOS box interface.

I currently do it this way. I create the text and place a linear wipe from left to right at the beginning of the clip. The longer the transition, the longer it takes for the text to appear.

Is there a better way to do it ?

Nat

Comments

Invisible wrote on 1/21/2003, 3:50 PM

Nat,

It depends on how long you want your text to appear on the screen. Let's say 60 characters per minute, and the word your want to appear is: SonicFoundry

This is how I do it:

1. Open text editor in VV3.
2. First letter will be "S"
3. Add a keyframe at the 2nd second, and type in "o". You now have "So"
4. Add a keyframe at the 3rd second, and type in "n". You now have "Son"
5. Add a keyframe at the 4th second, and type in "i". You now have "Soni"
..... and so on....

Ofcourse you can always change it to a faster speed!

Try it out and see for yourself. Good luck

musicvid10 wrote on 1/21/2003, 4:27 PM

Another hint: Use Courier fonts and their variations. I like Courier New.

FadeToBlack wrote on 1/21/2003, 5:06 PM

ibliss wrote on 1/21/2003, 6:47 PM

Nat, check out this thread.

Doing a screen capture you could even do a direct capture of you typing into a DOS box.

BillyBoy wrote on 1/21/2003, 7:03 PM

Much simpler and faster to just use the 3D plug-in and use the crop control to reveal the letters as fast or slow as you wish. Then add some typewriter sound effects if you like. Good suggestion to use a Courier font, since that's what most people expect typewriter text to look like.

Really, very simple. type:

'a whole line of text like this',

then just position the 3D filter to hide all but the first a, then slide the crop filter to the end to reveal it all, stretch frames to make it as slow or as fast as you want each letter revealed letter the key generation insert the keyframes automatically.

FadeToBlack wrote on 1/21/2003, 7:17 PM

stepfour wrote on 1/21/2003, 9:48 PM

Marty Hedler has a tutorial on doing the typewriter effect in Vegas. I just used it a few days ago. Here's the link:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

Spirit wrote on 1/22/2003, 1:25 AM

Even easier is to buy a cheap Flash text effect package like SWFX from www.wildform.com and use one of the "typewriter" effects. You then output as an AVI and import to Vegas.

TorS wrote on 1/22/2003, 1:34 AM

Then add some typewriter sound effects if you like
Good advise, because the sound will help camouflage the fact that letters are revealed gradually and not one by one in full.
Since you're typing into a DOS box a keyboard sound may be more adequate, though.

But nobody writes much text into a DOS box (or do you?) - why don't you just use the text generator and keyframe each letter in. I think at least one of GG's tutorials does it that way. Then the letters appear just like in a DOS box.
Remember: position the text to the left and if you use more than one line, have all the lines in there from the beginning - empty, to avoid old lines jumping up or down to accomodate new ones.
(Courier New or Andale are good font choices.)

Tor

Nat wrote on 1/22/2003, 1:34 AM

Thanks ! Great tips guys !

mikkie wrote on 1/22/2003, 8:59 AM

If you're interested, past articles by the Meyer's (dv.com) deal with this and several other text efects in Adobe After Effects -- I think in the mentioned Boris Red as well.

mike