Writing Effect in AE?

[Stregga]

Chuck,

I know I asked a similar question in the past using PE but I am wondering if it is possible to use AE to create a writing effect? If so, you wouldn't happen to know how to do it, would you? If so, I think that would be a great tutorial. I don't know if you were even thinking of doing tutorial on a program like AE, but I have been dabbling with it (wow, is it high end! ) and thought if you had any pointers on it, it would be great to hear them. Who knows, maybe there'll be enough interest that you may even make it it's own catagory on the forum.

[Chuck Engels]

There was a whole mess of stuff about this on the Adobe forum a year ago or so.
We do have the Tips and Tricks forum, that is what this kind of stuff is for and why I moved this topic there

I will try to find the stuff that came up in the past and post it for you, there were some great ideas.
I am sure there will be plenty of other suggestions about how to do this coming along soon

For starters you can check out the Writing With Lightning tutorial at Wrigley Video
http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutori ... riting.htm

[Chuck Engels]

Here is a post from 2006 and an answer from Paul LS, with a link to Steve Typewriter Effect and another Wrigley tutorial
http://adobe.groupbrowser.com/searchthr ... iting.html

And some other free tutorials for writing with After Effects
http://www.xtreme-is-back.com/tutorials_speffects.html (some great stuff here).

I'm sure there is more, I have seen lots of references to Vector Paint in AE for creating handwriting like this excerpt
http://safari.oreilly.com/0201750430/ch16lev1sec14

[Stregga]

Thanks Chuck,

I've read the other posts, some of these were in the one I started a while back. I was interested specificaly in acheiving the effect with AE. While I was able to acheive it with the wrigley method, I would like to have the ability to acheive the effect with a more crisp, clean look to it, and I can't imagine a better program to accomplish this than AE. I know it has the capability, I just need to learn. So thanks for the posts, and I am sure we will be talking on this topic every now and then.

[Chuck Engels]

The last link is an article on how to do it in AE5, probably even easier and better in CS3.
I will keep my eyes open for a new tutorial and let you know when I find one.

[Chuck Engels]

Just found some interesting information, the 'Write-On' effect in AE7 (and I assume 8/CS3).

http://www.churchmedia.net/video-produc ... ffect.html

This tutorial at The Cow finishes with the Write-On Effect
http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... /cross.php

This one looks very promising also
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?titl ... =823412086
Lots of other great AE tutorials there also

[Dave C]

Hi,
I uploaded a sample of a really easy way to animate a signature in A.E. Hopefuly I can explain it, without making it sound complicated.
1.Choose font and make text layer.
2.Click on layer to make a mask and not a shape layer.
3.Use pen tool to "write" text inside font lines. It doesn't matter if you overlap the lines, or backtrack, or crossover the whole word at the end to dot an i this is just a stroke path.
4. Apply effect "stroke"
5. Set paint style to "Reveal orginal"
6.Increase brush size to "just cover the font".(you can fine adjust your mask path so you can keep the brush size lower)
7. Animate "End" to reveal the text
Hopefully this helps......Dave

[Dave C]

http://muvipix.com/cpg/displayimage.php ... at=0&pos=0 ................ sorry forgot the link

http://muvipix.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-1655

[Wheat King]

Nice Job Dave! Sample looks great! from what you describe it sounds like it wouldn't take long. How long did it take you to do the sample?

[Dave C]

Thanks Jamal. Not long at all 10-15 min.?

[Chuck Engels]

Very good Dave, what version of AE are you using?

[Bob]

And here's a tutorial that demonstrates that technique: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=25

[Dave C]

CS3 Chuck. When you were telling me how well A.E. interacted with Premiere I decided to get CS3 Production Premium. I'm really happy I did. Thanks for the advice!

[Gooder]

Very nice, Dave
I guess this can also be done within AE 7 Pro!

As Bob has already posted, you can get some great free tutorials from:
http://www.videocopilot.net/

I purchased a couple a couple of DVDs from there and they are excellent.
It doesn't have the "Writing Effect" on it but it does have "Floating text" and other non text fancy tutorials.

Designer Sound FX 500 Powerful Sound FX
http://www.videocopilot.net/dsfx.html
The trailer for this product is amazing!

Serious FX & Compositing
http://www.videocopilot.net/seriousfx.html

Cheers,
Lee

[Todd08]

Here is one more good tutorial.
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/animating_signature/video.php

Todd