michiel | 15 years ago | 10 comments | 7 likes | 11.0K views
Tintin, taucher1945, maggico and 4 others like this!
The FLEXIBILITY property of the text layer is one of the most unique and powerful features of BluffTitler. But it is also the most complex and cryptic one. Properties like POSITION, ROTATION and COLOUR speak for themselves, but this one needs a user guide.
The accompanying show is meant as a laboratory for you to play around with different settings. It is not a showcase.
DEFAULT VALUE
When the FLEXIBILITY property is set to (0,0,0) the effect is turned off. This is the default value.
FIRST SLIDER
The first slider sets the delay in seconds of the slowest (most flexible) character. For example when you set the 1st slider to 1 the last character reaches its destination exactly 1 second after the first.
SECOND SLIDER
The second slider controls the pickup point. 0 means the first character and 1 the last character. For example when you set the 2nd slider 1 the last character is animated first. And when using 0.5 the character in the middle of the text starts animating first.
THIRD SLIDER
If the 3th slider is greater than 0, every character has its own random delay.
If the 3th slider is less than 0, the text is split into words instead of characters. Every character of the same word has the same delay.
And if the 3th slider is less than -1, every word has its own random delay.
PHYSICS
The physics effect (set with the dropdown listbox next to the layers dropdown listbox) has great impact on the flexibility effect. Especially ACCELERATE AND DECELERATE looks very good.
ALL PROPERTIES
Note that not only the POSITION property, but all text layer properties are influenced by the settings of the FLEXIBILITY property.
DO NOT ANIMATE THE FLEXIBILITY PROPERTY
Animating the FLEXIBILITY property gives unpredictable results. For this reason the ALL KEYS checkbox is automatically marked when you select this property. This way you change the FLEXIBILITY settings of all keys, when you change one of them.
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Michiel. Perhaps I am missing something. When I played the show, all that happened is that all of the text went from the top of the screen to the bottom...all at once
oldman1, 15 years ago
The accompanying show is meant as a laboratory for you to play around with different settings. It is not a showcase.
michiel, 15 years ago
For me, this article is very helpful.
Thx
Wolfgang
taucher1945, 15 years ago
This probably isn't the place to ask this, but ---
1) Suppose I have the straight text line "one two three four."
2) I would like it to appear starting from the center ("th") and out to either side.
3) Then I would like it to disappear from the edges back to the center.
4) Nothing fancy, no fading, just appearing & disappearing text.
Dick, 15 years ago
Do you mean a zoom effect? To create a zoom you only have to animate the 3th slider of the POSITION property.
If not, can you point me to an online video (YouTube?) showing this effect?
michiel, 15 years ago
Not zoom, but I don't have a video at present so I'll try to explain by showing a sequence.
start with nothing, then
th
o thr
wo thre
two three
e two three f
ne two three fo
one two three four
and then reverse to nothing.
This wouldn't be a "tree" like above, but the text would appear as if behind an opening camera iris.
Dick, 15 years ago
That's about what I wanted, but having the individual letters appear one at a time makes it look a little jerky. I found a way to get a little closer to what I think looks good: I made a PNG which is all black (or whatever background color I am using) and put a small, blurred, transparent circle in the center. I superimposed the PNG over the text and then zoom it out revealing more and more of the text. I added transparency to the text as it appeared and disappeared so that it didn't start and end with a few letters visible. I'd send the .bt & .png but I'm not sure how.
While I'm at it; is this the best way to correspond about matters such as this? I'm not using the flexibility parameter, so this discussion seems a little out of place.
Thanks for your help.
Dick, 15 years ago
I find it not complicated at all and very useful.
asterix, 14 years ago
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About michiel
Michiel den Outer is the founder and lead coder of Outerspace Software. He lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
If he isn't busy improving BluffTitler, he is playing the piano or rides the Dutch dikes on his bikes.
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Contact michiel by using the comment form on this page or at info@outerspace-software.com