Best solution for typewriter animation effect

I am in the roughcut stage of a 110 min doc. We are utilizing the onboard FCP typewriter animation effect quite a bit. Given the limited controls on the FCP ap, i.e dropshadow etc., the readability is not acceptable for our release. We are looking for another soulution. I viewed a Nov. 2006 post that discused a few options (see attached thread). I own a copy of Livetype & Motion, neither of which I have opened. I do not own Boris 3D yet, but will purchase a copy if this in fact is the best/easiest alternative. Can anyone recomend which of these three would be my best choice at this stage, or if there is a better solution not yet mentioned.

Best,

Marc

Dual 2.5 Ghz G5, FCP 4.5, 2.5 GB RAM, QT 6.5.2
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derekmok Wrote:
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> > A typewriter animation could be a tedious work
> in PhotoShop since you have to put each
> > character into it's own layer
>
> I don't think so, necessarily. All you have to do
> is use Crop in the Motion tab to crop out the
> letters you don't want.
You're totally right, sometimes I seem braindead.

> There is that peeve with
> Photoshop objects in the timeline where they're
> all linked unless you use Modify - Make
> Independent on each and every piece.
Not really, that's why I said, that you should save as TIFF with layer and transparency (available since PS 7 I think).
The TIFF will show up with all layer effects (shadow, outline, bevel, color effects, etc) as one single clip, once you choose "View -> Clip In Editor" all PhotoShop layers and effects are still editable, saving the file updates immediately in FCP.
> So I'd go
> with Boris Title 3D. A lot faster to preview and
> adjust, and it has built-in shadow and outline
> functions.
For using a typewriter animation it's the best option.

But there is also Motion which I did forget to mention, though it requires rendering.

Regards
Andreas

CHV has a very easy to use typewriter effect. It's in their Text Collection .$45.00

Go here to purchase

[www.chv-plugins.com]

go here to look at it

[www.chv-plugins.com]

Michael Horton
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That IS cool. Kind of like a combination of AE and Motion in FCP.

HarryD

And speaking of these CHV filters, wasn't filmman looking for a film perf effect some time ago?

[www.chv-plugins.com]

This filter is cool because a) it lets you define your own image for the border (at least as i understand it), and 2) it's an fx-plug (rather than fx-script).

HarryD

Thanks Michael. This looks interesting and real straight forward.

Cheers!

onboard FCP typewriter animation effect is poor but you have controls over it in the motion tab (drop shadow etc, if you want a glow or border you ... double it and twickle shadow settings)

of course motion is far better

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A Day late & a Dollar-short Productions

If you have FCP5 or later Boris Calligraphy has a great typewriter effect with fantastic controls built right into Title 3D.

Very simple in After Effects (no buying plug-ins at all):

...just a type layer & an animated mask revealing each letter (HOLD keyframes every 2 frames) and a white solid with a small animated mask for the blinking cursor (also hold keyframes with opacity keyframes every 5 frames on the top & tail).

If you want a REAL "typewriter effect" (letters swing up from the bottom of the screen and "stamp" on screen like an old school typewriter - the old guys are with me), it's a little more involved. In After Effects you have to break up each letter, activate "3D" for all and move each Anchor Point / Axis for each layer just off the bottom of the Comp Window and animate the "X" rotation of each letter (forget the blinking cursor). It looks cool as hell because none of you kids have really seen this treatment Add motion blur, some glow / bloom and a little DOF dust or Motion's "cigarette smoke" blanded slightly and it's a smokin' type treatment.

You want more help with this...let me know

- Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Boris Text Scrambler. It's in FCP 5 on up. All Killer No Filler.

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