looking for tutorial on tracing text

[bill burr]

hi guys i'm looking for a tutorial on how to trace the outline of some text. i have after effects, resolume, and cinema 4d. basically i want to have a letter be outlined, and have some resolume effects fill up the inside of the letter after it's been outlined.

still a relative noob but i'm willing to learn!

[Sadler]

Perhaps the most flexible way is to use an image (see attached) or video with an alpha channel and an outline already applied.

The image above is actually solid black around the outside and the text is 100% transparent with a solid white outline. I created this bitmap easily in Xara Designer, a piece of software I wholeheartedly recommend although you can achieve the same in AE.

This will give you this when composed over another layer in Resolume.

You can then apply (certain) effects to the text layer. If you want to apply more extreme effects make sure the black is padded to bigger than the output or the masking will break.

NB. the Resolume clip mask feature removes the white outline (i.e. it just looks at the alpha channel) so I think two layers is the minimum for this effect unless you completely can the effect.

[DayVeeJay]

I would LOVE to see an FFGL plugin similar to the Stroke effect in Adobe products

[bill burr]

thanks for the reply. that's very similar to the effect i'm trying to achieve. the only small difference is i want to trace the letter so it's all black, but then the letter lights up and goes around until it's fully outlined and then the whole letter fills up with white. then once all letters have done then, then i would add the resolume effects inside. thanks for the tips and i'll keep digging! this stuff is fascinating!

[Sadler]

So what you would want to do then is.

In after effects:
Draw text
Add stroke
Animate the Start% of the stroke
Create a subtractive mask for the text
Export your animation to DXV with alpha

In Resolume:
As above place your clip above content with which you want to fill the text
Set your clip to stop at the end
Apply effects on another layer above the text


Your'e not very clear about how your letters "fill up", are "done". It might be a good idea to sketch a storyboard to visualise the animation before settling down at the computer.

[bill burr]

thanks for the reply! yeah i know i wasn't too clear, i have that problem in general just ask my wife!

its basically an all black screen. then a spot of light would appear and outline a block letter, for example an uppercase L. so it would go all the way around the block letter L, then once the L is traced, the entire middle would fill up with white. Then i would add the resolume effects inside the block letter, and only in the block letters using a mask.

I'm 1/500th of the way to where i want to be with this stuff. really learning how powerful a program after effects is, i'm gonna concentrate on there to start.

thanks again for taking time to respond!

[Oaktown]

Follow Saddler's tutorial then create one layer for each letter and size these layers to the size of the letter. Each of these layers would have a white clip followed by any effect you want to apply in Resolume.

Here is what you'd do for instance, if you had a five letter work like ARENA:

Layer 6 at 100% Add: After Effect animation with white ouline and transparent text fill broken down in 5 clips to animate the A, R, E, N & A.
Layer 1-6: black clip, white clip and other content sized and positioned to match the letters. So for instance if you have a 1920x1080 comp,for the letters ARENA (assuming each letter takes 1/5th of the comp) each layer would be 384 pixels wide and positioned at X=-960, -576, -192, 192 and 576. That way you can control each letter independently.