Text Hacker plug-in
Text Hacker is designed to convert one line of text into another, or have a string of text appear out of random characters. The plug-in deals with single lines, no paragraphs. You can specify which lines of text will be generated, set up the order that they change, and how long the change takes. Text Hacker creates the animation for you.
Text Hacker plug-in.
Which plug-in to use? Creating one line at a time
Text Hacker, TypeOn and Screen Text all create the effect of one line overwriting another. Which plug-in you use depends upony the exact effect that you want.
Options Box
The Options Box is very important in Text Hacker because its animation is set up with the <Enter> or <Return> character.
In the Options Box, enter your text into the Input field. The first line in the text field is referred to as the 'Source' and is typically the first line to appear. A simple click of the Return or Enter key breaks the text into a new line. Each new line is called the 'Target' because it is formed from a previous word or set of text characters. Text Hacker will display the first line, check if there’s a second line, transition into that lin, and check againe.
See Common controls, Options Box
Main Setup> Text Position
Main Setup> Vertical Writing checkbox
Main Setup> Font Size Groups pop-up
Main Setup> Font Size, Font Size Randomness
Main Setup> FS Rate of Change, FS ROC Randomness
See Common controls, Font & Character
Main Setup> Tracking
Main Setup> Color
Main Setup> Alt Color, Alt Color Tolerance
Main Setup> Alt Color ROC, Alt Color ROC Randomness
See Common controls, Color & Rotation
Preset Characters> Character Limits pop-up
Preset Characters> Lower Character Limit
Preset Characters> Upper Character Limit
Preset Characters> Only checkboxes
See Common controls, Preset Characters
Transition Setup group
This important group controls the transition between the lines of text.
Transition Setup> Change Style pop-up
Sets how the text lines will transition with three options. Basically Text Hacker goes down the listof text and changes one line into another. Sometimes it puts random characters in between, sometimes not.
The 'Source' is the first line of text displayed in the Options Box. Every line that follows is referred to as a 'Target'. 'Random' refers to the insertion of randomly generated text characters which were not typed into the Options Box.
Transition Setup> Lead Time
Sets a time delay BEFORE any Source/Target changes occur. Measured in frames, so a value of 15 creates a delay of 15 frames before the text characters start changing. If Random characters are first displayed, a value of 15 will generate text randomly for 15 frames, then start changing into the Target.
Lead Time is particularly useful for Source>Target or Source>Random>Target, since you want the Source to display long enough to be readable.
Transition Setup> Time Between Targets, TBT Randomness
Sets the length of time for the entire transition between lines. Measured in frames, so a value of 60 typically means the transition will take 60 frames.
If you’re using Source> Random> Target and Time Between Targets is set to 60, the transition will take 120 frames. This is because it takes 60 frames to go from the Source line to Random characters, and another 60 frames to go from Random characters to the Target line.
Time Between Targets affects the overall animation time. To determine how long the animation will take, you have to calculate how many Targets you have and multiply that number by the TBT value. If you have 30 lines to change over 60 seconds, you can set TBT to 60 frames and have enough time for animation. Random characters also count as targets, so if Random characters appear between the normal targets, then TBT will need to be 30 frames or les to fit the animation into one minute.
Transition Setup> Hold Time
Sets a time delay AFTER the Target has changed. Measured in frames, so at a value of 20, a text line will hold for 20 frames after it has changed.
Hold Time is especially useful with Random>Target. If you want to change to a Target and not have it instantly revert back to random characters. This is particularly useful with Random>Target, since by default, the Target will immediately revert to random characters after it changes.
Transition Setup> Rate of Change, ROC Randomness
Sets how frequently the random characters change. Measured in frames so at a setting of 5, the characters change every 5 frames. A value of 1 will most likely give a result that looks too chaotic on video. The animation will get 'buzzing' due to the rapidly changing characters. A value of 4 or 5 with ROC Randomness at 50, usually works well.
Use ROC Randomness to vary how frequently each character changes. Otherwise, they all change at once, which produces a rhythmic, mechanical look.
Transition Setup> Change Alignment pop-up
Sets the starting point of the transition between text characters.
Transition Setup> Fade In/Out EC checkbox
Tells extra text characters to adhere to the Fade Time parameter. Otherwise, characters that are leftover from a change will remain onscreen. If you change from the word 'Jonathan' to the word 'Bob', the characters ‘athan’ will be left over and appended to 'Bob'.
Transition Setup> Fade Time
Sets the amount of time, measured in frames, that the extra characters take will fade out or in.
If you transition two words of different lengths, you are going to have extra characters left over. Text Hacker gives you a few ways to deal with this. To make all of the characters disappear immediately, set Fade Time to 0 and turn on the Fade In/Out EC checkbox. Since the Fade Time is set to 0, each character will disappear one by one. To make the characters fade off one by one, set Fade Time to a value other than 0. For instance, a value of 8 tells each character to take 8 frames to fade away.
Transition Setup> Fade Together checkbox
When turned on, all extra text characters fade together at once and disappear together. Set how fast or slow they fade in and out with Fade Time.
When turned off, each character will wait for the character before it to fade. Again, the fade in/out time is set with Fade Time.
Transition Setup> Lock EC ROC to ROC checkbox
When turned on, this checkbox tells the Extra Character ROC to match the regular Rate of Change value. This is applicable if the extra characters don’t fade and instead become random characters.
When turned off, the extra characters will have their own ROC, determined by the Extra Characters ROC parameter.
Transition Setup> Extra Characters ROC
Sets the Rate of Change of any extra characters that turn into random characters.
Transition Setup> Reverse When Completed checkbox
When turned on, once Text Hacker has gone through all lines of text, it will reverse direction and go back through the lines of text.
When turned off, once Text Hacker has gone through all lines of text, it will stop animating.