Text Spiral plug-in

Text Spiral applies text to a path with different options for each end of the text path. Each text character lying between the Beginning point and Ending point can take on a unique value. The plug-in blends the properties over the length of the text, setting into a motion a wave or ripple of the animated effect. You can easily create text that trails off into space, text going down a drain, a 3D text effect or text disappearing into space.

NOTE: Paths only work in After Effects. Since Text Spiral is completely based on paths, this plug-in will only work in After Effects.

 

 

 

Options Box

This is where you tell Text Spiral what font(s) to use and what specific text to display. Type text into the input field or click the Load button to import a text doc.

In Text Spiral, you can select up to five fonts to animate over time, changing from one font to another.

See Common controls, Options Box

 

 

Main Setup> Text Position

Sets where the path begins. The text will originate from here and since you can’t have two starting points on a path, this Text Position determines where the text will start from. The position of the rest of the text will be determined by the path, but the starting point for all text will be wherever this is located.

See Common controls, Font & Character

 

 

Main Setup> Font Size Rate Of Change
Main Setup> FS ROC Randomness

Sets how quickly the characters change their font size. This is set in frames, so a value of 5 will change the character size every 5 frames. If Font Size has Randomness applied to it, the font size of each character will vary.

This control sets the Rate of Change for beginning and ending values. Having different Rates of Change for the beginning and end would give unpredictable results, so it is a global parameter that affects both at once.

See Common controls, Font & Character

 

Font Size ROC affects the Begin and End characteristics.

 

 

Beginning and Ending Parameters groups

These two groups apply characteristics to the start and end points of the text path. The Beginning Parameter group has exactly the same controls as the Ending Parameter group, except for the Begin = End checkbox.

 

 

 

Begin = End checkbox

Turned off by default, which tells the Ending and Beginning parameters to use their separate values.

When turned on, the Ending parameters take on the values of the Beginning parameters, so there is no difference in behavior between the start and end of the text path.

 

 

Main Setup> Font Size Groups pop-up
Main Setup> Font Rate of Change, Font ROC Randomness
Main Setup> Randomize Font checkbox
Main Setup> Font Selector
Begin/End> Font Size, Font Size Randomness
Hinting checkbox
Composite on Original checkbox

See Common controls, Font & Character

 

 

Main Setup> Alt Color ROC, Alt Color ROC Randomness
Begin/End> Color, Alt Color, Alt Color Tolerance
Begin/End> Opacity, Opacity Randomness
Begin/End> Character Rotation, Rotation Randomness
Vertical Writing checkbox

See Common controls, Color & Rotation

 

 

Main Setup> BS Rate of Change
Main Setup> BS ROC Randomness
Begin/End> Tracking
Begin/End> Leading
Begin/End> Baseline Shift, Baseline Shift Random

See Common controls, Spacing

 

 

Randomness Seed

See Common controls, Randomness

 

 

Wrap Text checkbox

What happens when the text animates off the edge of its path? When turned on, Wrap Text tells the text to wrap around to the other end of the path. This creates sort of an infinite loop (in the sense that it never ends) as long as you keep animating the Path Start/End point.

Turn off Wrap Text to make text disappear at the end of a path. Animate the Path End Point so it keeps animating in that direction and the text will not reappear.

 

 

 

Path Controls group

An intrinsic part of Text Spiral is the ability for streams to follow paths. Create a mask on the layer that you have applied Text Spiral to, assign that path to the streams using the Text Path control, and you’ve got streams of text flying all over the screen! Load in a Star path or Wave path and the streams will happily follow around the outline.

 

 

 

Path Controls> Path Start/End Point

Adjust where the text starts and ends on a path. Normally, the text will start at the first point you draw on the path. If Path Start/End is 0, then the text starts out at the first point (taking the Text Position control into consideration). If you want the text to start at a different point, then change the Start/End value.

Animate Start/End to make the text travel around the path. On a closed path, moving the Start/End dial a full revolution will place the text back where it started, at the first point of the path. On an open path, a full revolution will move all the text off the path so it disappears. You can move the dial in the negative direction to make the text go off the Start Point of the path.

 

 

Path Controls> Preset Path pop-up
Path Controls> Path Size
Path Controls> Path pop-up

See Common Contros, Path Controls