BlendText v01e (Blender's New Text Tool)

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#1

Hi All,

I have been working on a new python script that eases the creation and animation of text in the Blender 2.49 environment.

It is a lot of fun to play with!

Fetch the BLEND file from this link:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=194018

I have put together a tutorial that shows how to use the various features of the script.

You can view it here:
http://vimeo.com/13962037

A followup video tutorial that covers new features:
http://vimeo.com/14238169

BlendText is a python script for Blender 2.49.2. It is a multi-tabbed continuously updated environment for animating text or copy at the phrase, word or character-by-character level.

BlendText supports effector style animation inside Blender. Phrases may be generated in 2D layout or placed upon a 3D curve. Capped font support is available as well. Generated objects have the passIndex property set so it is very easy to extract any portion of the animated effect by using an object index node in the Blender compositor.

Feel free to download the BLEND file here:

Attachments

blendtext-6.jpg1024×576 85.6 KB

#2

first off atom, another great script.

ive tried it but am a little confused over the effectors, do you have to manually animate the text and effectors.

it would be good if you could do a video from scratch…from a noob prospective as.if you have just downloaded it, and setting up a scene

#3

Thanks for trying out the script and offering up the feedback.

You only need to animate the effector itself. Which is a mesh cube (or any shaped mesh). The effector animates the characters for you.

I may create another tutorial, but really all that happened off screen, and is not show in the current one, is me creating a cube and then creating another cube to place inside. The inner cube is parented to the outer cube. When “Picking” the effector, always choose the outer cube. The code examines the effector for a child mesh to use for the inner falloff.

Animate the effector across the letters and it will have an effect as it passed over them. It is best to add keyframes to the effector because the system requires an event for an update to occur. So if you are just dragging the effector in the Blender interface over the text, you will not see any change in the characters. But if you add keyframes to the effector cube and scrub the time line, you will see changes.

#4

ah thanks dude i will go off and try that now

#5

ok atom i have got it working in the scene, but now i have a render problem, it seems to stop at frame 2.

ive included the blend file for you to check, hopefully its an error ive made and not the script

Attachments

blendtxt_stvndysn.blend (697 KB)

#6

@stvndysn: That is odd, I experience the same thing you describe using your BLEND file. One thing I noticed is that you have picked the inner effector mesh as the effector. While this can work, it should be the opposite way around. Pick the outer mesh as the effector. The inner effector should remain within the bounding box of the outer effector.

I did try and recreate the problem by starting with the fresh copy from the download and everything worked fine, no problems. I was able to render out a JPEG sequence. I have never had any luck rendering to a single quicktime movie or avi out of Blender.

#7

I have released an updated version, v01b, of the BlendText script.

It addresses a bug when creating new phrases if the first phrase was already on a curve.

Follow the above link, in the first post, to get the revised version of the BLEND file.

#8

Yep, two updates in one day!

I have worked on the script some more and fixed a few bugs that had popped up after the initial release.

Here is the official change log for version 1c.

BlendText Change Log

08-12-2010

Version 0.1c:
Fixed save GUI parameters bug. You can now save your GUI parameters with the scene!
Added Font Resolution Slider
Separated character generation and layout code.
Minimized font spacing difference when switching from CHARS to WORD mode.
Allow negative Z-Offset for caps.
Fixed font jumbling when switching between curve and non-curve mode.
Fixed editing of phrases, did not change text.
Fixed Render Animation bug that caused output to stop at frame #2.

If you experienced any of these bugs, I encourage you to pull down the latest version and give it a try again. I feel, with these fixes in place, that BlendText is an even better script than before. Thanks again to those who have tried it and offered up feedback!

#9

with the new revisions to the script does that include it works on 2.53 or still just 2.49b

#10

BlendText is a 2.49 python script for Blender.

When the developers finish making 2.5 and the API becomes stable enough to code against, then I look forward to porting it to 2.5.

#11

I have added, what I thought was a most obvious feature, to the BlendText script.

BlendText v01d now supports automatic halo lighting behind each character. Use it for all your dramatic text lighting needs.

Get the revised version of the script by following the link, up above, on the first post.

Attachments


blendtext_halo.jpg1024×576 22.1 KB

blendtext_halo-2.jpg1024×576 30.9 KB

#12

hey atom great stuff will test tomorrow.

could i ask a request, if it would be possible to make each single character do different LocRotScal actions seperately say a single character rotating on the x axis constantly through animation while the others are doing there own different action

hope you get what i mean

or do i just add new effectors

#13

The best way to probably approach that would be via a custom IPO that was applied via an effector, that way the system would remain flexible. Just as the inner and outer effector can have a different material, I could extend the script so the inner and outer effector could apply an IPO to a character when it is affected.

What do you think? You could prepare the IPO by animating an empty, then type in the name of the emptie’s IPO into the script to be used when affected. Then you could place the effector over the character to target the IPO.

#14

sounds kool dude

#15

@stvndysn: Here is the requested IPO implementation. Thanks for suggesting it. It really makes animating the characters a lot of fun. I have added a Time Delay slider as well so you can easily offset the IPO animation on a per-character basis.

I am attaching a pre-animated IPO driven BlendText scene. But if you want the “clean” release version v01e (with IPO) visit the link at the top of this page.

Attachments

blendtext_ipo.jpg924×470 55 KB


ras_blendtext_IPO_example.blend (773 KB)