OK, I have a difficult few things to ask and wanted to know if they were possible.
I want to start off by creating a simple text object but only one single character. I want to be able to achieve the following:
To use an empty, linked to a driver or something, so that when I move the empty the single character changes to the next character in the font.
Since fonts have different numbers of characters in their sets, I’d like to be able to go through all the available characters within that font (even the ones that Blender cannot usually access only via Special or Accent characters) but also to skip empty slots within that font, too.
Maybe have a text file that Blender can reference with one character per line so that I can use that to deal with point 2). It’ll also allow me to create a custom list of characters that’s more restrictive when I go through each character.
I doubt that this can be done without coding something but if any of these things are possible then I would definitely like to know.
Have you seen TextFX? I don’t know if it’ll solve all of the problems you listed but it may be helpful. Otherwise it’s possible that Animation Nodes may be useful but someone better versed than I in AN could be probably help you. Good luck.
@gtomorrow
Thank you for that tip. I do have TextFX but have not tried it. Seeing it in use so far doesn’t look like it can help with my needs but I will take a more in depth look as I might be surprised somehow.
Oh, and these aren’t exactly ‘problems’ as such. They are more like things I want to achieve which will allow me to come up with a nifty technique for a potential addon.
I think that having a text file to drive “source text” animation (it would be similar to setting up an image sequence) would be a great thing for Blender to have as it would give the user great control over text. I just wish I knew where I could go to make suggestions for ideas for Blender. You know - something official.
Anyway, enough babbling from me. Thanks again and I appreciate your info.
I tried using the TextFX addon and that went nowhere for me but I am currently figuring out animation nodes. I have managed to get something to what I want but there is still a ton of things to do. I will likely start a new thread specific to achieve what I want using animation nodes.