Animating text attributes

[JCook]

I'm using ASPro 11.0. I need to animate the color of text to go from one color to another, but it doesn't seem to work. I've made a text layer and entered the text, chosen a color, size, etc. Also on the General tab of the layer I checked "Allow animated layer effects," just in case. But I can't make the color change. Is this not possible?

thanks,
Jack

[slowtiger]

Tested in 8.2, works.
- Create Text
- Allow animated layer effects
- Fill tool (Q), click & create key in frame
- click in different frame and change colour.

[hayasidist]

.. I've made a text layer and entered the text, chosen a color, size, etc. ...

ah! ... no -- you need a vector layer.. right click the text layer in the layers list and "convert to vector" .. then what slowtiger has said will do what you want.

(for future - uncheck the "create text layer" box in the Text pop-up)

[JCook]

AH, thanks, guys. That's what I needed. Would be nice to be able to change the color in the Text layer dialog, though, but this is very good.

Jack

[hayasidist]

ok - if the issue the point-heavy nature of the vector layer I can see why you'd want a text layer instead so ...

group - masking hide all
> vector layer with a simple rectangle covering the text: mask this layer
> text layer: add to mask

timeline: change the colour of the rectangle as per the info re the vector text..


building on that concept ...
you can also get cute this way with, say, multiple shapes in the vector layer; or multiple vector layers with different blend modes to give multi-coloured text; and/or use point colour;

and then you could animate any or all of: the position of the colour overlay(s), the fill colour, the point colour ...

[JCook]

Oh, this is brilliant! I like this a lot, and it works fine. Thanks for this great tip.

Now - another thing I want to do with a text layer if it's possible: I need to have a label showing years going by, so ideally I would like to animate the text in the text layer to change from, say, "1990" to "1995" etc. over a number of years. I can't seem to find a way to set a keyframe for the text so that it will change. Is this even possible using the text layer?

thanks,
Jack

[slowtiger]

Create each year in a separate text layer, then put them all into a switch layer.

[JCook]

OK, that'll work. I hadn't thought of switch layers. Excellent. Thank you, Slowtiger.

Jack

[hayasidist]

and ... if you wanted more of a roll-over, than a straight cut (which is what you'll get with a basic switch), try something like: in the 3 frames before the switch scale the switch layer from full to zero height, switch then in the next 3 frames reset to full height.. or rotate about x or ....