Text F/X
The newest upgrade to Power CG Plus is a simple effects program that can
be accessed from the main Power CG Plus screen. Text F/X allows you to
move letters, sentences or blocks of text around the screen, either individually
or together. It also gives you the ability to fade the letters in or out
or blur as well. There are some restrictions, but if you play by the rules,
Text F/X works flawlessly.
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| Text F/X Screen (click for larger image) |
To begin with, if you are going to move more than one of anything, one letter, one word, one sentence differently than its neighbors, then you must think layers. Power CG Plus thankfully allows a multitude of layers and adding and using layers is very easy. So, with that said, here's how it works:
First you really should design your page. Put it down on paper and decide who moves where and when. Then create a master page in Power CG Plus. When you have completed your master page, let's put the power of Power CG Plus to work for you in building the layers for Text F/X. Using the standard Cut and Paste commands from Windows, cut each independent movement character, word, sentence and paste it onto a separate layer. Do this for each separate movement item you have.
Hint: If you designed your master page on paper first, you could have placed each item on its own layer as you built the master page. But either way works fine!
When you have finished the layers, click on the Text F/X button to the right of the work screen. This will open up the Text F/X program. The main window is comprised of a list of layers, with each layer represented by a row. At the left is the beginning keyframe for that layer and at the right is the ending keyframe of the layer. At the top left is the command lines. The filmstrip-looking picon is the command to Render and Export. This will bring up the next screen where you'll tell the program how long the effect should last and the directory and name of the file.
To
produce an effect, simply choose the layer you wish to animate by double
clicking on the beginning key frame for that layer or by selecting a keyframe
and clicking on the button near the bottom, Modify Key Frame. You'll see
two windows open up. The left window is for cropping, blurring and fading
your layer. The right window is for moving the layer. In the left window,
blur and fade is self-explanatory. The cropping command is also easy to
understand if you think of the cropping tool as where you can zoom the
layer in or out. In this example we chose the first keyframe. By grabbing
on to one of the handles, you can drag the handle either in or out and
see the layer zoom out or in on the right hand screen. Set the position
of the first keyframe by clicking OK and selecting the last keyframe.
Open the keyframe editor window and proceed to position the layer where
you want it to end. If you get lost, there are three buttons to help you
find your way back. The Full Screen, Original Size and Original Position
buttons will always return your layer to its original size or position.
By grabbing the sliders for the fade or blur effects, you can easily set the amount of blur or fade for the keyframe, or number boxes are provided if you like to work that way.
When you have finished with that layer, double click on the next layer's beginning keyframe and go to work on that layer. When you have completed all layers, then its time to click on the Render and Export film strip button.
This
brings up the Animation Sequence Files window where you choose the directory
and name of the sequence you are going to produce. Clicking Save brings
up the last Text F/X window. Here is where you set the length of the animation
in frames, whether you want to save the alpha channel, the quality of
the animation and Frame or Field Order A or Field Order B rendering. After
you made your selections, click on the Render button and Text F/X goes
to work, producing the animation frames very quickly. When finished, have
your NLE grab the TGA sequence and assemble them into a movie and you
are done!
Bottom line: Text F/X is simple to use and understand, produces very clean TGA sequences and is now included in Power CG Plus free of charge. Its also available as a free upgrade for current users of Power CG Plus!
1.
Beginning of Article
2: Quick Tour
3:
Using Power CG
4: Tabs
For Character Attributes
5: Text F/X
6:
Conclusions