Animated Typing Text addon

Hi All,

I had a go at making an addon (first time).

Updated the Interface since making this video to make it easier and faster to use.


Basic demo of output.

Download Link :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kviwf54nxo59x9j/typing_text_addon.py?dl=1

Does it need any more features?

Pretty nifty! Looking forward to trying it. :slight_smile:

Ok Addon can be downloaded here typing_text_addon.py

Please if you download this Addon leave a comment or answer poll (at the top) so I can get an idea of how many people are interested in it.

Also please remember that it is my first addon and I am kinda new to python as well.
I intend to do some more work on this if people are interested.

Things to Do :
Set text automatically when exiting Edit mode.

#############################################
Instructions
These instructions are also in the Addon file.
#############################################
UI Panel placed in Text Data Properties - Each element has a tooltip with basic description.

To Setup or enable text Animation check the “Animate Text?” option in the Typing Animation.

By Default only “Text to Type” and “Typing Speed” are required.
“Text to Type” can be set by typing into the text box or by Clicking the “Use Current Text” button.
Clicking the button will grab the current body of the Text Object itself.

The “Typing Speed” is the speed in frames. So setting it to 2 means every 2 frames a new letter will appear.

“Start Frame” can be chosen by setting it in the number selector or by clicking the “Use Current Frame” button beside it.
Clicking the button use the current frame from the animation timeline.

The “Calculated End Frame” shows you what frame the text will finish typing on based upon the Amount of text, the Start frame and the typing Speed.
The “Calculated End Frame” is the defalt end frame unless checking the “Set Different End Frame?” option.
When checking this optiion more Options appear.
Choosing a different End Frame causes the remaining text to suddenly appear if it is less then the “Calculated End Frame”.

Setting the End Frame can be done in the same way as setting the Start Frame.

#############################################

Hi Jayfelsman,
Just tried your addon in 2.63a, r46461. Everything worked well! This is a nice help. Thanks for your work.

I didn’t bother to download it because I have written my own typing AddOn called RE:Phrase+. I was excited too when I released it but very people seemed to use it. It might be nice if the entire text faded on and off instead of typed on. Very few clients want a type on, but fade/disolves are amost always asked for.

https://vimeo.com/36494211

Thanks for the replies.

Nice Addon Atom!

I only built it cause A friend at work wanted to do some typography style stuff and Asked me about Blender.
When I went to show him how it might be used I did all the transition and disolving stuff just using keyframes. One thing that couldn’t be animated was the typing text so I thought I might give making an addon a go.

Was fun and I learned a lot. Thought it might be useful to others as well :smiley:

Nice addon. I congratulate you for making a WRITTEN instruction on the script. That is not done very much these days.

@jayfelsman: simple to use and it works for what was intended well :slight_smile: thanks

Your welcome. Hopefully get time to work on it some more some time soon.

Nice video and add on Atom. Unfortunately I cannof find a link to download it. I know you were not supposed to put a link here in someone elses thread. But after searching for RePhrase here on blenderartist, all I could find were links to two blend files and one of them was for 2.5. I hope that I got the right thing.

If you right-click on the video above and watch it on Vimeo you will see a link that leads you back to the BLEND file. The BLEND file contains that AddOn in a text window. Simply save the AddOn text out to your current AddOn folder and then it should show up under User Preferences. (Search for RE:)

Thanks, i liked it. :slight_smile:

Great script BTW. Would it be possible to make a cursor to animate with it? (meaning a blinking type cursor either a horizontal ‘_’ or ‘|’ or even old-school ‘white block’ cursor? Would go great to make pseudo-type terminal screens for what ever…Thanks again.

Hi !
Thanks for this great little addon, that can become very useful !!

However, I’d love to have the ability to “bake” the animation to keyframes, in order to tweak the curves (randomize a bit, for example)… Is that possible ?

Thanks a lot !

This addon is very useful, but it crashes the Preferences manager on open if the Graph editor is open at the same time. Also an option for typing speeds like 0.5 would be nice, to have two or more letters inputted at a time.

To the fellow down under many thanks. Having three grandchildren this is something I might use often. Probably way to often. Regardless it is an effect seen many times in TV commercials. Now I will start the first render using it. Thanks again. theoldghost

Thanks to the OP for this! I’m downloading it right now and looking forward to it.

Atom,

I just wanted to let you know that you’re add-on was great in principle, and so I salute you for making it! However, it had two critical problems, in my opinion: it was very difficult and buggy when trying to use it, and, as I recall, it was always incompatible with the newest versions of Blender. But the core add-on itself (in terms of its animation effects and the concept) were awesome.

As with any AddOn, it will be broken in 3 months because the developers decide to change something.

How can a programmer be expected to make reliable code if the language is changing underneath him?

Dang, did I just use bold italics and underlined?

…this just in, a fly on the wall at Blender Headquarters.
“How about we rename some more stuff in the API just for fun? I like frame_current instead currrent_frame.
But what about those poor dedicated unpaid developers all across the world?
And what about all those working scripts that your wanton decision might break?
I’ve had about enough out of you Kawolski. Were changing it!
Now that that’s done, off to Starbucks for a latte, Kawolski’s payin!”

Stay tuned for more adventures in stupidity…

Great work! So simple to use, and so useful. Thaks a lot for sharing it, jayfelsman :slight_smile:

Although I highly doubt that the Blender Headquarters is plotting against the independent coders like you, I still get your point. I can’t do any coding, but I can see how much work you put into your awesome add-on (like I said before, I think of it every time I see the Paramount Movie logo where the stars swirl around the mountain peak!), and it only stands to reason that you want it to not be undermined, even if it’s unintentional.

Obviously, I don’t have any solutions for you. You might want to explain your predicament - and maybe cite some other examples you’re aware of - and send it along to Ton and the rest of the Blender bigwigs (kind of odd that we can say that non-ironically now!) and maybe they’ll be more mindful of changes to the API.

But my personal belief is that creation is its own reward, and I congratulate you for your creation despite all the problems.


Now, as far as the Aminated Typing Text add-on…it’s great! Clean, simple, and works great. Maybe the only other add-on that ever worked so smoothly and was so totally useful was the old Rotobezier add-on (now called Animall). I’m sure that many users will make requests for additional functionality, but right now it’s lean, clean, and totally useful. Thanks, jayfelsman!