• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Typewriter (human typing) expression incomplete

  Posted by Sher Safi on February 15, 2018 at 8:02 am

  Hi,

  Is there a way I could add a natural type-on feel to this Typewriter expression? the animation right now is so linear, I want to achieve a human typing look.

  L = text.sourceText.length;
T = time*effect("Speed")("Slider") - effect("Start At")("Slider")*effect("Speed")("Slider");
F = Math.round(time % 1);

  if(F == 1 | (T0) ){Fl = "|";}else{Fl=" ";}

  substr(0,T) + Fl

  Dhruv Sharma replied 8 years, 6 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Dhruv Sharma

  February 17, 2018 at 9:11 am

  Hi,

  So I was facing the same problem a couple days back, I managed to achieve a semi realistic typewriter effect.
  The codes and explanations are in the post below:

  https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/227/37949

  If you could work with it, and manage to get something absolutely realistic please do share. I would have done it myself but I have little to no knowledge of expressions, that thing took me an entire day of research to figure out 😛

  But I can say that after watching several typewriter videos frame by frame (person typing on a typewriter not motion typography) the randomness is grouped into sections, so for example if the speed is consistent for a duration of 8 letters, each frame spans a length of 3 -4 frames for a letter to appear, the 9th letter may come after a good 12 frames, followed by 3 letters at a 3-4 frame speed per letter (I’ve seen at an fps of 25, 3-4 frames/letter is a realistic portrayal of a letter appearing after its been typed) then probably after 6 frames another 8 letters at the 3-4 frame consistency.

  If you can manage to incorporate this randomness somehow into the expression, you’ll get a fairly realistic typewriter effect.

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