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  • Animating a ‘write on’ and scribble fill effect using Illustrator files

    Posted by Simon Ball on February 11, 2019 at 6:46 pm

    Hello!

    I’ve been tasked with recreating the text effects seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkpNSTg6LXs
    Specifically, the text being written on and the fill scribbling in.

    I have a substantial amount of text that will need this effect.

    I have Illustrator files of the text outline and then a fill layer, all of which are shape paths. This has been provided by an illustrator in the style the client desires.

    What I have been doing is tracing each word on a shape layer, generating a stroke, keyframing trim paths and alpha matting over the ai file.

    With the fill layer, I made 3x duplications and added a matte choker at different levels, which gives a stop motion like effect.

    This is a very time-consuming process, especially for a 3-4 minute video. I was wondering if there was any other method that would save any time, or if this is it?

    Thanks!!!

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    Michael Szalapski replied 7 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Michael Szalapski

    February 20, 2019 at 7:53 pm

    You don’t have to trace over the Illustrator files…
    If you right-click on your Illustrator layer… Wait, are you bringing them in as layers? It might not help – designers often don’t use layers correctly in Illustrator. Anyway, if you right-click on your Illustrator, there’s an option to Create Shapes from Vector Layer (also available under the Layer menu).
    That’ll get you the actual paths in AE.
    You can copy a path for each letter into a mask path and then use the Scribble effect to generate the fills.

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