Can’t create a paragprah text with several lines…

[Esther Casas]

an another question for you R….i am planning to add some small images through the credits, randomly…and also maybe some small quicktimes..what is the best way to do it? just importing and throwing them in? i am guessing it’s pretty straight fw but before i start i like to make sure i get your advice…as it’s been great!

[Robert Headrick]

Since you’re using precomps at this point, and you’ll be applying the expression to the precomp rather than directly to the layer, this will be very easy. Just go inside the precomp and position your image wherever you want it to be relative to the specific text, and that’s it! Your motion is being applied to the precomp as a whole, so the image will move along with the text.

[Esther Casas]

Is working great robert, and then…how do you change the expression so the texts scroll faster?

rate = 6; //value in px/sec
value – [0,rate*timeToFrames(time)]

is this 6 a “standard number” i am going to do tests just changing this number, is something else i should be checking when i do this? this number 0?

[Robert Headrick]

Just change the rate (currently at 6). Smaller than 6 will make it slower, greater than 6 will make it go faster. A tip that was mentioned on the blog where I originally found the expression said to try and keep your rate at an even number just in case your footage ever gets interlaced (otherwise you might encounter weird image issues related to frame rate while scrolling). The 0 is the horizontal position value, so essentially right now it’s just centering your layer. If you want your credits to be slightly to the right or left, then you can adjust that number to do that. But an easier way will be to just manually move it like you did when you originally positioned the layer.

[Vishesh Arora]

Mr. Casas

You can try this method:
1. After Pressing Return, Select your words for second line using “SHIFT + LEFT ARROW KEY”.
2. Now press “Alt/Opt + Down Arrow key”. This will bring your text down.

Vishesh Arora
VFX and Motion Graphics Artist

https://digieffects.wordpress.com

[Esther Casas]

hello Robert!
just wanted to let you know the credit scrolling titles are working great thanks to your suggestions, now my final question is:

at the end i have a layer that I want to be scrolling the same way but I want an ease at the end of the movement. Because is parented to the null like all the layers, is stopping very abruptly at the end, how do i do an ease at the end??

Do I have to do a new null with an expression with an ease at the end for just this layer?

the expression i have now is this:

rate = 6; //value in px/sec
value – [0,rate*timeToFrames(time)

THANK YOU!!

[Esther Casas]

Hello Robert!

I hope you remember you helped me tremendously last week with some scrolling text…But i have the last question for you as I have been trying to do something else without success:

Everything is working fine but the only problem i have now is that i want to speed up the whole thing. So what i did first was to change the speed in my null, the expression was:

rate = 6; //value in px/sec
value – [0,rate*timeToFrames(time)]

and I switched it to this:

rate = 8; //value in px/sec
value – [0,rate*timeToFrames(time)]

But now all the positions of the comps are totally screwed…not idea why???

So what i did is just change the speed by changing the % in time of the pre-comp.But why are the positions changing when i just change the speed of my null? do i have to create a new null of the pre-comp which already have the previous null parented? I actually tried this (making a new null with fatser speed and doing a pre-comp with the other null inside) and didn’t work because all the positions are again, displaced (all the comps are outside the frame now…)

I just like to understand if there is something i didn’t do on the first place…

thanks again!!

[Robert Headrick]

Esther,

Sorry I haven’t been responding as quick! Things got a little busy for me the past few days.

To answer your most recent question about the position values getting messed up when you altered the rate in the expression, I’m not sure what’s happening. If you’re looking at your text layer at any given point in the composition, you should expect its position to change since you’re making it move faster, but the layer should still start at the same position at the beginning of the comp. If I’m understanding correctly, you currently are parenting your text layers to a null, which has the expression as its position value. Then the text layers and the null have been precomposed, and that precomp is being nested into your overall composition to represent the scrolling credits, allowing you to more easily adjust the point at which the credits begin to roll.

In some very brief testing that I just did, I was able to alter the rate in the expression without “screwing up” any of the position values of anything. Some things I would suggest double-checking: that your text or other layers are properly parented to your null; that the expression is on the Position value of the null and not anywhere else; that you haven’t accidentally introduced any additional lines or typos into the expression; that you have manually adjusted the position of the null on the very first frame of your precomp so that the scrolling starts at the right place; and that you haven’t altered any of the overall values of the precomp within your main comp (for example, applying the expression to the null inside the precomp *and* to the position values of the precomp itself would probably create weird results).

Looking up at your previous question, about adding an easy-ease to the end of the movement, that may be beyond my skill to figure out. With the way this expression is built, I believe it would involve coming up with a mathematical equation that would gradually decrease the amount being subtracted from the position value until it came to a stop. I tried a couple of basic things just now but only succeeded in altering the speed at a certain point in time, not slowing it down to nothing. However, a good workaround might be to simply use time-remapping on the precomped layers within your main comp. Right click the precomp, choose Time –> Enable Time-Remapping. This allows you to set keyframes at certain points in the composition (for example, at the point where you want it to begin slowing down, and at the point where you want it to stop), and then drag those keyframes apart to cause more time to pass between those two points.

[Esther Casas]

Hello R!
sorry, now i am he one delayed here! i actually already timed remapped before you told me, and now it looks great. Thank you so much for your help and for sharing your expertise!
talk soon…
E.

[Bruce Koken]

HEY ALL. CALL ME STUPID, PLEASE, BUT CREATING SIMPLE 2ND ROW OF TEXT IN SAME LAYER DRIVING ME BANANAS.I SET THE LEADING VALUE TO ‘0’ OR ‘AUTO’ AND THE SECOND ROW APPEARS WAAY DOWN AT BOTTOM OF THE LAYER WINDOW.

IN ADDITION, AT ONE TIME I COULD HIGHLIGHT A PORTION OF TEXT AND THEN JUST MOVE THAT PORTION AROUND. SO, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, I CHANGED A SETTING I PRESUME.

SOMEWHERE THERE IS A BUTTON OF LIFE HERE THAT I AM MISSING BUT IF ANYONE HAS THE ANSWER I WOULD BE MUCH OBLIGED.

THANKS, BRUCE