Paint Writing on Effect with a Wacom tablet (how do I advance the playhead after I lift the pen up?)

[Greg Borkman]

So the intended effect is to have the shot look like someone is hand writing on the screen however because the playhead gets reset to the front every time i lift the pen tool the effect looks as though many people are writing one letter a piece.

I need to find a setting somewhere that advances the playhead the number of frames it takes to write each letter instead of having it reset the playhead to the same position each time I lift the pen tool up.

Here’s what currently happens (it’s an avid DNX36 codec fyi) https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jcr05bosm2t2xw/TEST.mov

[Paul Emous]

Check out this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYcp3qqPdDg

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[Greg Borkman]

This is a great tutorial for text but I want to use actual handwriting that I’ve written onto the screen with a tablet (for the reason that individuals’ handwriting is more unique than a font can be)

[Greg Borkman]

This might be the best solution, I was really hoping to find a way to advance the playhead automatically when I lift the pen tool up but if that doesn’t exist I guess this will have to do.

[Paul Emous]

You could change the pressure values of your tablet to very low (or very high). If you are in a Mac go to System Preferences > Wacom Tablet > Customize (Pressure)

Also using a feathered brush or air brush (pressure sensitive enabled) will make it look more smooth.

[Walter Soyka]

[Greg Borkman] “I want to be able to automatically advance the playhead the number of frames it takes to write a letter onto the screen using the paint brush tool, I can’t figure out how to do this.”

After you add a paint stroke, press the U key to reveal keyframes in the timeline panel, then press the K key to jump to the next keyframe. This will position the CTI at the last keyframe of the paint write-on you just completed.

Of course, you can also slide the timing of the paint strokes around in the timeline panel after you write out the letters.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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[Greg Borkman]

This is exactly what I was looking for, simple and effective, thank you!