[John Shoemaker]

The same website that created a script for text reversal, has since released an After Effects script for Arabic Text specifically.

https://aescripts.com/arabictext/

The regular text reversal did not work for the reasons stated above, but this script actually places the characters in the correct order.

The workflow is a little goofy. For example, if you want to split the text into several lines for a paragraph you kind of have to work backwards through the text. (eg. Hit return X times for your line breaks and then move the ‘end’ of your Arabic text up to the top line.) The program, AE, still operates left to right so editing the text requires some backwards thinking.

However, the end result is fully editable Arabic Text. You can use any font and any text animations. Although, keep in mind that the text animations will animate the lines backwards, from left to right, and I’m not sure what different fonts will do to the characters (“Do they need the serifs or not?”)

The thing about working with graphics in different languages is that having more control can be a dangerous thing. As designers, we want to style the text in a certain way, but the truth is that we don’t know what we’re doing to the meanings of the letters or words so we have to be careful.

John Shoemaker
Backflip Film Productions LLC
http://www.backflipfilms.com

[John Shoemaker]

Your system should be able to handle it fairly well. Especially with SD footage.

You won’t be able to take advantage of the multi-core processing in AE, and you’ll have to be careful to use one adobe application at a time. So you’ll lose some of the cool application integration that the Adobe suite offers, but your system will work. Also.. the new adobe media encoder is a separate stand alone application. This is a very useful feature that allows you to set up a Que for exporting and then continue to edit in Premiere. However, because it has to open up another application for export… you may need to be patient with your computer. I’m not sure I’d recommend editing while exporting with your setup. But basically, I think you’ll be able to get a lot of use out of CS4 with your system. Maybe check out Adobe’s site and download a 30 day trial.

Until last fall I was running Adobe CS2 production suite on a Dell Dimension with a 2.83Ghz Pentium 4 and 2Gb RAM. (upgraded from 512MB)

Perhaps look into upgrading your RAM and you’ll be good to go with SD editing.

John Shoemaker
Backflip Film Productions LLC
http://www.backflipfilms.com