Typewriter effects in After Effects

Typewriter effects in After Effects at PVC crashes the "typewriter week" party of Video Copilot unfashionably early with a few tidbits on typewriter or type-on effects in After Effects. Highlights include 2 Red Giant plug-ins, 2 built-in presets, other free presets, and tutorials of various levels of intricacy. The status of Right-to-Left writing systems like Arabic and Hebrew is also mentioned.

ExpressionUniversalizer to translate expressions

ExpressionUniversalizer is a new script from Lloyd Alvarez at AE Scripts that will "convert the expressions in your projects so that they are compatible with After Effects running in ... [now] English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese ... once the project has been universalized it can be open by ANY language ...The geeky explanation of how the script does this is it converts all the localized effect references in your expressions to the After Effects 'under the hood' match name which is the same in every language." Lloyd explains more in his demo below.
ExpressionUniversalizer goes a step beyond an older script by Charles Bordenave (nabscripts) that's also at AE Scripts, TranslateExpressions, which translates expression control names according to the language of the running version.

Tutorials for After Effects in Arabic

Kevin Monahan noted that Qtab.net has tutorials for After Effects in Arabic, a language not included in the usual documentation (see After Effects in English & other languages).

For tutorials and scripts on using Arabic in AE, see AEP posts ArabicText: script for Arabic text flow in AE and “Right To Left” languages in After Effects.

“Right To Left” languages in After Effects

UPDATE: Creative Cloud incorporates RTL text in the release of June 2016 (Arabic video; Hebrew demo).




UPDATE:  Typewriter effects in After Effects at PVC (August 2013) updates the status of Right-to-Left writing systems like Arabic and Hebrew.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saqib Naqvi shows off many tips for Accessing “Right To Left” Languages Within After Effects, a video tutorial at AEtuts:

'Right to left languages are widely used in After Effects, but traditionally these languages are not treated like text in After Effects. We have to instead covert them to vector graphics which limit many possibilities that are only possible with text layers. In this Quick Tip we will learn to enable languages and manipulate “RTL” text right within After Effects [and Photoshop and Illustrator].'

Simpler but limited solutions might be had by using After Effects scripts from AE Scripts: TextReverser (which reverses the direction of selected text layer), ArabicText (which maintains the integrity of Arabic medial letteforms), and RTL Animation Preset Typewriter-RTL. Hebrew users might look at this tutorial from Eran Stern for an alternate way to enter Hebrew into After Effects.

By the way, check out DecomposeText from AE Scripts, which breaks up text by character, word, or line into separate layers.

ArabicText: script for Arabic text flow in AE

UPDATE: Creative Cloud incorporates RTL text in the release of June 2016 (Arabic video; Hebrew demo).



 
UPDATE:  Typewriter effects in After Effects at PVC (August 2013) updates the status of Right-to-Left writing systems like Arabic and Hebrew.

____________________________________

AE Scripts has another script for text manipulation in After Effects, ArabicText, by Salahuddin Taha. Arabic, Hebrew, and other texts are written from right to left, but AE flows letters from left to right in the Composition panel (oddly, the Layer Name stays correct).

TextReverser, from LLoyd Alvarez fixes the flow when the letters are standalone, but broke the letter back into individuals. Arabic is cursive and has medial letterforms, and needed another approach.

Later: There's now an Animation Preset, Typewriter-RTL, that "only works with 2 keyframes that reveal the text from beginning to end."

Edit & style AE text layers all at once

There's another new After Effects script on AEScripts.com for manipulating text layers, pt_TextEdit by Paul Tuersley, which lets you search for and edit text layers in an AE project and create & apply text style presets on multiple layers with the click of a few buttons. Paul has provided a nice video walkthrough for this script that's embedded below.

Also, check out the other recent AE text scripts, DecomposeText (to separate words and lines) and Generate AE text layers and distribute in 3D on 3D Text Creator.

Update: also added is TextReverser, which "reverses the direction of selected text layer... a common task required when entering RightToLeft languages." In one demo it seemed to work on Arabic text pasted in from a web page!

Language Log on the language evolution debate

On August 19, 2005, the journal Cognition posted on line a 19,000-word article by Tecumseh Fitch, Marc Hauser and Noam Chomsky, entitled "The evolution of the language faculty: Clarifications and implications" (free version here), referencing an additional 6,000-word appendix "The Minimalist Program". This is the third turn in a (so far) four-turn, three-year debate with Steve Pinker and Ray Jackendoff.

Language Log (old) gives you the overview -- and where else can you get articles on remedial edcucation for Pat Robertson or the bizarre phrasing of the Arabic in the claim of responsibility for the London bombings!