Text Mosaic

[floatuponourtears]

I'm trying to do this text mosaic effect, like there are lots of letters randomized all over the screen, then the camera kinda zoom out to reveal it's actually a picture or something made out of letters.
sorry if i'm not clear enough.


I tried filling the screen with letters, then using track matte and Per-Character 3D to create the effect, but the render times were just impossible to work with.

does anyone have any idea how to do this one?

Thanks a lot.

[Zarxrax]

Maybe this would help? http://www.digitalanarchy.com/text/text_main.html
The way you said you did it sounds reasonable to me. Can't really think of any other method off the top of my head.

[floatuponourtears]

yea, It did sound great in my head, but the render times ARE REALLY impossible to work with, it's like 20 minutes of processing everytime I move the CTI.

anyway, this plug-in isn't exactly what I meant, but I think it can come in handy.
thanks.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Reduce the video quality settings while you're playing with it ad you'll probably have a better time handling the insanity. Also, system specs?

[floatuponourtears]

I tried lowering the settings, but the insanity stays put.

I also tried Text Spiral plug-in, and AE actually seems to handle it much better than its own text editor (beats me) - anyway, it's kinda bareable now, even though the controls are kinda awkward.

my specs are:
2GB RAM
Geforce 8800GTX
and a Intel C2D 6300

no editing card, but I think these specs should handle AE, though.

thanks a bunch.

[BasharOfTheAges]

AE seems to do way too much when it comes to preview - I tend to set the quality to something low when i'm working with projects that have a lot going on.

[floatuponourtears]

Problem solved, I've finally done it. thank you both very much.