how do i make text look like it's being written

[giantpanda]

i'd like to make text appear as if someone is writing it down on paper, letter by letter. how do i manage this?

thanks

 

[AndrewGentle]

That would be very hard in Vegas. If you had access to After Effects, maybe you could use the techniques in this Graffiti Writing tutorial by Andrew Kramer?

 

[David Jimerson]

You can do it with bezier masks in pan/crop, but it's a lot of keyframing.

 

[bike_grinch]

For the pan/crop technique, you'll only get a "clean" result with flat fonts too (no borders, no edge effects etc).

Not really that hard, just really tedious (done it a few times - not tempted to do again in a hurry)

 

[Chris Light]

if you incorporate it into one of your characters, you can do what Cameron Crowe did in the Almost Famous opening credits...film someone actually writing...just a thought.

 

[clang]

If you need the pen and hand to be 'invisible', I've seen this done by having someone writiing on paper which is on glass which is then filmed from the other side of the glass, if you see what I mean. This only works if the paper and ink are just right, to let the ink show through the appropriate amount. And of course you'll need to flip the resulting footage in post to compensate for being shot from the other side of the glass.

 

[Lowlypawn]

I stumbled across this and remembered this thread.

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-create-handwriting-effect-sony-vegas-191412/

 

[giantpanda]

Thank you. i'm surprised there isn't a plugin for this. i see it all the time in movies and such, especially with cursive writing. Oh well, looks like i'll have to do it the tedious way.