Simulated handwriting in CTA3 Home » Archive » Cartoon Animator » CrazyTalk Animator 3 Forum » Training - Tutorial, Hints & Tips https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic324420.aspx

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By K.M. - 8 Years Ago I am looking for some cool tips from the experts to learn how to simulate handwriting in CTA3? There is a handwriting animation available in CTA for G2 characters. I'd like to know how I can make a character write on a blackboard in a classroom. The trick is to show the letters and words emerging on the board exactly as the handwriting motion of the G2 character moves along the board, from left to right. Hand motion has to match the letters on screen, not 100% but close enough. See the pic below for an idea. By K.M. - 8 Years Ago Hello folks, I was able to create a very short clip of animated handwriting on a classroom board. This is very time consuming. My request to reallusion is to provide a feature to match handwriting with written text in some form without having to program keyframes. The below clip as you can see is not perfect. Here are the steps I followed. 1. Create your CTA3 video using your character in a classroom scene - WITHOUT THE TEXT. Just program Sandra character to write something on the board. Board will remain blank. 2. Now in PowerPoint, write the text you want. Then simulate the motion of THAT text in PPT. I use MS PPT 2016. Be sure to use a green background for your text in PPT (as close a color of the board in CTA3 as possible). Use the Animation pane and look for tutorials on YouTube to simulate your text in PPT. You can animate the text in PPT as if it's being hand-written. Export this PPT handwritten simulation animation to a video. It will be only one slide so it will be a short video. 3. Final step: Import your CTA3 video (Sandra hand-writing) AND PPT simulation video (with text animation) into a third party video editing software. Put the text on the top track, CTA3 output video on the bottom track. 4. Blend the two videos, as follows: Align the text to Sandra's height, adjust the speed of the video to match handwriting to Sandra's CTA3 simulation. This is not going to be perfect 100% matching animation. But it's going to be good enough to simulate classroom handwriting. I am sure there are other ways to do this in CTA but I did not want to keyframe one character at a time. It's brutally cumbersome and will take up too many tracks in CTA3. I prefer to do it in one shot where you can manipulate the text in one go, then play fancy-foot in the final step of the blend. Good luck, your comments welcome.                                                 By garylearntech - 8 Years Ago Hi KM I thought of a way to do this entirely in CTA3.  It's a bit fiddly (though what isn't? :)), but saves you using multiple apps with all the headaches that could entail. Here's the short demo, minus Sandra (or whowever). Inspiration came from the user manual at Special Effect > Using Text > Using Text Bubbles with Serial Text Dialogs. Instead of a speech or thought bubble, I used SFX > Text > Subtitle > Subtitle 03_Transparent Instead of a series of scripted lines, build your text one character at a time.  Format it so it's left aligned, rather than the Centred default.  Other formatting can be chosen to suit. Here's how my Text Editor window looked as I added the final character… Not quite the perfect solution, but not too bad? Cheers, Gary By K.M. - 8 Years Ago Thank you sir for our kind reply. It's a nice little trick to have in the bag. I will keep this in mind. I like the good old "typewriter" effect when writing text. It reveals the message one letter at a time which captivates the audience. I've seen many videos where the hand is used to write one letter at a time. That's also cool. In a class room environment it's nice to have a hand write the text but for general usage outside the classroom or a conference room, your trick would work very well. Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it. By garylearntech - 6 Years Ago pejikizo (8/24/2019) A lot of students are very thankful for their help with different assignments. Be careful what you recommend, pejikizo.  Be very careful.  What you are promoting is fraud, which is a criminal offence in some countries.  Cheating students who use this sort of 'service' are prone to getting thrown out of college or university - any future career already ruined. The same warning goes for your pal, kelliemccoy45.