Write On Text Effect in After Effects

Intro

The write-on text Effect is a fun and quick technique used widely in motion graphics. It makes it look as if an invisible hand is “writing” words onto the screen, giving a neat human touch to any AE project.

It’s really quite simple, and comes out looking great with just a few tweaks. While the use of the Pen tool might seem daunting, once we can get over that hill, it’s a quick Effect to apply and adjust.

Overview

The first thing we’ll do is navigate the layers to find the text we’re working with. We’ll be relying on the Pen tool initially to trace the outline of our text layer to create a Mask. That will be the majority of this technique actually, so once that’s done, we’ll be applying an Add Stroke Effect to the layer. With that single Effect, we can keyframe the handwriting Effect. Of course we’ll be adjusting some settings to make it look just the way we want it. After that, it’s turning on some texture layers to add some “oomph” to the project and we’ll be done!

The Mask

1. Upon opening the file, there will be a few layers already in the layer stack. Double click on the one marked Text.
2. Once inside this precomp layer, click on the layer called OUTSIDE written.
3. Okay, now we’ll go to the Pen tool in the top toolbar. Click on the Pen icon.
4. Now let’s draw a Mask! This will guide the handwriting Effect. Click just outside the top left of the letter O to start with, and drag out the point so that two handles appear.
5. Then click within the O on the top left of the letter. Again, drag out each point so that handles appear. These will let us adjust the Mask shape later on.
6. Click on the bottom curve of the O. Remember to keep dragging out each point to get those bezier handles!
7. Let’s finish up this letter by clicking on the top of the letter, right next to the initial point on the letter. 
8. Click on the top left of the letter U.
9. Click on the bottom curve of the U.
10. Finish up this letter by clicking on the top right of the U. Let’s keep going!
11. Onto the T. Click on the top left of the letter.
12. Add another point just to the right of that first T point.
13. Click on the bottom of the T.
14. Now click on the top right of the T shape, and remember to click and drag to the right to create those bezier handles.
15. Ok, now click on the topmost right point on the S.
16. Click on the first curve in the letter, and click and drag to the right.
17. Click on the bottom of the letter S, and click and drag to the left.
18. Now head over to the letter I by clicking on the top of the letter. Drag up to extend the bezier handles.
19. Click on the bottom of the letter I and drag down for another set of handles.
20. Onto the letter D! Click on the top left of the letter.
21. Click on the bottom left of the D, down the straight edge of the shape.
22. Okay! Almost done. Click and drag on the middle of the D’s curve for another point.
23. Click on the top of the D, next to the first point we set there.
24. Last letter! Onto the E. This last one is a little weird but let’s go for it. Click on the far right of the letter on the top line.
25. Click on the top left of the letter, a bit lower down then the first point.
26. Now click out on the edge of the middle line.
27. Back to the “spine” of the E, click on the straight edge of the letter, right in the middle.
28. Click below that point, on the bottom left of the E.
29. Click on the far right of the bottom line. Done with the Mask! If we want to, we can grab and move those bezier handles around to change the curves, but for the most part, we’re done!

Stroke Effect

1. Go up to Effects > Generate > Stroke.
2. In the Effects Panel, change the Brush Size to 65.
3. Make sure the Playhead is at the start of the Timeline, and click the stopwatch next to End to set a keyframe.
4. Change the End value to 0.
5. Move the Playhead to two seconds in, at 0;00;02;00.
6. Change the End value to 100.
7. Change the Paint Style to Reveal Original Image. That’s it! That’s the write on Effect!
8. For the final touches, turn on the Visibility of the OUTSIDE layer to have a cool transition Effect bloom over the letters. And that’s all!

Conclusion

So that’s it! With just two tools, we managed to create a really cool handwriting Effect! The Pen tool might be a bit tricky but with patience and perseverance, it can become the basis for a pretty simple and great looking Effect. 

Try this technique with different fonts! Don’t feel compelled to stick to script ones; try serif, sans serif, different types and families, and layer it with cool colors and other Effects!

Happy animating!

Credits

Video by Kelly Lacy from Pexels
Logo vector created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com
Watercolor vector created by starline - www.freepik.com

Everyone. We're going to be learning how to make a ride on tips today. And it's pretty simple, honestly, just two effects within one. And we're going to get right to it. So when you open up the files, you could access them in the video description. Hello, you're going to see this interface and we're going to be focusing on how much one layer.

So double click on the text layer and select the layer outside written. And we're going to be drawing a mask on this layer and we're going to be using certain effects to reveal this mask over time. Now we're going to go up to the top toolbar, click on that tool, and we're going to make a mask. Now, I'll shoot the first letter, so click a little bit outside of the first letter, click and drag.

That'll give you some bezier handles to do with them in a second. And you basically click along the shape of this letter and you don't have to completely close this mask, but you get most of it, as you can see. I'd like to just this part, so I'm going to grab this busy handle and I could push it back closer to that little box.

And you have to want to just I could grab these little points along my mask and that will allow me to edit them like a nice weather mask. And if I want to go on to the next letter for this connected, I just want to do a quick anywhere in the layer, click the Pentagon, and I get on to the next one and remember to click and drag to access the zation and I will see you when these are all complete.

All right. Very nice. We have our mask over here. It's fancy. Some of these letters are conjoined over here and that's all right. So the next thing we're going to be doing is go up with again with the outside written layer selected go to effect go to lunch. Let me just really make sure that that is something to go to go to generate.

Oh, it's fine. Stroke and three and then we're going to change a couple of settings on this effect. So let's change the brush size to 35 and it looks a little weird. Don't worry about it. For now, we are going to change the pink file to reveal original image and we're going to click this whole box. It says All next such be about it.

Now, the first thing that we're going to be doing is hit the stopwatch next to and we're going to change that percentage all the way to zero. And then we are going to move our playhead about say like 114 or 15. There we go right here. That's the timestamp. And we're going to change this number next to the end value to a hundred and then you can see as we scroll through our animation, it reveals the button.

All right, now that we have this effect in place, let's go back to the main here and we will hit spacebar to preview our animation and there we go. It right. So so this has been supported from the desktop and I hope it ends up at the end, meaning.