Feature request - Trim Paths as a Text Animator

[Volition74au]

Currently there is no way to animate trim paths on live text. A User needs to Convert to shapes or masks and go from there. Meaning that any edits to the text become laborious.

Thos animation is a common one too, that I see a lot in titles and motion design.

Adding a "strokes Trim Paths" text animator option would be a great way to implement this, once added you set the trim path speed. then use either the range, wobbly or expression selectors to animate. And honestly I don't know why its not part of AE already. as a text animator it would have great control as the selectors have great flexibility.

C'mon Adobe.

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Volition74au,

Thank you for making this feature request! The ability to trim the strokes on live text would be a great addition.

You can accomplish some like this currently by applying the Vegas effect to a filled Text layer and setting the Blend Mode in the effect to Transparent. If the resulting stroke isn't crisp enough, you can instead use a linked Vegas layer to matte a stroked Text layer for a trimming reveal. Check out this example project: https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/9f90040c-cdea-4f4a-58c0-5c041b752bbd. 

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team  

[Volition74au]

Ha Nice John I cannot remember afor a long time Times new roman looking so modern and cool as in that animation. I really should revisit the typeface more. I like how you connected vegas to a stroke matte to get the clean oath. Just a simple simple solution once you see it, like so many things in AE I see. oh those two simple concepts put together solves that problem.

I have to say though I still would love to see Trim paths added to the text animator set of effects. Your effect cannot do the trim paths each word by word, Line by Line, Character, by Character in order or random perhaps and all the other juicy text animator settings  that are so easy to set up.

I just think it would be such a cool addition to the Text Animator set of properties. The text animators with range, expression and wiggle selectors are sooooo powerful! And coupling trim patrhs in there wowee.

So with that I ask that people still consider this request and upvote it if that's how it still works. 

[Volition74au]

I requested this feature a year ago. And am just putting it out there that it would be great to see an additional Text Animator added to the After Effects Arsenal. I genuinely think a 'text animator' that can do trim paths on text would be so powerful. 

Trim Paths are so powerful for shape layers and a valuable part of the ecosystem for motion design. So I see Text as the ultimate shapes so why not! as we haven't had a added function for a while now in the motion design section of after effects (BTW per character expressions have just been released into beta  so apart from that lol) 

I hope some users can see the power in this functionality and add some support

[thepixelsmith]

While not a built in feature I use the free add-on Saber from Video Copilot for this type of effect.

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/saber_plug-in/

[Volition74au]

Thanks for the feedback on using Saber. Which is it great plugin and free. 

My request is I suppose mostly in regards to also tying this function to a text animator. As text animators have so many variables you can use to control how the effect is applied. Range selector, wiggly selectors and expression selectors, by character, word, line,etc which are all super powerful. It would be trim paths for text on steroids.

I hope we can get some upvotes.

[thepixelsmith]

It would be cool as a text animator. Especially since e haven't had any new ones added in a long time.