Expression to Scale Up Text From 0% With Overshoot?

[mikem18004724]

Hey everyone...

I'm reasonably competent with text animators, but I can't quite seem to nail what I'm looking for today, and it seems like it should be easy.

I am trying to animate a few words, scaling up from zero letter by letter (with overlap), with a bit of overshoot on the scale before settling down into their final size.

I've tried to do this by stacking animators. The first animator simply sets the scale to zero, the second animator scales them to about 133%, then the third animator, offset by a few frames, scales them back down to 100%. The problem with this approach is that percentages are relative to what has come before. When the first animator sets the scale to zero percent, the subsequent animators never refer back to the original size, they just work off type that is set to 0% scale and are unable to grow it beyond that. If I do a simple zero-to-133% animator (without an animator that sets the initial scale to zero), then follow that with a second animator that scales them back down to 100% I get funky kerning.

So I'm thinking this is a job for expressions, except that my expression game is kinda weak and I'm hoping someone can provide an existing script that does this or at least point me in the right direction. It's also possible that this can be solved simply by using text animators, but I would need an explanation of how to get around that initial zero percent state. I could do this if I didn't need that scale overshoot, but I can't give that up.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

-Mike

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

You are probably making this much more difficult than it needs to be.

Start by adding a scale animator, change the Units to Index under the Advanced settings, then duplicate your text animator in the timeline. Set Text Animator 2 so that the Range Selector end is at 1 then adjust the scale so that the first letter only is at its maximum size. Change the offset to -1 and the first character should return to normal.

Now set Text Animator 1 so that the Start range selector is at 0 and enable keyframes, change the scale to 0,0 so all the text disappears, then move down the timeline and set the Start range selector to match the End Range selector so that all the characters are full size. The Characters should now animate on buy scaling up.

Here comes the trick. Enable Keyframes on the Offset property of Animator 2 and move down the timeline a couple of frames farther than the keyframe you set for Animator 1>Range Selector>Start and set the offset to the number of characters in your text layer.

The last step is adjusting the position of the last offset animator so that the timing is correct. That is all there is to it. You just have to get the stacking order right. It would look something like this:

[CyJackX]

Hey Rick, I'm having trouble parsing what you're doing here for a similar effect, except I also have Randomize Order checked, as well as setting it to Ramp Up.  Is it the same principle?

[Mackenzie9999]

I'm having a hard time getting this to work for me with overshoot. I notice your example shows three keyframes in Animator 2/Offset, but your instructions only instruct setting two keyframes, at least as far as I can figure. Can you explain? Thanks!