Digits Man, part 1 : Adobe After Effects Tutorial

Digits Man, part 1

A CreativeCOW After Effects Video Tutorial

Eran Stern
Israel

©2008 Eran Stern and Creativecow.net. All rights reserved.

Article Focus:
In this video tutorial, Creative Cow contributing editor Eran Stern will show you a cool technique for filling an image of a human head with animated numbers using After Effects CS3's Text tool.

Note: This tutorial is also available as a podcast: Click here to find it and other After Effects podcasts.

Comments

•

help
by Besnik Albesi

well I have the same problem as Roman Jayson.. by the half of the page the digits desappears?? Do you know why?

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This is a great tutorial. I
by Roman Jayson

This is a great tutorial. I started to copy and paste the numbers in my comp, but once it gets half way, the number disappear and I don't know why. Do you have any ideas?

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Digits Man, part 1
by Eran Stern

Also be sure the check this tutorial which takes another approach for creating the same effect, more or less :)
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/stern_eran/Digits_Man_Revisited.php

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Digits Man, part 1
by Kathelijne Deramault

Eran, Thank you I will try it,
Kathelijne

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Digits Man, part 1
by Eran Stern

Sure, just add a bunch of "2008" stings with a space after each one, then skip the "Character Offset" animation. It might look strange though because the minimum string will be 4 digits long, but maybe you can use smaller font size to compensate

•

Digits Man, part 1 numbers change into other numbers
by Kathelijne Deramault

Hello,
I made the tutorial Digits Man, part 1 & 2. This is a great tutorial. I used the numbers 2008, but the numbers change into other numbers in the animation. Is it possible to have the same animation like in the tutorial, but so that the numbers always be 2008?
Sorry for my bad English, but i am Flamish (Belgium)
Thanks,

Kathelijne

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Cory Travalena

This is a great tutorial. I started to copy and paste the numbers in my comp, but once it gets half way, the number disappear and I don't know why. Do you have any ideas.

•

Digits Man, part 1
by karen De Smedt

hello, i have a question. I want to use words that come randomly. I have changed: range selector, advanced, based on--> words, but then I see the letters randomly (also letters that I don't use in my words, so you can't read the words anymore) What do I do wrong? I have tried over and over, but it doesn't work. Can you help me please??

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Eran Stern

Please read my answer at part 2
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/stern_eran/Digits_Man2.php

Eran

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Animating Text - Question from a Student Animator
by Joe Klepacki

Is it possible to create a similar effect to text as seen in Digits Man but instead using words (or in my particular case First and Last Names), while preserving the word/name itself? That is, making the word/names jump around in a seemingly random order without scrambling each constituent character?

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Joe Klepacki

Thanks for responding so fast, but I have a further quick question. Is it possible to keep each word in tact? That is, say I have a line that reads "Jon Doe Joe Smith Jim Parker". Is there a way to animate the offsetting of words so say in the next frame it reads "Joe Smith Jim Parker Jon Doe" and perhaps "Jim Parker Jon Doe Joe Smith" in the following frame, so on and so forth?

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Digits Man, part 1
by Pierre Pollet

Love the tutorial Eran. Great digit-art, attacked with some humor. I'll have to upgrade to CS3, but I will find a good use for your tut. Hope to see part 2 very soon. Thnx.

•

Digits Man, part 1
by John Snow

very enjoyable...keep 'em comic eran!

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Smokejumper

Well Done Eran! Thanks for this, I will definitely find a way to use this. Your tutorials are very nice - I enjoyed the smoke one also...

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Digits Man, part 1
by Eran Stern

As far as I know you can't do this trick with version 7, only AE CS3 has this 3d character ability

Eran

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Digits Man, part 1
by jimbucc

Eran,
Thanks for a great tutorial. I still have AE7 - how can you emulate the per character 3d in AE7?

thanks
Jim

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Digits Man, part 1
by Steph Foster

Awesome, I love your clear understandable style

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Lyndon Alvarez

Eran, thank you. i was so going to figure out how to do this tutorial on your site but you're breaking it down in english. man i feel like a spolied american. thank you letting me be so ignorant, your tutorials are great!

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Eran Stern

Hi,

If you've encounter problems with paragraph text, please see the thread here: http://cowcast.creativecow.net/podcast/digits-man-part-1--208

There are couple of advises from me and others how to get around it

Thanks,
Eran

•

Digits Man, part 1
by Jakob Klingebiel

great and easy to realize! Nice done.

When I use 1000x1000 px. for the letters I can only write up to the middle of the layer. I used 500x500 and it worked. DO you (or somebody else) know how to do it right or is it my computer that is to slow? Maybe it

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