Disperse a text paragraph letter by letter with 3D tracking
Important notice for English members
This tutorial video has been translated into English with a voice-over, but the software interface remains in French.
Information
You’ll need After Effects CS6 to perform the 3D tracking. The text animation itself can be done starting from CS4, but it’s resource-intensive if the number of words is high.
Integrate text into a video using 3D tracking before making it explode letter by letter into the air.
In this After Effects CS6 video tutorial, we’ll integrate a typography explosion into a filmed scene. To do this, we’ll use the 3D tracking tool “Camera Tracker” included with CS6.
As a reminder, a free tutorial dedicated to this effect is available here.
We’ll see how to quickly add a shadow catcher to our footage, as well as a camera and a light to match the filmed scene.
We’ll then create a text layer containing several paragraphs and integrate it realistically onto the blank sheet in the footage, before making it explode (a bit less realistically, admittedly)!
For the dispersion into hundreds of letters, we’ll use a combination of text animation selectors to create a dynamic, gradual explosion that triggers line by line before stabilizing, while maintaining a slight floating motion.
Everything will remain fully parametric, and you’ll be able to change the text layer’s content on the fly.
About the author
I am the Founder of Mattrunks. I work as Creative Director and Motion Designer in my studio. I also create video tutorials to share my passion of motion.