Help with Text Effect

[midnight_writer_2000]

Okay another newbie question:
1)Now suppose I have a movie that has 7 keyframes, and suppose there are 8 differnt objects in it doing different things. Now I need to add a text effect that needs to run from the 3rd keyframe till 6th keyframe. When I choose an effect it lets me choose starting frame but I guess some of the effects have their own frame length so they do not let me choose the ending frame. It adds a few more keyframes. BUT it adds *only* the intermediate frames showing the text effects not all the objects from the last keyframe(last keyframe before I added the text affect). Is there another way of adding those object besides copying and pasting all of them in the added keyframes?

2)If I need to change the text effect on some text, is there a way to just pick another effect without deleting all the intermediate texts from all the intermediate frames and starting all over again? (I hate to give swish example -- but there you can have the text and then change the effects on it as many times as you want to without retyping the whole thing again).

If there is a thread or a tutorial that answers my question, could someone please point me to it or answer my question. It would be greatly appreciated.

[chadmagic]

to answer the first part of your question, NO.
You will have to copy and paste them into the added key frames. The good news is that you can copy all the shapes at the same time by holding down the shift key and clicking the objects or their names in the shapes list.

as for the 2nd part, NO again. You will have to delete the current text, then go to text effects and start again.


Chad

[Bob Hartzell]

If you press the undo button immediately after adding the text effect it will be removed from the main movie.

With the upcoming version we are moving in the direction of generalized effects which can be edited at a future time.

[johnie]

Originally posted by midnight_writer_2000
Okay another newbie question:
1)Now suppose I have a movie that has 7 keyframes, and suppose there are 8 differnt objects in it doing different things. Now I need to add a text effect that needs to run from the 3rd keyframe till 6th keyframe. When I choose an effect it lets me choose starting frame but I guess some of the effects have their own frame length so they do not let me choose the ending frame. It adds a few more keyframes. BUT it adds *only* the intermediate frames showing the text effects not all the objects from the last keyframe(last keyframe before I added the text affect). Is there another way of adding those object besides copying and pasting all of them in the added keyframes?

2)If I need to change the text effect on some text, is there a way to just pick another effect without deleting all the intermediate texts from all the intermediate frames and starting all over again? (I hate to give swish example -- but there you can have the text and then change the effects on it as many times as you want to without retyping the whole thing again).

If there is a thread or a tutorial that answers my question, could someone please point me to it or answer my question. It would be greatly appreciated.

1.) The KoolMoves Text Effects engine is unlike any other Text Effects Engine. What it does is take a Movie with Animated Text and then overlays that into the Timeline. In effect combining the two timelines. This is not available in any other SWF creation tool. Once the effect is inside of your movie you could then movie the shapes involved to keep it where you want to. So in other words unlike other text effects Engines You have complete control over the Efeect after it is imported. There is also an Import File selection on the File Menu that allows you to do this with shapes.

KoolMoves is not effects based like other text effect based tools, which in many ways keeps them as more or less as toys. That is why Swish 2 is moving drasticly away from that model much to the dismay of many Swish users who want to turn out Text Effects in under 2 seconds. See with an effects driven tool you have to keep adding more and more effects and the results are from one user to the other user are about the same.

If you have lets say 150 effects but can do nothing else then what you end up with is a finite number of possibilities and the pages designed with that tool at look more or less the same (Sure you can add a different background or make different images fly around the page but that is it). Someone posted a page with Swish on it and I quickly was able to tell what tool the page was designed with becuase of the Finite number of effects that Swish provides users becuase I very quickly recognized the very overdone text effect.

The fact that KoolMoves is not effects based has also brought critizism from these text effects program users. They claim that the KoolMoves program is not as good becuase the pages designed with it don't look "As Profesional" as the pages created with tool XYZ? This is not the fault of the program. To be honest its not really a fair criticism becuase they are not looking at the best work created with KoolMoves. The program itself requires that you have some skill as a designer becuase the work created with it are not templates- It is your work- not your images and text thrown into a pr-designed template or effect generated by a profesional who thinks "That they know what you want more than you know what you want". Also keep in mind that Lucky Monkey Design, unlike other companies, did not have contests to get the best designers to create their best work and then only display the best 5 or so. I'm sure if they would have the quality of the demos would be much much higher than what it is.

These text effects programs on the other hand don't allow internal editing of the effect becuase they are based on effects only. If the effect isn't avaialble to you then you can not do it or if you want to tweak the effect ever so slightly you can't. Its a trade-off you see.

2.) Another way to copy all of the shapes to the end is to select all the shapes you want to add to the new frames and then go to the first frame that they are not in. Then hit Paste to end and they are all there.

[Bob Hartzell]

This issue of template based animation is something we talk about among ourselves a lot (Richard and I and Richie from Animation Online). The trade-off of how to make it easy for non-designers to create something but allow creative input is tricky. We need to have a balanced approach which is why we are moving in the direction of some canned generalized effects and eventually 3D effects (add faces to an object to make it look 3D).

[midnight_writer_2000]

Thanks for the quick response (all of you). I thought that I had overlooked something.

Johnie, thanks for that long post. I am just very new in this thing. My background over the last 15 years have been programming.Over the last 8-9 years I have been doing web development/e-commerce mainly with Java/ASP/Javascript/VB Components. I am pretty sure you get the picture.But I
never could get into motion graphics.Now, when you cannot have a conversation without Flash or Swish or Koolmoves being mentioned, I thought it was about time that I looked into it too. With it I also found a new found respect for people who do it and are good at it. And honestly, it will be a LONG time before I would be even half as good as some of the users on here -- Right now, I am still in that "playing" mode.

I agree with all the things that you said. A tool is as good as the person using it, and yes Koolmovers go beyond being just a program to do the banners and cool text effects. Looking at what it can do, the effort that was put to develop Koolmoves, I for one feel that it is being given away at $29.95. Even if this was sold around $50.00, it still would have sold as many copies to the same users. Being a developer myself, my utmost respect goes to this team who put a lot of effort, and still thought about making it cheaper for the users.

I do feel though that there is a shortage of support forums, and Koolmoves sites with tutorial, tips and tricks where a new user can get a lot of help. This forum is excellent, and I was on a few mentioned at the koolmovers.com but still... -- and again it is just my opinion. But then I also do not know when this Koolmoves came out, and maybe in next 6 months things will be a little different.

"Also keep in mind that Lucky Monkey Design, unlike other companies, did not have contests to get the best designers to create their best work and then only display the best 5 or so. I'm sure if they would have the quality of the demos would be much much higher than what it is."

That just might not be a bad idea. It will be good marketing.

Thanks guys.
I am out of here for now.

[Bob Hartzell]

I don't have the energy or time to run a contest but I welcome any one else to do so.

[johnie]

Actually I was thinking of running one. The prize would be something real small such as a copy of SWF Convert or SWF Scanner.

Perhaps a Koolmoves T-Shirt?

I'd have to talk it over with Matt and Brian.

[Bob Hartzell]

We would be happy to contribute some prizes.

[midnight_writer_2000]

There is something I noticed the other night. I have a demo version installed on my work at the client site that I downloaded about 10 days ago (Now you know how much I work).After a few days I bought the Koolmoves which is installed at my home computer.

On the demo version when I draw a rectangle and try to apply slant, it works fine. On the fully functional version at home when I try t od othe same thing, it complains first saying something to the effect "Slant , perspective cannot be applied to the text" - But then it lets you apply the effect anyways.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[johnie]

That message was fesigned a long time ago and I noticed it on the version that I previewd. Just ignore it but keep in mind that perspective and slant doesnot work on text.

[Bob Hartzell]

I doubt that it applies slant and perspective to text. The transforms are designed to work on multiple selections so it is possible that some of the selections are text and some aren't. The slant and perspective will be applied to the non-text selections and the text selections will remain unchanged.