Kinemac - Support - 2D Text & Counters




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2D Text

You can quickly create 2D static or scrolling text using any kind of font, color, size, shadows, embedded images... Moreover, you can still animate the 2D text object in the 3D space at your wish, and get effects like flying text, rotating text as shown on this movie.

• Create a 2D Text object
You can create a 2D text object with the built–in "RTFD" text editor choosing the item menu Objects:2D:Text. Then type your text, choose font, size, style, color, shadow and press the button OK. You will get a 2D Text object on the Stage window like the one shown here above. The orange bounding box indicates that the 2D Text object is currently selected. You can animate the 2D text object in the 3D space as well as you animate any other object on the Stage by assigning key frames (look at the Create an animation page).

• Manage the 2D Text object on the Stage

Click on the text box on the Stage in order to select it. If the sprite-text is nested within a sprite-folder, click on the text box holding down the Option key in order to select it.
Click on the text box on the Stage and drag the mouse to move the text box along the X and Y axes. Click on the text box on the Stage holding down the Option key and drag to move the text box along the Z axis.
Click, then hold down the Control key and drag the mouse to rotate the text box along the X and Y axes. Hold down the Shift key too to constrain the rotation along one axis only.
Click, then hold down the Control & Option keys and drag the mouse to rotate the text box along the Z axis.
Click, then hold down the Command key and drag the mouse to change the size of the text box. In addition press the Shift key to constrain the resizing along one axis only. In case of horizontal scrolling text, please note that it usually requires a bigger height than what you normally expect. So, if you resize the text box height too short the text will not show up. Also, be sure you didn't type unwanted Carriage Returns on your horizontal scrolling text.
Select the text object then enter a value in the in the Inspector:Geometry panel (or use the wheels) to do the tasks described here above with the utmost accuracy.
Double click on the text box in the Stage window to re-edit the text. Also select the text object then call the "Sprite:Edit 2D Text" menu item to re-edit the text.

• Import a 2D text file (rtf and rtfd)
Drag and drop an rft or rtfd text file onto the Stage window or onto the hierarchical list of the Sprite window to quickly create a 2D Text object. See here above how to manage the text object.

• Make a text scrolling
When you create a text object it comes as a static text (not scrolling and not moving). In order to make the text scroll, select it on the Stage window or on the Sprite window then go to the Inspector window and select the tab view "Parameters. You will see the panel shown here aside. On this panel you can set the direction (Top, Bottom, Left and Right) the speed of the scrolling and the initial offset. When you play the animation, the text will be scrolling very very smoothly, at any speed, better than what we are actually used to see at the TV .

Don't modify the size of the text box on the Stage when the time marker is positioned on a keyFrame marker containing "size" key frames. If you do that, the size of the text object would be varying during the animation, forcing Kinemac to recalculate the text map at any frame; and this will result in a slower animation. Thus we strongly suggest to modify the size of a text box on the Stage when the time marker is not positioned on a key frame marker containing "size" key frames.

2D Text Counter
Choose the menu item "Objects:Counter" to create a 2D Text Counter showing dynamically a given value, as the current time (in ticks or in seconds) or a given value of a given sprite or a dynamic value described by a bezier curve. You can add a custom fixed text to the left and to the right of the counter and assign any font, size, style, color and shadow to any part of the text-counter. Watch the movie.

For example, you can link the height (Size Y) of a sprite cube to the counter to dynamically show the value of a bar in an animated chart. To do that, select the sprite "Counter" then drag the sprite "Cube" from the sprite hierarchical list onto the "Of Sprite" field in the "Inspector:2DText" panel. Then choose the menu item "Size Y" from the "Take Value" pop-up menu. If the height of the cube changes during the playback, you will see the counter changing its value as well.

For example, you can link the angle of a pie to the counter to dynamically show the percentage of the sales in the year. To do that, select the sprite "Counter" then drag the sprite "Pie" from the sprite hierarchical list onto the "Of Sprite" field in the "Inspector:2DText" panel. Then choose the menu item "Angle" from the "Take Value" pop-up menu. Set the Scale value to 0.2777 to convert the angle to percentage (100/360 = 0.2777). If the "Angle" of the Pie changes during the playback, you will see the counter changing its value as well. You can make the "Angle" of the Pie changing by setting a couple of key frames in the "Inspector:3D Parameters" panel.

More than scaling a value, you can add/subtract a constant value to the counter just typying a value in the field "Offset".

When the "Of Sprite" field is set to "me", the "Take Value" pop-up menu of the "2D Text Counter" object lists all the parameters belonging to the 2D Counter itself, thus even the "Custom Value" parameter. You can choose this parameter from the pop-up menu then assign key frames to this parameter in the "Custom Value" slider below. This way you can have a counter totally customized on the values described by a key–framed bezier curve belonging to the 2D Counter itself. You can edit this curve in the Bezier window (open the Bezier window with Command-3).

• Align Text
You can select several 2DText or 2DCounter objects or "one" sprite folder containing several 2DText or 2DCounter objects and set their paragraph alignment and the text color in one shot, without opening the edit-text window. Choose the alignment and the color in the Inspector:2DText panel or Inspector:Alignment panel.
You could use this option together with the previous features "Align Positions" and "Align Positions" to align the bounding box of the selected objects and the paragraph of the text objects selected.

• Change Font, Style, Size and Color
You can select several 2DText or 2DCounter or 3DText objects or "one" folder containing several 2DText or 2DCounter or 3DText objects and change their font/size/style/color in one shot, without opening the edit-text window. Just select the objects in the Stage window or in the Sprite window then choose the font/size/style from the Font panel and the color from the Color panel.
Open the Font panel with Command-T.
Open the Color panel with Command-Shift-C.

• Align Positions and Anchors
You can select several objects or "one" folder containing several objects and align the objects along the X, Y and Z axes. You can align the objects to the min value, middle value and max value along each axis. In these icons, the red line represents the X axis, the green line represents the Y axis and the blue line represents the Z axis.
You could use this option together with the feature "Align Anchors" (here below) to align the bounding box of the selected objects. See in the Inspector the "2D Text & Alignments" panel.

You can select several objects or "one" folder containing several objects and set their anchor points along the X, Y and Z axes. You can set the anchor points to the min value (0%), middle value (50%), and max value (100%) along each axis. You could use this option together with the previous feature "Align Positions" to align the bounding box of the selected objects. See in the Inspector the "2D Text & Alignments" panel.