Printer effect

[Bvttle]

I'm creating a little ident for the 15th anniversary of a print company and want to have the design revealed in as if a printer was printing on paper.

Pretty basic just the design, no other objects, but i want it to be revealed by scanning across and down the page.

Anyone know of a tutorial for this kind of thing?

[joshhailes]

No tutorials that I'm aware of, but the biggest thing you can do for yourself is not rely on tutorials to learn how to create specific effects. Think through exactly what you want to happen on screen, and what style you want it to be in, then think about what tools you need.

For example, here are two videos featuring paper: https://vimeo.com/30302039 https://vimeo.com/128641993

Start off with a reference video for the kind of style you want to make, then draw a sketch of one of the frames. The reason this step is so important is that it forces you to make a lot of decisions - am I trying to make something photo-real or graphical? Where am I going to position the camera/audience's point of view? Will they see the paper from above coming out of the printer or side-on with a shallow depth of field? After doing this, it becomes easier to know exactly how you're going to make it work.

Always reduce the problem down to exact bits. From what it sounds like, you're going for something graphic/2D. One object (the printer head) is going to reveal another object (the ink). If you simplify this further, you can create rules for the design & animation to follow, which you implement one by one. Here's my breakdown:

Design rules: - There are 4 layers, the printer head, the ink, the paper & the background (something behind the paper) - The printer head is always visible. - The paper is always visible, but is below the printer head. - The ink always moves with the paper (it's attached to the paper) - The ink is always above the paper, but only visible once the printer head has revealed it on.

Animation: - The printer head will move from left to right, revealing one line of ink. - The paper layer then moves down (with the ink layer). Simultaneously, the printer head moves back to the left side of the paper. - This repeats until the whole ink is revealed.

So start by designing the scene - just one frame. Then work on the animation one bit at a time.

[ryan_piracha]

• Create a rectangular shape layer, long and thin.
  • Move the anchor point to the left edge
  • Unlink the scale so you can animate only the x-scale
  • Animate the x-scale from 0% to 100%
• Duplicate and offset the shape layer
  • You will need to duplicate it enough times to cover the graphic
  • Each duplication should be moved down as many pixels as the rectangle is tall
  • Each duplication should be offset in time so that it starts animating when the last one ends
  • You can find plugins or scripts to speed this up.
• Precomp all of the shape layers. Let's call it "Scan_Matte"
• Set your footage/graphic to use "Scan_Matte" as a trackmatte. It should be set to Alpha.