Text Ramp
Posted on 30. Apr, 2008 by Jerzy Drozda Jr in After Effects
This quick tip will show you how to apply a Ramp effect to Text Layers while avoiding common problems that appear when doing so.
Click here to watch the video tutorial
For those of you who didn’t face the ramp-on-text problem before here’s a brief description. After creating a new Text Layer we get all those handles and layer controls that suggest that the size of the layer is the same as the text itself. The truth is that it isn’t. It seems like After Effects is treating the text as a mask on a solid layer. Therefore when you apply the Ramp effect all the effects controls are relative to your comp size rather than the size of the text. The start and end of the ramp points appear on the top and bottom of the comp instead of on the top and bottom of the text.
Unless you’re planning to do more than one ramped text layer this may not be that much of a trouble. Simply reposition the points to suit your needs. On the other hand if you have a few ramped text layers you need to reposition the ramp points separately for each layer. This can be very annoying, not to mention how messy it gets when you start to animate the Text Layers position.
This quick tip shows you how to build a small preset that will not only fix that problem, but will also allow you to create complex ramps that consist of more than only two colors.
If you may think that using Layer Styles is the right solution than you’re probably right. It works, but it works only in CS3, not to mention the rendering time that is much longer than using the Ramp effect.
This is not a bulletproof solution, but it will get the job done for most of the cases. At least it worked for me more than a couple of times, and that’s why I found this worth sharing.
The font used in this tutorial is called Viper Nora. If you want you can download it from DaFont.com. Click here.
Download: Tutorial project file (After Effects CS3)
65 Responses to “Text Ramp”
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Maltaannon recommends:
Frank C.
30. Apr, 2008
Thanks, Maltaannon. What a great and useful effect. This tutorial has just given me an inspiration on a specific project. Keep these types of tutorials coming.
Guilherme
30. Apr, 2008
Thans Maltaannon.
Best tutoruial!!!
i from Brazil
CR Chis
30. Apr, 2008
Is nice to see you again Maltanoon, it`s hard work with expression, but at the end something works well…
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iori
30. Apr, 2008
so nice to find out another two exciting tutorials!
Keep on good work Maltanoon!
Cheers!
adi resana
30. Apr, 2008
terima kasih banget mas…..tutorialnya muanteeb tenan….
salam dari bali – indonesia
Janus
30. Apr, 2008
Great tip, I’ve always had problems with ramps. Oh man, you just saved me so many pre-comps :D
Thanks alot. Great Tut…
Seth
30. Apr, 2008
sleek
Rob
01. May, 2008
He, this is relay great!!! Thanks a lot.
CalvinWood
01. May, 2008
thanks,Maltaannon
i always wanted to apply the gradient to my text,but i had the same problem lie always
JPeacock
02. May, 2008
I’m so fed up.. of these brilliant tutorials, so I felt I had to donate. Have a beer or two on me Maltaannon.
Mark
02. May, 2008
woooooooo what a tut Genius-M, when more of these types will come, gr8 help for the ramp prob. Thnx a ton.
take care, mark
hadif
05. May, 2008
Wo0o0o0ow Good job !!
Dileep
06. May, 2008
i am studying
Dileep
06. May, 2008
very nice
Jeff
09. May, 2008
Awesome.. I’ve been wanting to figure out how to do this for years. Thank you!!
brandon
11. May, 2008
may i just say AWSOME
RC Flash
12. May, 2008
Simplesmente demais!!!
Muito Obrigado, Bom trabalho.
Obrigado
youness
13. May, 2008
hi plz help me where can i find your tutorial video ???
Maltaannon
13. May, 2008
Just click on the image.
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14. May, 2008
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TGD
26. May, 2008
[...] Text Ramp [...]
C
05. Jun, 2008
This link is bad. Anychance at a fix?
Thanks!
Maltaannon
06. Jun, 2008
It should be working now. Sorry for the trouble. It’s because I just moved the site to a new server. Something got lost on the way.
warriortree
26. Jun, 2008
You can also just apply the ramp to the text and precompose it. Then you can move the new precomp around just fine without the ramp movng.
Maltaannon
26. Jun, 2008
Seems like you’ve missed the point of the tutorial, which was avoiding precomping. If you have just one or two text layers thats probably easier, but imagine having ten.
Sakthis
10. Jul, 2008
I like your tutorials, but can you do it a bit slowly so we can exactly see whats happening? Sorry, but I don’t get some of those parts too. Can you find a way for my problems?
Hector
06. Aug, 2008
where i can download that preset?
mexa
08. Aug, 2008
super tutorial
CristalCube
25. Aug, 2008
Thanks for this tutorial George.
Greetings. CC³.
Fred
15. Jan, 2009
Have a way to do that BUT follow the rotation too?
Dani J
13. Feb, 2009
This was very helpful! Thank you!!
Almeida
16. Feb, 2009
Ei Maltaanoon!
Thanks for all those stuffs! That helps a LOT!
But…
Where is the TEXT RAMP script, I couldn´t find it!!!!
Please, can you send me by mail?
Arigatô and sayonara!
Taylor
01. Mar, 2009
I have a problem. It wants me to install a file called Shine and others, where do I download them? Also there are several more so I was wondering where I could get all the installments that you have.
Taylor
01. Mar, 2009
Sorry, but one last thing. For the FFX files what do I do with them I can’t put it directly in Adobe After Effects or it will say the file is not supported. What do I do?
Maltaannon
02. Mar, 2009
FFX are preset files. You need to put them in you After Effects Preset directory. For Windows default location is: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files\Presets
CE TextRamp » maltaannon.com
02. Mar, 2009
[...] I posted a free solution to this problem, so make sure to check it out before you continue. The old TextRamp tutorial will show you how to create very simple preset that might help in some [...]
Matt
31. Aug, 2009
This seems to work great if the text layer is not a 3D layer. When I apply this to a 3D text layer that is animating in z space, the gradient does not stick with the text and becomes statically positioned separate from the text. (Same initial problem at the beginning of this tutorial) This problem also occurs when the text is precomped because the continuously rasterize needs to be on. Is there anyway for this to work with 3D text layers?
Thanks
Jerzy Drozda Jr
01. Sep, 2009
There is… to some exctend. Check this out: http://maltaannon.com/articles/after-effects/ce-textramp/
Jane
01. Jul, 2010
Great!!!! Thanks!!!
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Vijayakumar
03. Oct, 2010
superb Tutorials……
Thank YOU!!!
Adrian
08. Oct, 2010
Hello,
I can not find ceTextRamp effect in my Effects and Presets. The same problem on a previous tutorial. Should I download this effects?
Thank you
AlennoisE
24. Oct, 2010
If i use Sure Target or if i rotate camera .. the ramp is not pinned any more… solution maybe? or im doing something wrong?
AliennoisE
25. Oct, 2010
Found a Better Solution…—-> Can be used in 3D; With Sure Target;Camera rotate.
1. Create “Text Layer”, Make it 3D.
2. Create New Solid—apply ramp to it, Make it 3D
3. Make sure The “Text Layer” is Placed above the “Ramp Layer”.
4. Set Ramp Layer –> TrkMat –> Luma Matte “Text Layer”.
5. Pick whip the position of Ramp Layer “parent” to the position of “Text Layer”. I guess thats it..
Hope it helps someone. cheers!
Eric
11. Feb, 2011
I found a far easier solution.
In the both the “start of ramp” and “end of ramp” type this:
transform.position + value
After that, move the start of ramp and end of ramp to wherever you like, and it will always follow the layer’s position. It doesn’t, however, work with scale and rotation.
Luiz
26. Feb, 2011
just precomp the text and aply ramp
and them apply colorama on the precomp…
to use it in 3d just do the same thing… and check box for 3d
dumn tutorial if i were u i would delete these one…
by the way the site is really helpful…
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