Introduction: Creating Animated Text in Blender 2.7

I have always loved working with computers and animations.
Upon discovering Blender, I was addicted to finding out what else I could
create. Blender really can help you
bring your dreams into reality. Nevertheless in this tutorial, I will show you
how to create an animated text where a sphere bounces through a text.
Sometimes, hitting the floor (which is a liquid ocean) and creating a
displacement.

Here is a video of the final animation:

Final animation

This video was not made for Professional Blender Users. Users
do not need to have any prior experience with blender as steps to complete this
specific task will be explained and listed in a chronological order and a
supplementary video will be provided. However, users will need to have a fairly
comprehensive knowledge in computers as this information will not be covered.

General warning, cautions, and danger notices:

Note- starring too long at computers without a break can
lead to impaired vision.

Equipment and supplies

Blender software (can be downloaded for free at https://www.blender.org/download/
)

AVI video playback software

A mouse with a scrolling key on it

Step 1: Opening Blender

Once you open blender, you will see blender’s start up page.
The first thing we need to do is to
clear the screen. To do this:

a. Right Click on the cube

b. Press DEL button on your keyboard

c. Press Enter button on your keyboard

Step 2: Inserting Text

We are first going to insert the text.

a. Select combination keys SHIFT + A

b. Select TEXT

c. Orientate the text on the x axis at 90 degrees

  • · Select the R key on the keyboard
  • · Select the X key on the keyboard
  • · Type in 90
  • · Press Enter

d. Edit Text

  • · Select the TAB key
  • · Backspace to delete text
  • · Enter the text you want to insert
  • · Select the TAB key to stop editing text

Note: You can orientate your viewin the following way:

· Hold down the scroll button on your mouse to rotate view

· Hold down the scroll button on your mouse while holding down the shift keyto move your view to the left/ right.

· Select the G key to move text to where you want it. Press ENTER to release the text. This can also be applied if you want to move
an object.

· Scroll up/ down on your mouse to zoom in and out

Step 3: MODIFYING TEXT

a. Move your tools panel (on left) out so you can
see it better.

b. Select the Text button (its shaped like an F)

c. Under geometry change the following values


  • i. Depth(0.050)

  • ii. Extrude (0.150)

  • iii. Resolution (3)

Note:
these values works for the text I am using. If you change your text to
something else, you can play with these values until it works for you.

Step 4: Scaling and Adding Spacing to Your Text

a. Zoom out so that you can see the whole grid

b. Select S on the keyboard to scale your text to the size you
want it. Generally, it’s best to center your text.

c. Scroll down on your tool bar to your left and
select line spacing (add spacing to the letters in your text)

  • Ø Note: always keep the text centered on the grid.

d. Press the arrow next to line spacing to add
spaces.

Step 5: Ball Moves Through Text

Step 2_A :creating the ball

a. Press 1 on your number pad

b. Scroll up to the point where you can , just
about, see the beginning of the grid

c. Rotate text so that you can see the top edge of
your text

d. SHIFT + A

e. Select MESH

f. Select UV sphere

g. On the left tool bar, select Smooth

Step 2_B: Positioning the Ball

h. Press S on the keyboard to scale the ball to the size
you want it.

  • Ø Move your mouse out to make the ball bigger.
  • Ø Move your mouse In to make the ball smaller.
  • Ø Hit enter once you have the size you will like
    to use.

i. Press G on your keyboard and position the ball to the
side of the text

j. Press 3 on the keyboard and move the ball so that
half of the ball is covered by the text.

k. Press 1 for a frontal view

Step 2_C: creating movement

a. Change to cycles render

b. At thebottom make sure that it says 1 here (this tells you where your ball will be
located at that particular frame).

c. Press I on keyboard and select Location and Enter.

d. Change position location to 60 here, move the
ball to the top of the I (in michelle), Press I and select location

e. Change position location to 120, move the ball
to below the E (in michelle ),Press I and select location.

f. Change position location to 150, move the ball
to the top of the first L(in michelle), Press I and select location

g. Change position location to 200, , move the ball
to the right side of the E (in michelle ),Press I and select location

h. Select the << arrow on blender and press
play. You should be able to see the ball moving through the text.

Step 6: Creating the Floor

Step 3_A: create the floor

a. Position the floor to the middle of the screen

b. SHIFT +A

c. Select MESH and then Plane

d. Type S on your keyboard to scale plane to the size
of the grid

e. Type G to position the plane on the grid

f. On the toolbar on the right hand side, select
the icon that looks like a wrench and then select add modifier

g. Select Ocean

h. Zoom out so that you can see the whole ocean
you’ve created

i. Type S to scale and scale down to just a bit bigger
than the size of the grid

  • Ø You may need to zoom in by scrolling up

j. Hit enter to select and stop scaling

Step 3_A: animating the ocean floor

a. On the tool bar to the right, change the
following values

  • Ø Choppiness : 2.0
  • Ø Small wave: .150
  • Ø Wind velocity: 60
  • Ø Select generate foam
  • Ø Change coverage to 0.5
  • Ø Scale :1
  • Ø Depth: 300
  • Ø Resolution : 13

Note: these values depends on what you want your outcome to
be. You can change them based on your preference of your desired output. You
can change your time values to see what effect you will get at certain times.

b. At time equals 1, Press I on keyboard to select location.

  • Ø When you press I, make sure your cursor is above
    the time and your frame number is at one

c. Select the following frames to create locations
at these time frames; press I to select locations

  • Ø frame 1: time equals 1
  • Ø frame 61: time equals 3.00
  • Ø frame 121: time equals 6.00
  • Ø frame 199 : time equals 13.00

Step 7: Assigning Material to Floor

a. Material button (located on right hand side tool
bar)

b. NEW

c. Change Diffuse to Glass BSDF

d. Color change to CCDBE7

Step 8: Assigning Material to Background

a. Select world button (located on the right hand
side tool bar)

b. Select color and change to white

Step 9: Assigning Material to Text

a. Right click on text

b. Click the material button on the right hand side
tool bar

c. New

d. Change color to green

Step 10: Assigning Material to Ball

a. Right click on ball

b. Click the material button on the right side tool
bar. Change color to purple

Step 11: Create a Moving Water Effect

1) On right hand side tool bar, select physics
button

2) Right click on surface to select it

3) Click on add canvas

4) Surface type = displacement

5) Change damping value to .09

6) Select sphere

7) Select dynamic paint

8) Add brush

Step 12: Setting Camera View and Rendering Options

CAMERA VIEW

1) To position the camera to the view you want

  • a. Press 0 to look through the camera
  • b. R to rotate the camera
  • c. G to move the camera
  • d. You can also hold and move the X,Y, Z axis to
    move the camera along those axis

2) Press N on key pad

3) Select lock camera to view

4) Press N on keypad again

RENDERING

1) Select render from right hand side tool bar

2) Change the file output to OGGthorr

3) Change directory to where you want to save your
file

4) Press select when you have selected where you
want to store the file

5) Select animation to begin rendering

  • a. You may want to save before rendering incase the
    file was not rendered properly. To do this :

  • i.File
  • ii. Save