Fun with Crumbling
Okay, this is based on Darren's question here: Motion Text Crumble which asks about achieving the effect in thisAfter Effects tutorial. This project is an update to the original. I made it more efficient by using a replicator instead of a particle emitter to generate the particles. This one gets about 11 fps on my system, unrendered (but with Movement Blur turned off).
I've still not come up with a good way to have the crumble travel along - maybe a moving attractor? Solved points to anyone who does.
(click on the picture for a movie)
Here's the project. It does a couple of interesting things, One of them is that it uses a random shape generator for the particles by applying a Randomize Shape behavior to a bezier shape, cloning it to allow the particle emitter to see it as a movie and using Random Start Frame. It also puts a Wriggle on the particle's "bounciness" so when they hit the bottom they rebound differently.
It uses a clone layer to create the particle's shadows. Oh - and it uses the "Underwater" filter (with a speed of zero) to give some "graininess" to the type edges...
Also, it's a good idea to turn off the Movement Blur filter while you play around. It adds a lot of overhead.
Put what you want to write (or be revealed) in the Title Holder group.
Have fun...
Patrick