Question was asked "How to create a Typewriter Effect for text created in Premiere Elements 11 Titler?"
ISSUE
Although the Premiere Elements 11 Titler has an Animation section, its FadeInByCharacter is not very realistic for this Typewriter Effect, even if the effect is embellished with clicking sound for each letter being typed in. None of the Premiere Elements versions from 4 to 14 was found to have a Typewriter Effect for the text created in Titler.
SOLUTION
A Typewriter Effect was created using the Timeline text file created with the Premiere Elements project's Titler, Crop keyframing of the letters of the text, and adding a clicking sound when each letter appeared. The work is an adaptation of the creation of the Typewriter Effect for Premiere Pro found HERE.
The key to making this Typewriter Effect look realistic is the application of Hold to each of the Crop keyframes. Adding sound when each letter appears embellishes the concept of the Typewriter Effect.
Although Premiere Elements 11 Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit was used for developing the HOW TO to follow, the details are applicable to at least Premiere Elements 12/12.1, 13/13.1, and current version 14.
HOW TO EXAMPLE
STEP 1
Text File Duration
Calculate the Text File duration needed for the number of letters in the text and the time interval between Crop keyframes. For this HOW TO, the text is "Typewriter Effect". The interval between each the Crop Keyframes is set at 0.5 second (15 frames in a 30 frames per second set up). For 16 letters and the 0.5 second interval, the clip duration was set at at least 8.5 seconds.
STEP 2
Creating The Text File With "Typewriter Effect" As The Text
Go to Expert workspace Text Menu/New Text/Default Text to open the Titler. A Text File will be placed automatically on the Timeline at the position of the Timeline Indicator. The duration of the Text File will be what is set in preferences (150 frames/5 seconds default for 30 frames per seconds setup).
To obtain the 8.5 seconds Timeline text file for this example, close the Titler. Right click the Timeline Text File that was placed there automatically, select Time Stretch, and set the Time Stretch dialog's duration to 00;00;08;15 (hours;minutes;seconds;frames). Double click the Timeline 8.5 seconds Text File to open the Titler again. Then
- Set Font = Times New Roman; Size 191; Regular; Color = White
- Type text = Typewriter Effect
- Center the text horizontally and vertically
- Close Titler ....it remains closed for the remainder of the HOW TO
STEP 3
Creating the Typewriter Effect
At the Timeline level
- 1. Go to fx Effects/Transform/Crop, and drag the Crop effect into the Timeline text file.
- 2. Go to the Timeline Text File and change the file's title from Opacity:Opacity to Crop:Right. This enables the Crop keyframes to be seen as white dots on the clip's Rubberband* when each of the Crop keyframes is created.
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| Figure 1. Typewriter Effect Workflow STEP 3. |
STEP 4
Creating the Typewriter Text Animation
The Tools for creating this effect are the Timecode above the Timeline and the Crop Panel Right slider in Applied Effects/Applied Effects Palette/Crop Panel expanded. See Figure 1, feature labelled 3.
Type the Timecode = 00;00;00;00 and move Crop Right slider to 100%.
Hit the Toggle Animation Icon in the Crop Panel.
Timecode = 00;00;00;00 and Crop Right slider at 100%, and the text Typewriter Effect is not seen.
Type the Timecode to equal 00;00;00;15, and move the Crop Right slider to left just to the point to reveal the first letter T in Typewriter Effect text.
Type the Timecode to equal 00;00;01;00, and move the Crop Right slider to left just to the point to reveal the y as well as previous T.
Type the Timecode to equal 00;00;01:15, and move the Crop Right slider to left just to the point to reveal the p as well as the previous T and y.
Type the Timecode to equal 00;00;02:00, and move the Crop Right slider to left just to the point to reveal the e as well as the previous T, y, and p.
Type the Timecode to equal 00;00;02:15, and move the Crop Right slider to left just to the point to reveal the w as well as the previous T, y, p, and e.
Continue in this routine to the last letter of the text Typewriter Text. Then right click each of the keyframes, and apply the Hold option to each. Hold can be applied to the Crop keyframes either at the Timeline level (Rubberband) or in the Show Keyframe Controls area in the Crop Panel (Applied Effects Tab route).
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| Figure 2. Applying Hold To Crop Keyframes. |
At each of the Timecode times (except 00;00;00;00) place** a 0.5 second clicking sound file. Free online sound file (.wav) was used.
See Figure 3 for STEP 4 Details as well as Expert workspace structure at the end of the procedure and before its export to file.
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| Figure 3. Finished Typewriter Effect Content Workspace Before Export. |
The export of the finished Timeline content to Window Media 1920 x 1080p29.97 file can be seen below.
COMMENTARY
The above are the basics of how the Typewriter Effect animation was created for Premiere Elements. Work is still in process to attempt to streamline the details. Certain edits of the finished project at the project file level are expected to force a redo. Those certain edits need to be defined.
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*Rubberband. The orange line that runs horizontally across the duration of the Timeline clip. For the video portion of a clip, the rubberband represents by default Opacity. For the audio portion of a clip, the rubberband represents by default Volume. See HERE and HERE for more information on "Rubberband".
**Convenient way to place each of the 0.5 sound files was found to be using the Show Keyframe Controls area Crop Right keyframes previous and next to move from keyframe to keyframe. This moved the Timeline Indicator to the corresponding keyframe on the Timeline. With the Timeline Snap on, it was just a matter of dragging the 0.5 second sound file to snap to the position of the Timeline Indicator on the Timeline.
ATR
