When working with animated text, you will encounter letters that have curved lines and sometimes those curved lines can be distorted due to lower resolutions. How do you keep your curved letters crisp? Author Richard Harrington walks you through different aliasing methods so you know which one works best for your Adobe After Effects project.
- When you're dealing with text, you often have curved lines. And, unfortunately, in the world of video graphics and motion graphics, we're frequently using fairly low resolutions. Sure, the advent of 4K and even 8K video is upon us, but compared to print, it's still far fewer pixels. As such, it becomes important to adjust your aliasing method. With the text selected, let's zoom in here. I'm just pressing Control + Plus to take a look at 200%. And I'll double-click on the text so it's highlighted, but choose View, and I'll uncheck Extras so it's hidden.
Now the text is selected but not highlighted. You'll notice from the popup menu here several different options. None creates very jagged text. In this case, you see that the W looks like it was built out of children's bricks. You can see a hard, stair-stepped edge as those bricks were used. Now, as you choose different methods, such as Sharp, this uses minimal blurring and partial opacity. If we step in here, you'll start to see a little bit of an edge.
Let's turn off the effect for a second there, and you can see that we have some blending or transparency. Now, as we continue to go through the different methods, Crisp versus Strong versus Smooth, you'll see that it gives us choices. You may also see some specific ones here for your operating system, but I recommend avoiding those. Normally, I'll favor Crisp or Strong. They produce a good balance of overall quality and character recognition.
If I zoom that back out, you may have difficulty judging the anti-alias method, but it does impact things. All right, that looks good. And in this case, let's save our graphic with File, Save As to capture changes. And I'll call this MLK underscore prepped. At this point, the text is ready. And, using the advanced controls under the Character and Paragraph panel, I've been able to make a pleasant layout.
The final stage is to double-check our work.
Released
10/18/2016Learn how to properly develop and then optimize raw files to increase performance in After Effects, and use Photoshop's advanced typographic controls. Find out how to use layer styles to add bevels, overlays, and glows, and correct lens distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. Rich also introduces a unique use for Vanishing Point, which allows you to export 3D objects for parallax movements and virtual sets. Plus, discover how to save out depth mattes for backdrops and keying, and use the powerful Content-Aware tools for background plates, set extensions, or recomposing assets. There's a lot to learn! Start watching to incorporate Photoshop's advanced tools into your next After Effects project.
- Preparing Photoshop files for transfer
- Working with raw images
- Using Photoshop's advanced typographic controls
- Designing with layer styles
- Correcting lens issues and artifacts
- Creating perspective with Vanishing Point
- Creating LUTs with Photoshop
- Creating realistic focus effects for backdrops and keying
- Mastering the Content-Aware tools
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Video: Choosing the right aliasing method