How to work with custom text blocks

In this tutorial we will apply an In Effect on a target text and modify the text blocks which will be the targeted elements of the effect. For that, we will use the Creative TextFX feature Custom Text Blocks, which gives the user unlimited possibilities on how the effect will be applied on the text.

Firstly I just want to remind you that, in order to be able to solve the tutorial, you will need the Creative TextFX extension installed on your computer; if you encounter any problems while doing that, please visit the “How to install an extension” tutorial.

Click here to download the source file and the required files for solving this tutorial.

1. Let’s start by opening Flash and creating a new Flash file – ActionScript 3.0. Right click on the stage to open the Document Properties window. Name the file “How to work with custom text blocks”, set its dimensions to 400x170 pixels and the background color to white (#FFFFFF). Set the frame rate to 35 fps.

2. From the Components panel (CTRL+F7), drag an instance of Creative TextFX on the stage; following, open the component’s configuration interface from the top menu: Window>Other Panels>TextFX Panel.

3. In the Text tab, the target text field, insert the text “This text is very long and on [ENTER] multiple lines such that we [ENTER] can clearly describe the custom [ENTER] text blocks”; select the font face Arial, size 26, and color black (000000) – make sure the text is selected so that the changes will take effect. Press Embed Fonts to embed the used text into the file’s library.

4. From the Time Manager, enable the In and Wait effect elements, but leave the Delay and Out elements disabled; also, make sure the Loop option is enabled.

5. From the In Effect tab, select as the effect to use SlideAndGlow and its preset Extend_Default. Let’s configure the effect to last 105 frames; make sure that the Load Preset Duration is unchecked. Select for block Type Custom – in the next step we will edit the custom blocks.

6. Click Edit Custom Blocks to open the Custom Block Editor window. Position the cursor in the text, where you would like to create a separator and click “Split Cursor At Cursor Position”; below is an image with how I separated the custom text blocks, please do the same. If you have inserted a separator which you would like to remove, select the text where the separator resides and click “Remove Splits from selected text”.

7. From the Wait Effect tab, select the None Effect Name.

8. In the Properties window, set the position of the component on the stage at X= 18.0, Y= 18.0 coordinates.

9. Preview your file.

Thank you for your time and I hope this tutorial was useful to you. I invite you to read the rest of our tutorials and check out our other products on www.extendstudio.com. If you have any questions or suggestions please contact me at jon.stanciu@extendstudio.com.