Hi all -
Is there a way to distort text to give the illusion that the text is falling backwards to the ground without having to trace the text into a distortable element? thanks, dan
Dan,
One of the areas of deficiency in previous versions of TBS was the lack of a text tool or at least a proper text tool. This has been addressed in V3 and TBS now has a text tool that is functionally like that of Flash. You can add text and set all of the usual parameters. You can also select a text object and by using the break apart menu command the text is separated into individual text objects for each character. And just as in Flash, if you apply the break apart command twice to a text object it is converted into a filled shape.
Text objects can be transformed (moved, rotated, skewed, and scaled) and as expected when converted to being a filled shape they can also be contorted to your heart’s content.
So by using the break apart command twice your text is no longer a text object for the purposes of being editable with the text tool but now that it is converted to a drawn shape which you can attach to a peg and contort it to produce all sorts of cartoon like activities.
Additionally, You might want to produce two initial drawings with your text. One where you leave it as a text object and a copy of that drawing where you break it apart into drawn shapes that way you have both forms to play with in your animation work. And if you really want to go crazy you can just keep copying the drawn version of the “text shape” iand paste it into new drawings and you can do all sorts of character animation with the individual letter shapes that way without using pegs until you want to add your text cartoon into a scene. Hope this helps -JK
Hi J -
I had used the break apart but never took the next step of attempting to distort the text… I will give it a shot… thanks for your help … d
dan,
as jk says, it’s possible to manipulate text, using small square contols in the middle of the text select box sides a,d the rotation control.
what is not possible now is to distort text like you can distort any other drawn element, using the ‘perspective’ tool (one of the selection tools top left), where you can even invert it to the other side in any perspective setting.
but maybe we’ll see the text perspective feature in one of the next releases 
cheers,
rob
Hi Rob -
Thanks for the tip … that was my aim - to use the ‘perspective tool’ against the text as I had done with another object… looks like i will have to do what i want to do in photoshop or trace the text then use the ‘perspective’… thanks, dan
I believe that if you follow what I said and use the break apart command twice on the same text object that you will find that the text object becomes a shape which you then can manipulate with the perspective tool and do some really interesting text morphing animation as well as just adding lots of perspective to your text. The only draw back is that once converted to a shape you can’t change the letters with the text editor tool. -JK
Exactly, use the break apart twice to convert your text into drawings. Then you can use the perspective tool.
cheers,