Reference / Effects / Generate
Updated
Type fill
What it does
Section titled “What it does”Sets the Words, typed between bars (Flood|the|Grid), in rows from top to bottom. Each row
is cut into columns across the whole width, one word each, the columns as wide as the words
naturally are. A Region layer says where the words may go: along each row a column keeps
only the stretches the region leaves free. The column’s word is stretched across and down from
its first stretch to its last, each stretch showing its own slice of it: a shape that cuts a
column in two cuts the word, “t” on one side and “he” on the other, and never shows it twice.
The region can be any layer: a shape, a letter, a precomp of shapes put together with blend modes. Animate it and the words flood the room it leaves. The look (font, style, colour) comes from a Text layer, which can be hidden.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”| Parameter | Control | Range | Default | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text layer | Layer | Any layer in the composition | None | - |
| Words | Text | A short line of text | Flood|the|Grid | - |
| Region layer | Layer | Any layer in the composition | None | - |
| Region placement | Dropdown | As placed in comp · Stretch to fit · Centre | As placed in comp | - |
| Region from | Dropdown | Alpha · Luminance | Alpha | - |
| Invert region | Checkbox | On or off | Off | - |
| Cut words | Checkbox | On or off | Off | - |
| Threshold | Slider | 0 to 100 | 50 | Per cent |
| Rows | Slider, whole numbers | 1 to 200 | 24 | - |
| Row gap | Slider | 0 to 200 | 6 | Pixels at composition size |
| Word gap | Slider | 0 to 200 | 8 | Pixels at composition size |
| Min width | Slider | 0 to 1000 | 24 | Pixels at composition size |
| Order | Dropdown | In turn · Shift per row · Random | In turn | - |
| Seed | Seed | Any whole number | A fresh random seed per instance | - |
| Mix | Slider | 0 to 100 | 100 | Per cent |
What each control does
Section titled “What each control does”- Text layer: the Text layer whose look the words take. Unset draws nothing.
- Words: the words between bars, left to right in every row.
- Region layer: where the words may go. Unset, the whole frame is theirs.
- Region placement: where the Region layer’s picture sits on this one.
- Region from and Threshold: a place is in the region where the Region layer is that opaque (Alpha) or that bright (Luminance).
- Invert region: fill where the region is not.
- Cut words: keep every word whole at its column’s width and let the region cut it pixel by pixel, instead of stretching it into the room it has. Word gap no longer insets the edges. Either way the region cuts the words pixel by pixel, so a tall row never spills a word over a curved edge.
- Rows, Row gap: how many rows fill the frame, and the room between them.
- Word gap: the room between the words of a row, and at the region’s edges.
- Min width: a column whose stretches span less than this gets no word.
- Order: each row’s words in the same order, moved on one word a row, or shuffled per row by the Seed.
Two Type fills with the same Region layer, one with Invert region on and its words in the other colour, fill both sides of a shape: black on white outside, white on black inside. With Cut words on in both, they share each word across the shape’s edge.