Animated Text Tool

Check out this video to see examples in motion...

https://vimeo.com/649636948

This blueprint tool combines flipbook based font textures with material world position offset effects to generate animated text actors in a vast range of styles and behaviors. The user defines a text variable & material instances drawn from the animated text parent material and the tool will recreate that line as an arrangement of card meshes driven by their unique settings. Parametric controls are customizable based on the user's needs and can be utilized across a broad spectrum of content targets. A substance designer source file has also been included to allow users to generate any font they desire in the appropriate format for this tool. This is not a UMG widget, but rather for text actors inside the world. Similar in nature to games like Deathloop and Splintercell that uses in world text to direct player attention and drive objectives.

• Uses blueprints and material instances in combination with specially formatted flipbook font textures to generate infinite variation across each placement instance. The feeling of custom content generation in a fraction of the time.
• Fast, intuitive user controls
• Contains demo fonts, but can be used with custom authored flipbook textures using the included substance designer file to generate any font desired.
• In-engine documentation: Examples and demos of all blueprints and features inside package

Features:

• Animated Font Blueprint that arranges a series of character meshes based on a text input
• Large set of highly tunable parameters in both the blueprint and material instances to customize each actor to exact specifications.
• Contains advanced spacing & alignment settings including formatting meshes to a radial surface
• Drives texture lookups, formatting and kerning using data table values that can be customized according to needs
• Various basic material features included masked vs transparent, outlines, angle & distance fading, color gradation, grunge and tiling noises, etc. etc.
• Can be animated as a looping experience or as an intro/outro via various inputs such as on event begin, proximity (camera and actor based) or via blueprint scripting.
• Inheritable blueprints for saving custom settings for quick re-use.
• Included Substance Designer SBS file for formatting your own fonts as flipbook textures

Performance Notes:

• Most material features are layered behind switches to allow for tighter control over the final cost. The more features activated the more expensive the overall material cost of each instance. Some features can be further optimized by the end user as they hone in on what aspects of the tool are needed for specific goals as the tool leans on the side of accessibility for new users. 
• Base pass shaders range from ~119 - 198 ALU's depending on material settings used
• Vertex pass shaders range from ~78 - 450 ALU’s depending on material settings used
• For the most optimized performance…
• Switch the material instance to “Masked” instead of “Translucent”
• Make sure that unused features have their parameter switches turned off in the material instance
• Reduce the number of overlapping instances of text 
• Limit the number of text actors with materials being driven via the blueprint timeline as this is an expensive game update.
• Larger string sizes (50+ characters) can start to slow the responsiveness of the tool in-engine. Consider formatting & stylizing your text visuals with smaller examples first before using larger strings.

For more proceduralized tools please check out my other marketplace packs Procedural Decal Tools & Procedural Text Decals. Don't forget to leave a rating and/or review. Every little bit helps. Thank you!