Tutorial 65: ASCII & Text Generation
Joe Clay | Apr 7, 2017
Today we take a look at using an expression using sampleImage to generate text and make some really slow rendering ASCII art. I'm sure there are faster ways to do this, but this is an academic look at the process behind it, so that you can learn these techniques and hopefully find another use for them.
While I was able to make the intro work, unless you really need this effect, it's not worth attempting. I had to split up my HD frame into 4 quadrants. Two were rendered as stills, and two were rendered as videos. I cut the clips slightly in Premiere, but for about this length each section took an hour to render on my decently spec'd hackintosh.
Also, make sure to check out Mainframe's tutorial on Lester Banks, and that awesome site were I found that ASCII gradient.
Expression
string = thisComp.layer("Ramp").text.sourceText;
layer = thisComp.layer("Ramp").effect("Gradient Layer")("Layer");
s = layer.sampleImage(thisLayer.position)[0];
s = Math.floor(s*(string.length-1));
string.charAt(s);
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