10.1 Introduction to 3D Text 10.2 Creating 3D Text in Blender 10.3 The Object Data Button 10.4 Creating Text on a Curve
10.5 Converting Text to a Mesh Object 10.6 Converting Text to a Curve 10.7 Elefont 3D Text
10.1 Introduction to 3D Text
3D text can be a very important element to add to a scene. Th ink of all the television advertisements that contain text and how it is animated. Th ere are two ways of adding text to a scene in Blender: one way is to use the built-in text generator and the other is to use an external program. Text made in Blender can be easily edited in the proper-ties window. Text made in an external program like Elefont may give you additional options and diff erent fonts.
10.2 Creating 3D Text in Blender
To create text in Blender, put your scene in top view with orthographic projection (number pad 7 then number pad 5). Text is entered into the scene in the top view.
Locate the cursor at the point in the scene where you want your text to go. Press Shift + the A key and select “Add Text” (Figure 10.1). Th e word “Text” displays in the 3D window in object mode. Tab into edit mode—the word “Text” now has a typing cur-sor at the end of it (Figure 10.2). You can now backspace to delete letters and type in your own words just like in a text editor. Don’t worry about the font style or size at this stage. When you have typed in the words you want, tab back into object mode;
this is where you shape and color the text (Figure 10.3). Figure 10.1
Text Objects Learning Unit 8
Tip: Make sure your 3D window background is a darkish color. Since the default text color is the default gray, it is difficult to see against a light background.
Before you do any shaping or coloring, you can move, rotate, and scale the text just like any object in Blender. Changing the text into something interesting is done in the proper-ties window. Select the text in the 3D window then go to the properproper-ties window – “Object Data” button.
10.3 The Object Data Button
Width, extrude, and bevel depth sliders control exactly what they say.
t The width slider controls the text width.
t The extrude slider extrudes the text to a 3D shape.
t The bevel depth slider controls the bevel size.
Experiment with the settings to modify the shape of the text (Figure 10.4).
The default font style is entered as “Bfont.” You can change this to whatever font styles you have on your system. If you are using a Windows operating system, you can find the font styles in the Windows “Fonts” folder (C:/Windows/Fonts). To change the font style, click on the “Search Folder” icon and in the search window navigate to your fonts folder and select a different font. Blender will accept any of the Windows fonts, but some may be distorted Figure 10.2
Figure 10.3
Object mode
The word “Text” has been deleted
and “Edit Mode” typed in its place. Tab to edit mode.
Edit mode
Typing cursor
179 10.3. The Object Data Button
when they are extruded into 3D shapes. To select a different font type, enter the default font in object mode in the 3D win-dow and go to the properties winwin-dow – “Object Data” button.
Click in the folder icon as shown in Figure 10.5 to open the file browser window. Navigate to the font style you require and se-lect a font. Press the “Open Fonts” button at the top RHS of the window. The selected font will be applied in the 3D window.
Depending on the font selected, you may have to zoom in to see it. As you can see in Figure 10.5, you can assign different font styles such as regular, bold, and italic.
Figure 10.4
Figure 10.5
“Search Folder” icon Default font style
Folder icon to open the file browser to select a font type
Note that the font selected is only applied to the text object selected in the 3D window.
The text is treated as an object, therefore the font style (values) you have assigned are for the selected object only. Entering a second text object will require that you assign a different set of data.
In the “Fonts” tab, the underline position and thickness values only operate when “Un-derline” is ticked under “Character.” Underlining occurs as you type your text in edit mode.
10.4 Creating Text on a Curve
Text in Blender can be made to follow the shape of a curved path. Begin by adding text to your scene as previously described; when it is in object mode, deselect it with the A key.
Add a curved path to the scene by pressing Shift + the A key – “Curve” – “Path.” Note that by default the path is named “NurbsPath.” The curve path is added to the scene in object mode and appears as a straight line (Figure 10.6). You can scale it to make it longer and re-position it in object mode, but you will have to tab to edit mode to extrude or shape it into a curve (Figure 10.7). With the curve shaped however you’d like, tab back to object mode and deselect it.
Select the text object and in the properties window – “Object Data” button – “Font” tab, find the “Text on Curve” panel. Click on the little cube icon and in the drop down menu that displays select “NurbsPath” (Figure 10.8). The text is shaped to follow the profile of the curve.
Figure 10.7
Edit mode Object mode
Figure 10.6
181 10.5. Converting Text to a Mesh Object
10.5 Converting Text to a Mesh Object
There is only limited functionality in the text “Object Data” button – “Geom-etry” tab for modifying the text shape.
Unless you have extruded the text, it re-mains a 2D plane object. Entering edit mode only allows you to retype a text change. To perform editing, which actually changes the shape of the text, you have to convert to a mesh object. To do this, select the text in ob-ject mode then press Alt + the C key and select “Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text” in the drop down menu that displays (Figure 10.9). Tab to edit mode and you will see that the text is now a mesh object with vertices that can be moved, rotated, and scaled (Figure 10.10).
Figure 10.9 Figure 10.10
Figure 10.8 Click on the cube icon.
Select “NurbsPath.”
Edit mode