Second Scary Text Effect

This effects is actually a good example of how Flash sees a text object as a mask or as a simple shape. You will find the surprise to find that this great effect is based in the differences that appear between the two. This effect came to me as a surprise because logically the clip would display a single static text but as you can see, it creates this great effect, like some insects are trying to get out of the text.

So by ignoring the first layer, you can see we have a mask and a masked layer. The mask layer is the one that holds the text. Doesn't matter the color of the text, because, as we said many times, the mask layer gives the shape, and the masked one gives the color.

The first trick is the masked layer. It consists of a shape (drawn with the brush tool) that moves left to right. So the text will not be fully displayed, but only parts of it, depending on how the shape in the masked layer is positioned.

Under the masked layer, we created a normal layer, with the same frame as the mask layer. So we will have a full visible text under the effect, and because flash changes a bit the shape determined by the same text in the mask layer, we get this great result.

If you want to create another version of this effect, change just a bit the last layer we spoke about, the one with the text behind the movement. What you can do is, you can apply the random transparency code to the text and you will get something like this.