Add high-resolution 3D Text to your Level using the geometry-based Text 3D Actor. Use 3D Text objects in any project where you need to show clean, high-quality text in the virtual world, such as live broadcasts and virtual sets.
You can use the Sequencer Editor to animate your 3D text objects, creating motion graphics directly inside the Unreal Editor.
Enabling the 3D Text Plugin
To use 3D Text, you must first enable the Text 3D Plugin.
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In the Main Menu Bar, select Edit > Plugins.
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From the Text tab, enable Text 3D.
You'll be warned that the Plugin is in an experimental state. Click Yes. - Click Restart Now to use the plugin in your project.
- If you have made changes to your project, a window opens where you can save your work before restarting.
Placing 3D Text in Your Level
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In the Place Actors panel, select All Classes, then Text 3D.
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Drag and drop the Text 3D Actor into the level.
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In the viewport, select the Text 3D Actor to view its parameters in the Details panel.
Text 3D Actor Settings
The following options are available in the 3D Text section of the Details Panel to control the way your 3D text appears.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Text | Enter the text used to create the 3D Text geometry. Press Shift+Enter to create a line break. |
| Extrude | Set the depth of the geometry: how thick the letters are from front to back. |
| Bevel | Set the size of the bevel along the edges of the characters. |
| Bevel Type | Set the type of edge bevel: Linear for a sharp, flat bevel, or Half Circle for a rounded edge. |
| Half Circle Segments | Set the number of segments used to create the curve for the Half Circle bevel. |
| Front Material | Select the Material to use for shading the front surface of the letters. |
| Bevel Material | Select the Material to use for shading the surface of the bevel. |
| Extrude Material | Select the Material to use for shading the sides of the letters. |
| Back Material | Select the Material to use for shading the back of the letters. |
| Font | Select the True Type (TTF) or Open Type (OTF) font Asset you want to use for the letters. For more information about getting fonts into your Unreal Engine project, see Importing Fonts. |
| Horizontal Alignment | Align horizontal text to the Left, Center or Right with respect to the position of the Actor in 3D space. |
| Vertical Alignment | Align the text vertically to put the Top Line, Top, Bottom or Center of the letters at the position of the Actor in 3D space. |
| Kerning | Set additional space between each character. |
| Line Spacing | Set additional space between each line. |
| Word Spacing | Set additional space between each word. |
| Max Width | Set the maximum width of the text. |
| Max Height | Set the maximum height of the text. |
| Scale Proportionally | Locks the height and width of the letters to their current ratio. When enabled, any change to either the height or width of the letters applies to both. |
Animating Letter-by-Letter
You can interpolate the 3D translation, rotation, and scaling of the letters in a Text 3D Actor between configurable starting and ending values. You can set the order in which the animations progress across the letters in the text (left-to-right, right-to-left, from the middle letters out, or from the outer letters in), and how much each letter's animation overlaps with its neighbors. In combination with the Sequencer tool, this allows you to design dynamic motion graphics that apply animations letter-by-letter.
For example, the following video shows how to apply transforms to the location, scale, and rotation of the letters in a Text 3D Actor, then the effect of using a Level Sequence to animate the transforms over time.
Letter-by-letter animation in a Text 3D Actor is controlled by a Text3DCharacterTransform Component. You'll need to add one of these Components to your Actor, and set up its values.
To set up letter-by-letter animation:
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Select your Text 3D Actor in the Viewport or the World Outliner.
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In the Details panel, click Add Component and select Text3DCharacterTransform.
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Select the new Text3DCharacterTransform at the top of the Details panel to access its settings.
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Enable the location, rotation, and/or scale transforms, and adjust their settings to produce the animation effect you want. See the table below for a description of each setting.
As you adjust the settings for the location, rotation, or scale transforms, you can drag the Progress value back and forth between 0 and 100 to preview the effect.
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Typically, you will want to use a Level Sequence to play back the animation effect you've designed over time. This will usually involve adding your Text 3D Actor to a Level Sequence, creating new tracks for the Progress setting, then creating keyframes on those tracks that make the values change between 0 and 100 over time. For example:
For details on creating a Level Sequence and working in the Sequencer Editor, see the Sequencer documentation.
Text 3D Character Transform Settings
The Text3DCharacterTransform Component exposes the following settings for the 3D location, rotation, and scale of your text. You can control the three types of transform separately.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Determines whether the Text3DCharacterTransform Component updates the location, rotation, or scale of the letters based on the values in this section. Enabling this option adds some extra calculations for the CPU to carry out. Typically, you should only enable this setting for types of transforms that you actually need to animate. |
| Progress | Determines the overall progression of the text animation between the Begin and End states. At If you create a Level Sequence to animate the letter-by-letter transforms over time, this is typically the setting that you will want to animate in your Level Sequence. |
| Order | Determines the direction in which the animation progresses across the letters in your text.
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| Range | Determines how much overlap there is between adjacent letters. At 0, each letter completes its transformation from the Begin state to the End state before the next letter begins to transform. At 100, all letters begin and end their transformations at the same time. Values in between create a partial overlap between each successive pair of letters. |
| Begin | Sets the desired initial state for the rotation or scale of the letters. All axis values are expressed in the local space of the Text 3D Actor. For the location, the Begin position of each letter is always determined by the position of the Text 3D Actor in the Level. |
| End or Distance | Sets the desired end state for the location, rotation, or scale of the letters. |