Type Drops Update
Posted by David Hebel on Friday, February 29, 2008

Since the most popular blog entry to date has been on the new fonts we are working on, I thought it might be time for another update to answer a few questions.

Question: Will these fonts work just like any other fonts I have?
Answer: No...and Yes. No, it won't work as a TrueType or Postscript font. But, yes, we will try to make tools available that allow you to do the things you are accustomed to doing with your standard fonts. At first this will be in Juicer and later we will develop plug-ins.

Question: Will these fonts work in Photoshop?
Answer: Yes, we have already developed a beta plug-in for testing our fonts in Photoshop. Below is a screen shot. Please ignore the look and feel as it will not look like this when it is finished. The main thing is that you can see we are trying to put all the things you need such as scaling, tracking, kerning, etc.

Question: Why aren't these in vector?
Answer: Because we could not achieve the look and feel we are going for with vector. Instead we made them a super high resolution that should work for almost any use. One letter is a little bigger than an 8.5"x11" piece of paper at 300 dpi.

Question: Will these be animated?
Answer: Some would look good as animated fonts and we are considering it, but not all lend themselves to animation.

Question: When will these be available?
Answer: We are hard at work creating these fonts and the software to power them. Expect them to start rolling out regularly some time in the second quarter of 2008.

Here is a few more examples:

Views: 5791   Views Today: 2

Are These fronts still coming .... 2008 is over ?
If yes ...what will the prices be like?
Posted on 10/29/2008 by Joseph Moise, Moy's Productions Inc.

When in the crap are these things coming?? don't advertise so far in advance next time...really annoying and i know you think it brings people back to the site looking to see, but it frustrates me and makes me NOT want to spend any money until this happens. Yes, i will keep on buying DJ product but man, this is killing me....sonny gray, focalpoint media
Posted on 9/4/2008 by Herbert Gray III

Awesomeness Dave!

I'm hoping for Premiere, AE and Zaxwerks plugins in addition to Photoshop, even if it's not at launch, but I use all of these programs when I title so they'd be an asset in that regard.

Joey
Posted on 8/7/2008 by Joey Famiglietti

Please release them soon, and make them affordable! You guys are incredible!
Posted on 6/11/2008 by Peter Rodmalm, ROPE Webdesign

Get the lead out ! And the Type Drops! Please make them affordable.
Tom
Posted on 6/11/2008 by Thomas M Novak

I can't wait.
Posted on 3/3/2008 by Victor Longshaw

Whoah, that looks really interesting. Looking forward to seeing those fonts released...
Posted on 3/2/2008 by Michael Muth

I'm so excited. I have been anxiously waiting for these. I love digital scrapbooking with both Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements 6.0, and these Type Drops will be perfect. Thanks so much for the update!!!! I'm saving my money!! Sandy
Posted on 3/1/2008 by Sandra Gagnon

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme! This is perfect. It goes to show that DigitalJuice is always INNOVATING!
Walter Fuentes, ExodusGraphics.net
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Walter Fuentes, Exodus Graphics

For those of you looking to animate these fonts, it could be done in two
different ways.

Animation (part 2)

If you are looking to animate the structure of the letters themselves, such as in walking/marching letters, then the Type Drop graphic could be used as a texture application to the mesh of a 3D model of the corresponding letter character. The resolution that DH speaks of at over 2550x3300 pixels should be large enough to any low to medium resolution 3D mesh look great! Then it's just a matter of rigging the 3D characters with a simple skeleton and animating a simple walking or tumbling sequence.

Posted on 2/29/2008 by Shawn Costa, Costa Productions

For those of you looking to animate these fonts, it could be done in two
different ways.

Animation (part 1)

If you are looking to animate the interior of the letters, each of these static images could be rendered to a black and white mask layer then apply that mask layer to a background video layer to produce a letter shaped masked video. Then superimpose your original Type Drop layer and either reduce the opacity setting or let the natural alpha channels let the motion video shine through.

Posted on 2/29/2008 by Shawn Costa, Costa Productions

(Somehow last part of post didn't get included - so here it is) Also could you give an idea of price? I'm starting to put aside money in a "Type Drops" fund, however if DJ has a pre-order for these, especially if it's one of your "New Product Release Deals" I'd send you the money in advance, especially if that expedited their development & release.

Finally, could you give us an update on the Worship Staxxs? Another DJ project I'm saving for AND another NEW DJ Product I'd happily pre-order.

DH & team keep these innovative ideas & products coming - you are on the cutting edge & I want to be right there with you.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Eileen O'Neill

DH Congratulations on a fantastic product and Thanks for the update. These look great even on my tiny cell phone screen, I can only imagine how WOW the final product will look! ...AND so this is one of the reasons why DJTV has gone into hibernation...?

Would you mind if I made a few suggestions...
Besides Photoshop, could you also make these Juice Fonts compatibile with the GIMP (unless DJ is able to get a 50% 3rd party deal for Photoshop there's just NO way I can afford it. I'd much rather spend that sum on Juice products.)

I agree with a number of the preceding comments, especially with those which encourage you to come out with animated versions (I just love that "@" water drop-that would be great if it were animated!)

Also could you give an idea of price? I'm starting to put aside money in a "Type Drops" fund, however if DJ has a pre-order for these, especially if it's one of your "New Product Release Deals" I'd send you the money in advance, especially if that expe
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Eileen O'Neill

Digital Juice, your are just awesome. Don't stop?
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Aron Brackeen

I wonder if these will work in ProAnimator?

Also, I assume we could change the colors if we output them from the Juicer. I change the colors of my jumpbacks all the time, so, like Justin was asking, it could all be changed there.

Sweet!
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Duane Tudahl, Mariner Point Productions

These are going to be great! I hope you make some/a lot that are animated and maybe even common phrases all ready made up to import into projects.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Tony Esposito, Espo Productions

WOWWW !!!! QUE BUENA ONDA PUES LISTISIMOS PARA COMPRAR Y A DARLE RIENDA SUELTA A LA CREATIVIDAD
YOU ROCK !!!!!
CARMEN
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Gabriela Robles

If this ends up somewhere between Live Type and well, just typing text, it will be interesting to see where it goes. If you were to say make them static with the ability to add some sort of animation that might be the best way to go as well. Say the look of the ice letter you have above with some watery droplets that drip off or appear to melt off the letters would be good too. So maybe some sort of combination? And maybe that combination will allow you to add that animation to other objects? Maybe a lower third of ice that frames the screen with droplets that roll over the ice would look nice and wet?

Or is this idea too big for DJ to solve? Hmm? LOL I don't think anything is hard for you guys to create. I do however think it might not be cost effective for you to create.

Looking forward to see what you come up with!
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Leo McMichael, Take 3 Productions

I can't wait to use these!! Thanks so much for the update.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by deb Christensen, SouthPoint Foursquare Church

Now, here's the critique:

What exactly were you not able to accomplish in Illustrator? I understand that you artist(s) may have been more familiar with layer styles, but it just sounded like an pass-off.

The benefits of having a vector format are more than just scale. It allows us to come back and use them in nearly any program, customize the look to our heart's content, eliminate the need for a plugin, and make it easier to distribute via smaller files, as per I can only imagine the size of your font base files at this point.

I hope you don't give up on it, as per I think it's really doable, you just need the time and the talent to make it happen.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Rex Hollingsworth

From the looks of the layout, I am guessing (since the checkerboard BG shows up) that the text would show up in our video editor and have the "checkerboard" areas alpha/keyed out. As far as animating them (for the comment above), you can simply have a separate layer of each letter and animate them as individual letters...or something to that effect. Shouldn't be too hard....the main thing is that these will be released soon. I'm willing to tweak these on the first run of the product, while waiting for updates to them. I just am anxious to get them. As long as the background of the text is alpha or keyed out, working with them to animate them is no biggie for me. Bring it on.

LOOKS GREAT. I am eagerly awaiting these bad puppies and will definitely grab them when they come out.

Thanks DJ for listening to your customers and getting these libraries out. I am guessing by the forum response that they will probably be a sold-out item when they are first released.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Jerry Jones (aka Lthrboots from the DJ Forums), JGJ Media

By the way, AE should be your titler of choice. That's Adobe's excuse for still having the horrifically underpowered and virtually unchanged default titler inside of Premiere Pro.

A comment and a critique - I know it's beta, but don't forget to put the full toolbox in there (kerning, leading, baseline, super, sub, individual character scale). If you can't, make sure you have the plugin render each character on a separate layer inside of a layer group.

Let me explain - if you have to change multiple colors to give it a 'circus' feel, and modify multiple scalings, at least it would save the hassle of selecting the characters individually, cutting, and pasting to a new layer. We could just get right to the customizing we needed to, and since they would be in a layer group, it'd be easy to move the whole thing when we were finished.

It'd also have the bonus of being easy to import and animate the characters individually in After Effects.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Rex Hollingsworth

If it's in Photoshop, the answer is a definite yes. Just add the 'color overlay' layer effect and set its transfer mode to 'color', 'screen', 'multiply', or 'overlay' (depending on the look you want to achieve) and you should be done.

For the water one, assuming the background isn't transparent, just slap a quick adjustment layer on top of it. Select Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Hue and Saturation, click the 'Use previous layer to create clipping mask' box, then (with the colorize tick box is checked) you're free to experiment and play with the colors.

Make sure you guys make the plugin compatible with Photoshop Elements as well. You could have a real boon from the scrapbooker's market as well...
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Rex Hollingsworth

Great question Justin. A plug in for AE & Premiere would be super.
They look wonderful, I will be looking for organic looking stuff like you have here! I will add that I would like to see a chance to buy the fonts used in your wedding & holiday toolkits THAT would be very useful to me.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Patti Ryan, Grinning Bear Studios

Justin, you make a good point. I was thinking that even if those capabilities weren't available, we could still use an adjustment layer above the type layer to change the color. Maybe a Hue/Saturation layer grouped with the DJ type layer…yeah, that'd be AWESOME! New Kool-Aid ads!
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Cecil Cross, Runamuck Design

I like this water drops and splash look. I am wondering if this font would contain alpha channel. Could it be made to look like any fluid from clear water to motor oil, bourbon, or blood without losing detail by just adjusting the transparency?
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Justin Hawthorne

So can we pre-order??? Heck when Newtek announced VT5 I pre-ordered my copy which ended up taking them over a year to deliver...
Add it to the site with some mega bundle and sign me right up take my money...
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Brett B.

Can't wait for these DH...looks like time will pay off since these look amazing.

Keep it up!!
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Eric Hartmann, SeaLight Entertainment

Yahoo on the fonts. Keep us posted.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Jeremy Graves, jeremygraves.com

Can't wait to see the offerings. Hopefully there will be a wide variety of styles. My biggest uses would be Weddings and stuff for Church, but I am interested in all different types.

Thanks again for the update!
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Marc Percy (aka mptribe from the DJ Forums)

I can not believe it, DJ keeps coming up with much needed resources. I can't wait to see what's next.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Britton Hoskins Jr, Xphias, LLC

This is going to be huge! Titling will take on a new look. Keep up the good work. Look forward to the release.
Posted on 2/29/2008 by Joe DeMauro, Treasured Moments Video