DecomposeText
  • This script is pretty much broken for anything more than a sentences.  In order to preserve the location of words, when it decomposes the text it makes a copy of everything for each world.  So the sentence: "I'd like to decompose my text into discreet words for animating" doesn't just break into works and give you nice clean 11 layers.  Each of the 11 layers contains ALL the text of the whole sentence, the script just hides the rest other than the featured word of that layer.  Long story short, that means there's quickly a LOT of extra data with just a paragraph or two, so even the beefiest system will slow to a crawl.  Not the kinetic typography time saver I was hoping it would be!  A good effort, but until that's fixed it's useless.
  • Agree with that last comment. Wish I'd ready it before buying the script. This script is completely useless since every layer it produces is full of junk. I'd happily pay for anything that did the original job this is suppose to do.
  • agreed. Worked great last version, but seems broken now.

  • just realized this isn't compatible with cs6
  • It's a pity the script just copies the layer multiple times then applies an expression to each copy - this slows everything a lot. Would be great to break into separate letters and center anchor point.
  • It's a pity the script just copies the layer multiple times then applies an expression to each copy - this slows everything a lot. Would be great to break into separate letters and center anchor point.
    Agree.
    This was a waste of money. the script hasn't been updated since 2010.
  • It is compatible with CS6, you have to put it in the ScriptUI Panels folder in your scripts folder for the application. Once in there, you can start it back up and go to the window tab and it should be at the bottom. Still doesn't help you when you have more than one line though. Bogs down my computer a lot. Needs to be updated.
  • I'm unable to apply an effect to the individual letter layers without it resurrecting the entire hidden word that is leftover in the layer. I agree with others here who feel this script is misrepresented in the description. Just mention the fact that it has limitations and isn't a robust solution for those who want fully and truly independent and isolated characters.
  • This is lame. Keeps crashing on breaking up a paragraph into words. Waste of time I want my time back and my money back.
  • This will teach me to always read the comments before buying and downloading a script. 

    As others have mentioned, it doesn't truly give you unique character text layers, it just puts an expression on an opacity text animator then duplicates the layer for every character/sentence/paragraph. I could have done that myself quite easily without the need for a script, and it slows everything way down to calculate all those expressions. 

    Glad I didn't pay full price, will be sure to read the comments before buying from this site again - too bad AEScripts doesn't have an obvious star rating system or I wouldn't have wasted 5 bucks on this.
  • too bad AEScripts doesn't have an obvious star rating system or I wouldn't have wasted 5 bucks on this.
    We feel that rating systems are not really helpful.  How could you have been able to tell from a star rating if the script did what you needed?  We feel comments are much more helpful as shown in this case.  We also want you to be happy with your purchase so please open a support ticket if you would like a refund for your purchase.  We are in the business of making customers happy :)
  • Based on your feedback we just posted a new version (v3) that now has 2 modes.  Keep original position using expressions which works the way it did before with expressions to preserve the exact character/word/line positions and new mode: Approximated position without expressions that separates the character/word/line without expressions and tries to approximate the original position. The reason it cannot leave it in the exact position is due to limitation in the AE scripting api. However we feel this new mode should address most of the user requests posted here.  We hope you like this new version, I know i do!

    PLEASE READ THIS FAQ TO UPGRADE:  How to upgrade "Name Your Own Price" products 
  • I keep getting an error "Paragraph text is not supported"
    What does this mean?  What do I have to do to correct it?
  • Keeps saying 'undefined' when I try to decompose the text. Any ideas what I can do to fix this?
  • I keep getting an error "Paragraph text is not supported"
    What does this mean?  What do I have to do to correct it?
    You need to have a normal text layer not paragraph text. Paragraph text is when you draw a bounding box first and type the text afterwards.
  • Keeps saying 'undefined' when I try to decompose the text. Any ideas what I can do to fix this?
    We would need to know more details in order to help you.  Are you using the latest version?  Please open a support ticket and provide as many details as possible including screenshots and the project file (just the .aep no footage).
  • Would love to see this script improved.  I use it all the time (in non-expression mode) and whilst it still saves time, the results are rarely positioned correctly. And if you mix font weights or styles in a single line, forget it.  I'm guessing it's due to limitations of AE's scripting, but I wish there was a way around it.
  • Would love to see this script improved.  I use it all the time (in non-expression mode) and whilst it still saves time, the results are rarely positioned correctly. And if you mix font weights or styles in a single line, forget it.  I'm guessing it's due to limitations of AE's scripting, but I wish there was a way around it.
    Please read the disclaimers. Due to AE limitations precise position is not possible without expressions.  If you would like this improved please file a feature request with Adobe: http://adobe.com/go/wish
  • Doesn't it work to 2 byte characters? 

    I would like to decompose KANJI text,
    but got error "Paragraph text is not supported"
  • I've noticed when I try to decompose text "using approx position without expressions" and I have the position dimensions separated, I get the "undefined" error after it creates one new layer.
  • Doesn't work. keeps showing "paragraph text not supported". :(
  • paragraph text not supported 

    ??????????? how to fix it 
  • I have the same error. "paragraph text not supported"
  • Regarding the 'paragraph text not supported' - I got the same error and submitted a ticket. They responded within 20 minutes. You have to use Decompose text with 'point text' not 'paragraph text'. You can easily change from one to the other by selecting the text tool, right clicking on the layer and choosing 'Convert to Point Text/Paragraph Text'. Then use Decompose Text and it works just fine. Very cool little plugin, especially useful when creating kinetic typography. Wish I had paid more now, but was put off by the comments, definitely worth $15. 
  • Such a time saver!!!!  
    Thank you, works really well.
  • This is a great script, just FYI...

    When I use the script on a paragraph and checked on " Original position using expression ", it would run the script everything works but then scrubbing in AE and ram previews came to a painfully slow crawl.

    I did it again not using expressions and the playback was perfectly fine, however I had to re-align the text layers because their positions shift to one line.
  • I can't get the program to doc. Any suggestions???
  • I have installed it but it states its not compatible with the fonts?
  • Got it to work but the approx is way out.. it puts it all on one line which doesn't help much when its over multiple lines.... any work arounds besides using the original position?
  • I love the script, on of the few I really use in day to day work. Its simplicity is really great, thanks a lot! I have to very simple suggestions:
    1. It would be awesome if the script remembered the last setup. 
    2. The layers it produces should ne folded so you save the extra workstep of folding them again.

    Thanks again for your great work!
  • Hi guys this doesn't work at all, I have current OS and current After Effects and I get the "Paragraph text is not supported" error. They need to take this off the site ASAP.
  • You must use point text instead of paragraph text for this to work. Once done, it works great. Here's a video I found that shows how to do this:


  • Got it to work but the approx is way out.. it puts it all on one line which doesn't help much when its over multiple lines.... any work arounds besides using the original position?

    Please open a support ticket here for assistance: https://aescripts.com/contact/?direct=1
  • 100 % Lane. When the pluggin say 'Not text paragraph format', you need to convert the text (paragraph text) into point text. Command +T and then right click on the text layer. Convert to 'Point text' and then you can decompose the text using the plugging.

    As the tutorial Lane post:

  • Is this not compatable for v 22 yet?
  • Is this not compatable for v23 as its said :(
  • Yesterday, I used it and after effects crashed when I used the approximative position setting on a big sentence :'(
  • It was working fine this morning, but suddenly it takes more than 500ms for each frame to render. When I disabled the expression in the layers, everything renders in real-time again.
    Did anyone encounter the same issue?
    I've re-installed both AE and Decompose Text but the problem is still there
  • Qian Au said:
    It was working fine this morning, but suddenly it takes more than 500ms for each frame to render. When I disabled the expression in the layers, everything renders in real-time again.
    Did anyone encounter the same issue?
    I've re-installed both AE and Decompose Text but the problem is still there

    I’m having the same issue
  • Is this not compatable for v23 as its said :(

    it is compatible. if you need assistance, please open the Support ticket and include as many details as possible. The more details you can provide including screenshots the more likely we will be able to assist you. https://aescripts.com/contact/?direct=1