Excellent 3D Monsters

erik

By skewing text a couple of degrees forwards or backwards you can give the impression of perspective. But it's not very subtle.

size(1000, 1000)

theText = [u"EXCELLENT", "MONSTER", "MOVIES"]
font("HelveticaNeue-CondensedBlack")
s = 164    # fontsize
lp = -136    # linespacing
fontSize(s)

translate(122,590)

# these are the skew angles.
# protip: select value, command + drag = change value
leftSlant = -27
rightSlant = 46
angle = [leftSlant, rightSlant]

# these values are the tracking of the even / odd lines
leftTrack = 105 *0.1
rightTrack = 40 *0.1
tracks = [leftTrack, rightTrack]

def ip(f, a, b):
    return a+f*(b-a)

for i, theLine in enumerate(theText):    
    wordWidth, textHeight = textSize(theLine )
    sofarWidth = 0
    thisTrack = tracks[i%2]
    for c in theLine:
        thisAngle = angle[i%2]
        letterWidth, textHeight = textSize(c )
        factor = (len(theLine)*thisTrack+sofarWidth+.5*letterWidth)/wordWidth
        save()
        # some alternative skew transforms
        skew(ip(factor, -thisAngle, thisAngle), 0)
        text(c, (0, 0))
        restore()
        translate(letterWidth+thisTrack,0)
        sofarWidth += letterWidth
    translate(-wordWidth-len(theLine)*thisTrack,lp)

saveImage("monsterMovie.png")