--- title: "Hacker Text" url: "https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/Text-hacker-text.html" section_path: "Text > Hacker Text" description: "Universe Hacker Text transitions between two text inputs by altering individual characters and text lines." --- ## HACKER TEXT ![av-club-main](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Universe-Hacker-Text_universe.jpg) Universe Hacker Text transitions between two text inputs by altering individual characters and text lines. --- ### Presets & Video Walk-Through Hacker Text presets deliver one-click shortcuts to get you various visually interesting means of scrambling and "decrypting" text lines. Find our presets via the blue **Open Dashboard...** button or the **Choose a Preset...** button below it. ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_presets.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_presets.png) As with all other Universe tools, you can modify or create a Hacker Text look and then save it under its own name by pressing the **Save Preset...** button. If you'd like a visual overview of the plugin before diving into this guide, we recommend giving [our Cineversity tutorial](https://cineversity.maxon.net/en/tutorials/getting-started-with-universe-hacker-text) a watch.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_video.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_video.png) --- ### Modify the Effect - **Edit Text** launches a modular window with options to customize the text input for the transition. Note that host application restrictions will likely require you to have **Animation Timing** (see below) set to **Manual** to view the entire text line in the preview window.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_EditText.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_EditText.png) - **Display** toggles between displaying the starting text (**Source Text**) and final text (**Target Text**) in the preview window. - The alignment icons (\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_alignment.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_alignment.png)\ ) offer standard text alignment options for left, center, and right. - **Source Text** defines the text string at the beginning of the Hacker Text effect. - **Target Text** defines the text string at the end of the Hacker Text effect. - **Target Attributes** contains several text customization options, including font, size, color, emphasis (e.g., bolding and italics), and character spacing. - **Position** controls the coordinates that define where within the frame your text will appear. Choose from manual x/y numeric entry or use the cross-hair tool. - **Animation** - **Text Settings** - The **Edit Custom Character...** button opens a dialog box that allows you to input any character string of your choice. This Custom Character can then serve as your **Filler Character**, **Prefix** (as shown below), or **Suffix** when you select Custom from the bottom of their respective pull-down menus.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_CustomChar.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_CustomChar.png) - **Filler Character** establishes what character is used in your wipes. Below, we used the asterisk, shown in the early stages of a **Right to Left** wipe.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_Filler.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_Filler.png) - The **Prefix** and **Suffix** pull-down menus offer an assortment of symbols that can either precede or follow the text inputs that remain unchanged during the transition. - **Font Size** adjusts how large or small the text appears. - **Font Color** defines the text color. - **Justification** determines if the text is aligned to the **Left**, **Center**, or **Right**. - **Horizontal Tracking** controls the spacing between characters. - **Randomization**\ These parameters will only affect your transition if **Animation** > **Text Transition Type** (defined above) is set to **Source=>Random=>Target**. This section applies to the Random part of that process. - **Scroll Behavior** determines if the randomized text will scroll through random characters regardless of the *Transition* completion percentage *(Scroll with Time)* or only when the *Transition* completion is adjusted *(Scroll with Transition).* - **Scroll Rate** controls the speed at which randomized text changes from one character to the next. - **Preserve Spaces** toggles whether spaces in your text inputs are maintained during the randomized text animations. - **Random Seed** adjusts the formula, and subsequently the variations, used to create the random effect. - **Random Characters** contains toggle checkboxes that define which types of characters appear within the randomizations as well as what *Number Limit* or *Character Limit* (A-Z) is in place.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_RandoCustomText.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_RandoCustomText.png) - Following shows Flicker Frequency: 10 and Flicker Sustain: 10 (top), Flicker Frequency: 100 and Flicker Sustain: 10 (middle), and Flicker Frequency: 100 and Flicker Sustain: 30 (bottom) at the 23rd frame, after the Text Intro and before Text Transition.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_Flicker.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_Flicker.png) - **Effects** - **Enable Glow** toggles a glow around the text with control over the brightness **(Glow Intensity)** and expansion **(Glow Radius)**of the glow. In this example, you can see the difference between no glow effect (top) and glow enabled with settings of Glow Intensity: 30, Glow Radius: 2, and Glow Boost Light: 3.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_Glow.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_Glow.png)\ Glow Boost Light can provide some fun effects and make your text appear to be burning into (or cooling from) scorching hot. Shown below are values of 5 (top) and 10 (bottom).\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_GlowBoostLight.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_GlowBoostLight.png) - **Enable Scan Lines** toggles a pattern of CRT-like lines that overlay the text. You can control over **Scan Line Thickness**, **Scan Line Spacing**, and **Scan Line Opacity.** Keep in mind that a strong glow can overpower scan line visibility.\ ![Image: Uni_Text_HackerText_ScanLines.png](https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/Resources/Images/Uni_Text_HackerText_ScanLines.png) - **Foreground Opacity** and **Background Opacity** control the opacity of the text *(Foreground Opacity)* or the layer to which the text has been applied (**Background Opacity**), complete with the standard **Blend Mode** options that adjusts how the text overlay interacts with the background. **None** is the default, with **Normal** overlaying the text on top of whatever background it's been applied to.