The artboard is too large to render as mp4.* You can still render into a zipfile with still frames. You can convert these into a video with ffmpeg, QuickTime or a Video Editor of your choice.
* To render as mp4, please scale the artboard dimensions until the render dimensions do not exceed a total of 2.073.600 (1920 * 1080) pixels.
Variable Time is an open-source tool for working with typography in motion and states of transition.
It is developed by artist duo and creative coders studio PointerWEB↗IG↗in collaboration with type designer Céline HurkaWEB↗IG↗. Variable Time is an ongoing personal exploration, driven by their fascination with variable font formats and their potential impact on the future of verbal and non-verbal communication. This tool is one of the first and foundational projects of Variable LabWEB↗IG↗– a series of technical, typographic, visual and theoretical exchanges between studio Pointer and Céline Hurka. The Variable Time toolkit is designed to evolve in parallel with their ongoing research, continuously expanding with new experimental controls and features.
Current Version
This is the first released version of Variable Time. It is an ongoing project for which we have many future plans and improvements.
Due to the way we approached font rendering, a lot of seemingly standard functionalities had to be rebuild from scratch. This gives us a lot of freedom and offers new ways in which we can approach working with typography, however it also means that some things might take longer to develop.
The current version of the tool only supports a basic Latin character set - so A-Z, 1-9 and punctuation. Extending it with other languages and alternates is on our priority list as well and will hopefully be possible in the upcoming versions.
Kerning. There are multiple ways of storing and reading Kerning tables, and we currently only support one of them. Supporting more sophisticated kerning is also on our priority list.
Apart from that we have exciting plans for the toolkit of Variable Time. Among other things, we are already working on addons that would allow controlling parameters with sound, recording changes live and linking sequences to more types of automated inputs.
Layers
Variable Time allows to design and export time-based typography with an unlimited amount of layers. You can create, remove, duplicate and select layers through the overview panel in the left top corner.
Panel
The panel of Variable Time consists of a number of modifiable parameters. You can adjust these parameters per layer. You can also change the settings of an artboard through the panel if artboard is selected.
Sequence
You can create a new sequence per each modifiable parameter in the panel by clicking on the keyframe (diamond) button on its left. This will create an empty sequence. For adding a keyframe, drag the time indicator to the right place and click on the same keyframe button again.
You can change the duration of a sequence by dragging its right edge in the sequence panel.
Selecting multiple keyframes is possible by pressing and holding SHIFT key and dragging the mouse over the keyframes.
The easing style can be seen by clicking on the curves button next to the name of sequenced parameter. You can select different easing functions by selecting keyframes and clicking on the timeline in-between them.
Letter Delays
When a parameter is sequenced, a new feature appears in the panel - letter delays. This feature applies animations to each letter with a given delay time. The delay time can differ per each animated parameter.
Export
Variable Time allows exporting video in mp4 format and static frames. At this step it is also possible to scale the output file resolution and apply time stretch - so make your output speed slower or faster proportionally.*
* Please keep in mind that rendering in mp4 has limits in resolution, however there is (almost) no limit in rendering frames (which you can easily convert to video with the help of various external tools).
Typefaces
Variable Time features experimental variable fonts designed by Céline HurkaWEB↗IG↗ and Jacob WiseWEB↗IG↗. These typefaces can be used freely to explore the tool or to be used for personal non-commercial projects made with the tool. If you want to use them for commercial or client work, or if you are not sure if your case applies, please reach out to Céline Hurka and/or Jacob Wise to discuss the possibilities.
Currently, Tonka, the Version collection and Zaft2 are included. Tonka is available on celine-hurka.comWEB↗. Version is Céline Hurka’s Type and Media graduation project and has not been published anywhere else yet. Zaft2 is a collaborative project by Céline Hurka and Jacob Wise and is available on wisetype.nlWEB↗ since 2021.
Used frameworks
Variable Time is built up on other open source libraries, such as openFrameworksWEB↗, FreeTypeWEB↗, Theatre.jsWEB↗, FFmpegWEB↗ and more. For a detailed list, please visit the Variable Time source code.
Donate
Variable Time is completely free of charge and brings us no commercial profit. A donation of any size would help us to dedicate more time and effort to expanding its toolkit and fixing bugs. ❤️
