Writing strokes

[ned]

How do I animate a pencil writing on a piece of paper?
I know how to animate the pencil, how do I get the pencil's marks to appear on the paper?

[wbarrett26]

you could set a particle emitter at the end of the pencil. It would basically be emitting dark gray particles. If you are using a distant view just make the emitter very small and there is no sense in applying any gravitational forces. If you are using a close-up view of the writing make sure you add a small vibration or explosion and to set a low gravity in the Y direction, -5 or so. This will give the particles the effect of flaking graphite. Use splotched lead as the preset for color and turbulence for the bump map.
if you need anything else just ask.
-Billy

[Mylenium]

Also there are (commercial) plugins that really "write" by manipulating surface values. One is called Acid (http://worley.com/polk/polk_acid.html) and another one is Surface effectors (www.premdesign.com).

Mylenium