Extracting a text string info (character's indices) to use it as a material mask

Question

I think an image can say more than words sometimes... :)

The idea is to use a different color from the color ramp for each character in the string.
It's related to this question

Answer 1

The color of each character is determined by the material index on the text object. Therefore, to have each character use a different color from the color ramp requires a material for each color.

The steps involved:

• A material for each color in the color ramp node.
• The text object must have all the materials applied to it.
• The characters must reference the index of the materials.

This script takes the colors from a color ramp node, makes new materials and then assign each character a material.

import bpy

txt = 'Text' # The name of text object and text curve.
materials = bpy.data.objects[txt].data.materials
i = 0

# This material holds the color ramp node, change 'material name' to the name of your material.
rampMat = 'material name'
colorRamp = bpy.data.materials[rampMat].node_tree.nodes['ColorRamp'].color_ramp.elements

# Convert colors from the ramp to materials and add them to the text object.
for element in colorRamp:
    color = element.color
    material = bpy.data.materials.new('color')
    material.diffuse_color = color[0], color[1], color[2]
    materials.append(material)

# Loop through the characters setting their indexes.
for character_format in bpy.data.curves[txt].body_format:
    character_format.material_index = i % len(materials)
    i += 1