If all else fails dump a package of alphabet pasta from say,---two metres..
Shoot lettered pasta as it falls.
Stay fairly tight.
Adjust velocity in post.
Bob's yer uncle!

Yeah, Sherman, then what happens if the client doesn't like the style of font? HMMM! HMMM! Yeah?!? Suppose I could put this in the contract. :-)

Grazie

Wow, twice in one week I'm recommending Heroglyph from ProDad....it rocks for this. It has 3D letters.
Also look at Ulead Cool 3D, and if you don't need extrusion, look to Flash/Swish.

There is a transition that does exactly this in Livetype.

Export a Quicktime milions+ colours uncompressed and drag it into Vegas.

There may also be Swish text animation that do this but I have not used that program myself.

That forrest gump animation though was hand-keyed and is lovely. I'd use a 3D program like Lightwave for that.

- Rick

Thanks so much to all for the helpful suggestions! I'm sure I can find something here that will fit the bill.

I haven't used Vegas all that long, but I am just blown away at what it can do. Software that doesn't constrain your creativity! What a concept! And I am amazed and grateful at all the helpful and knowledgeable folks that monitor this forum. I look forward to the day when some newbie like me posts a question and I'm actually able to help!

Thanks again!
Rick <><

If you truly want it to look like letters falling from the sky, as noted above it's pretty complex but can bedone with a limited budget. The important things in planning although a good camera would help.
Say you want your letters to fall into the middle of a park to from the words. Your audience most likely expects to see the camera looking skyward to discover the falling letters, pans down to follow them as the shot widens to take in the whole scene.
Now when you come to create your falling letters in some CGI app the virtual camera needs to track the same as the one that shot the background. The big boys have some nice and expensive gear for automating that but nothing that you can't do with cheap protractors, plumb bobs and a stop watch, of course having a camera that tells you actual focal length of the lens is a big help but if the shot starts at maximum and ends at minimum focal length and makes a linear transition over time would make it easy.
Armed with that info you can then animate the 'camera' in your CGI app (and there's some pretty cheap ones around) so the falling letters remain correctly in the frame. If you made a mental note of where the sun was when you shot the background then you can again get your falling letters lit correctly and the CGI app will correctly render the shadows within the letters and onto the background.
Bob.

This can be done with a bit of practice using track motion (one track for each letter) and the 3D Blind Spin transition. I just did one letter in a few minutes and it looks pretty good. I'd be happy to send you the .veg to get you started if you like.

klimvid:

Yes, I would like to see what you've come up with. If possible, I'm trying to do this effect entirely in Vegas (very tight budget; not many resources for add ons.)

One of the hardest issues I'm dealing with is not so much in getting the letters to swirl around as though they're being tossed by the wind, it's getting them to 'land' in a nice straight line with proper spacing to form the sentence! It would be easier to start with each letter in place, then let the wind blow them away from there... but I don't really want the sequence to play that way!

Unless there's a way to start with them in position, blow them out of place with track motion or whatever, but render the sequence in reverse so the letters look like they started from the air and landed in place...

Thanks!
Rick <><

Piece of cake to render something out of Vegas in reverse so yes I'd start off getting all the caharcters lined up on the ground and then get them to fly away, once you're happy with that render the whole thing out to a new clip and then render that with a -1 velocity.
As a amtter of course I'd be doing it that way, in fact to me the hardest part would be getting the letters to look right just sitting on the ground, technically they should be solid and cast a shadow and Vegas isn't quite the right tool for either of those attributes as far as I know, I'm not saying it can't be done though, guess it depends on how you cost your time and how realistic you want it to look.
Bob.

Klimvid - Would you be willing to post the .veg to that section up on Vegas Users? I'd be curious to see it...

Sure. How would be the best way to post it?

I posted a .wmv of this effect here:
http://www.horsekeeping.com/movies/fallingleaf.wmv

Klimvid:

My compliments to the chef! That is VERY, VERY close to what I'm wanting to do. If you could post your .veg, or describe how you did some things, I'd be most grateful. As indicated previously, one of the hardest parts for me is starting with the letters in the air, then landing them in place. Did you do it this way, or did you start with them in place and move them around from there and just render the video in reverse?

Rick <><

Here is the veg: http://www.horsekeeping.com/movies/fallingleaf.veg

I started with the first letter on one track. Using track motion I positioned it off the top of the screen.
Added a key frame to move the letter down and to the right and rotate a bit.
Added a key frame to move the letter down and to the left and rotate back a bit.
Added a key frame to move the letter down and to the right and rotate a bit.
Added a key frame to move the letter down and to the right and rotate back a bit...and so on.
At the last key frame I positioned this first letter where it would land with rotation at zero so it is square with the world.
At the first keyframe I checked shadow (this is still in track motion) and set transparancy slider to bottom, to transparant (click the color bar to get settings).
At second last keyframe I set transparancy to bottom.
At last keyframe I set transparancy slider to top. This way the shadow gently appears just as the letter settles.

Now, duplicate this track for as many letters as you are going to have fall.

Select all text events on duplicated tracks and delete them. Insert new text events with appropriated letter on each track.

Mute all but first and second tracks. Open track motion in second track and go to first keyframe and adjust beginning position of the second letter, so it is different from the first letter. Go to next keyframe and adjust position...and so on.
When you get to the last keyframe the second letter will be right on top of the first letter, so simply click on the postion in track motion and use right arrow key to move it to its final position.

Unmute track three and do the same...and so on.

When all letters are falling like you want, slide some tracks to the right to stagger how the letters start, so they don't all fall at once, unless that is what you want (have "lock envelopes to events" engaged so the keyframes move with the tracks).

Now, to add spin and flip to the letters as they fall, disengate "lock envelopes to events" and randomly split each text event and drag the segments so the overlap varying amounts. Drag a 3D Blinds Spin transition over the transitions and vary each one as to number of spins, top to bottom, right to left.

Good Luck!