Text animation

Animating text layers is useful for many purposes, including creating animated titles, tickers, captions, and dynamic prints.

As with other layers in After Effects, you can animate an entire text layer. However, text layers provide additional animation features with which you can animate text within layers. You can animate text layers using any of the methods below.

Transform property animation, as for any other layer that affects the entire layer rather than its text content.

Animate the layer’s source text so that the characters themselves replace other characters or use different characters or paragraph formats over time.

Using text animators and text selection tools to animate many properties of individual characters or a range of characters.

Text Animation Methods

Besides transforming the entire text layer, you can animate text using presets, change the source text so characters morph over time, and use text animators with selectors for detailed character animation​​.

Using Text Animation Presets

Presets can be applied using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. Advanced users often modify preset properties to create unique animations​​.

Adjusting Animation Presets

Presets created for NTSC DV 720×480 compositions might need adjustments for different composition sizes. 3D Text animation presets may require layer rotation or adding a camera to view the 3D effects properly. The Paths category presets change the source text and font color, while Fill And Stroke presets alter fill color and stroke properties​​.

Animating Text with Animators and Selectors

This involves adding an animator to specify properties for animation, using a selector to define the affected characters, and adjusting animator properties. Key frames or expressions are usually set only for the selector​​.

Steps for Animating Text

Select a text layer, choose a property to animate, adjust animator properties in the Timeline panel, and set key frames for Start or End properties using the Range Selector. Fine-tuning can be done with advanced options and values​​.

Animator Properties

Animator properties include Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Skew, Rotation (and its axis-specific variants), Line Anchor, Line Spacing, Character Offset, Character Value, Character Range, and Blur. These properties influence only the characters selected by the text selectors​​.

Text Selectors

Default range selectors in animator groups can be replaced or modified. Selectors, like masks, specify the part of the text to be affected and to what extent. Different modes and options for selectors allow for versatile animation styles​​.

Selector Properties

Common selector properties include Mode, Amount, Units, Based On, and specific properties for Range selectors like Start, End, Offset, and Shape. These control how the text characters are selected and animated​​.

Animation Options

• Blurry Fade On:

This style is perfect for horror or thriller titles and subtle business presentations. It involves creating a text layer and applying an opacity animation with a blurry effect. The animation makes each character flicker to full opacity, creating a mysterious and intriguing visual effect​​.

• Animate from Below:

This technique pulls each character upwards into the frame, suitable for titles appearing from behind a horizon. It involves manipulating the Y position of the text and using a Range Selector to animate the movement from below the frame into view​​.\

• Tracking and Opacity:

Popular in movie trailers and title sequences, this style combines a slow fade with a gentle drift, adding drama without overshadowing the background footage. It involves animating the opacity and tracking of the text to create a gradual appearance and expansion of the text on the screen​​.

• Type On:

A classic animation that mimics the effect of typing on a screen. This effect is achieved by animating the opacity of the text, setting the initial opacity to 0% and then increasing it to reveal the text as if it’s being typed in real-time​​.

• Animating Along a Path:

This technique allows for a wide range of animation styles, where text flows along a predefined path. It involves drawing a path with the Pen tool and animating the text along this path, which can be particularly effective for creating smooth and flowing text movements around shapes or objects​​.

Templates for text animation settings

You can view and apply text animation settings templates just like any other animation settings template. You can use the Effects and Templates panel or Adobe Bridge to view and apply animation settings templates in After Effects. To open the customization templates folder in Adobe Bridge, choose View Customization Templates from the Effects and Templates panel or Animation panel menu.

The text animation settings templates were created in an NTSC DV 720 x 480 composition, and each text layer uses a 72-point Myriad Pro font. Some of the setup template animations involve shifting the text out of frame or moving it through the composition. The position values for the animation settings patterns may not work for compositions that are much larger or smaller than 720 x 480; for example, an animation that was intended to start outside the frame may start in the frame. If the text isn’t where you expect it to be, or if it disappears unexpectedly, you need to change the position values for the text animator in the Timeline panel or Composition panel.

After applying the 3D text animation style, you may need to rotate the layer or add a camera to rotate around the layer to view the results of the 3D animation.

The text animation settings templates in the Paths category automatically replace the original text with the name of the animation settings template and change the font color to white. These animation setup templates can also change other character properties.

The Fill and Stroke category of animation preset templates contains preset templates that can change the fill color and stroke settings of the applied preset. If the animation settings template requires you to specify a stroke or fill color, the animation will only work if you assign one of these colors to the text.

Animating text with text animators

Animating text with text animators and selection tools consists of three basic steps.

Adding an animator to specify which properties you want to animate.

Using a selection tool to specify which characters should be affected by the animator’s action.

It is not usually necessary to specify keyframes or expressions for animator properties. It’s standard practice to set keyframes and expressions for the selection tool only, and to specify only the final values of the animator properties.

Select a text layer in the Timeline panel or select the row of characters you want to animate in the Composition panel.
Do one of the following.

Choose Animation > Text Animation, then choose a property from the menu.

Select a property from the Animation menu located in the Switches/Modes column of the Timeline panel.
Adjust the values of the Animator property in the Timeline panel. Often it’s enough to simply set the final value of the property you want to animate, and then use the selection tools to do the rest of the work.
Expand the Range Selector tool property group and set the keyframes for the start and end properties by clicking the stopwatch for the property and doing one of the steps below.

Drag the selection tool bars in the Composition panel. The cursor view changes to a selection tool motion pointer as you move it to the middle of the selection tool panel.

To refine the boundaries of the selection, expand the Advanced tab and set values and options.

For example, to smoothly animate opacity from the first character to the last character, you can add an animator for the Opacity property, set the opacity value (in the Animator properties group) to 0, and then set the keyframes for the End property of the selection tool by default to 0% at 0 seconds and 100% at a later time.