Animating Text Layers

Topics covered in this After Effects tutorial:

Creating & Editing After Effects Text, Animating with Text Animators

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you’ll animate text with native After Effects text layers. With live text you can use text animators to animate characters, words, or lines of text.

Previewing the Final Video

1. Let’s see a preview of what you’ll be making. If you’re in After Effects, keep it open but switch to your Desktop.
2. On the Desktop, navigate to Class Files > After Effects Class > Infographic Animation > Preview Movie and double–click infographic screen 1.mp4.
3. Notice the text animates in word by word, one after the other.
4. Replay the video if you need to, and close it when done.

Getting Started

1. You should still have Your Name - Infographic Animation.aep open in After Effects. If you closed it, re-open it now by going to File > Open Project then Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Infographic Animation. We recommend you finish the previous exercises (3A–3B) before this one. If you haven’t, do this sidebar.

   If You Did Not Do the Previous Exercises (3A–3B)

   1. Go to File > Open Project and navigate to Class Files > After Effects Class > Infographic Animation > Finished Projects.
   2. Double–click on Infographic Animation - Ready for Text Animation.aep.
   3. Go to File > Save As > Save As. Name the file Your Name - Infographic Animation.aep and save it into Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Infographic Animation.

Creating a Dummy Comp & Importing an Illustrator File

For the Adobe Illustrator file we’re about to import, the dimensions will be taken from Illustrator file, but we’ll need to create a dummy comp for other composition settings (such as duration and framerate).

1. Choose Composition > New Composition or hit Cmd–N (Mac) or Ctrl–N (Windows).

2. Do NOT click OK until we say so! Set the following:

   • From the Preset menu choose HD • 1920x1080 • 29.97 fps
   • Make sure Resolution is set to Full.
   • For Duration type in 1500 and hit Tab to set it 0;00;15;00 (15 seconds).
   • Click OK to create the composition.

3. In the Project panel, click on Comp 1 and hit Delete (Mac) or Backspace (Windows) to delete it.

   The main point of this comp was to set the framerate and duration for the Illustrator file we’re about to import.

4. Choose File > Import > File or hit Cmd–I (Mac) or Ctrl–I (Windows).

5. Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Infographic Animation > Media > images.

6. Click once on the infographic screen 1.ai to select it and:

   • Make sure Import As is set to Footage.

     We’re going to bring this Illustrator file in as a flat image to use as a reference for the text we’re creating.

   • Check on Create Composition.

   • Click Open (Mac) or Import (Windows).

7. In the import options that appear, set the following:

   • Import Kind: Footage
   • Layer Options: Merged Layers
   • Click OK.

8. In the Project panel, double–click on the infographic screen 1

Working with Text Layers

1. In the Timeline, click on the infographic screen 1.ai layer.
2. Hit the T key to reveal Opacity.
3. Set Opacity to 50.

4. To the left of the layer name, click in the lock column to lock the layer.

5. In the Tools panel at the top left of the window, select the Type tool .

   This opens the Character and Paragraph panels on the right of the window.

6. In the Character panel set the following:

   • Font Family: Arial Black
   • Font Size : 231
   • Leading : 275 px
   • Color: Click on the fill color swatch, set the hex code to #C2C2C2 and click OK.

7. In the Paragraph panel, click the Left align text button .

8. Click in the Composition panel and type the following (hit Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) after the first line to put it on 2 lines).

   DID YOU
   KNOW?

9. Highlight KNOW? and set the following in the Character panel:

   • Font Size : 303 px

10. Highlight the Question Mark and change:

    • Font Size : 620 px
11. In the Tools panel, choose the Selection tool .

12. Drag the text layer so the D in DID and K in KNOW align with the reference image. You can also use the arrow keys to nudge it into position.

    The words align pretty well, but the question mark is still a bit off.

13. In the Timeline, double–click on the text layer’s name to select all of the text. This also makes the Type tool active.

14. Click to the left of the Question Mark to place the cursor there.

15. Type in a single space character (which will push the question mark farther away from the text).

    NOTE: We’re adding a space so the question mark will be considered a separate word when we’re animating word by word. Otherwise it would animate at the same time as KNOW.

16. To change the Kerning and move the question over to where we want it, hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and hit the Left Arrow (or Right Arrow) key repeatedly until the question mark aligns with the original design.

    The text should now match the original design.

    Importing Text From Illustrator via Copy & Paste

    While we learned something about importing files and tracing over them, the fastest way to import editable text from Illustrator is to:

    1. Open Illustrator.
    2. Copy the text.
    3. Create a text layer in After Effects.
    4. Paste.

    You’ll get a fully formatted native After Effects text layer! The only catch is this requires having Adobe Illustrator.

17. In the Tools panel, choose the Selection tool .
18. If you don’t see the Effects & Presets panel on the right of the window, choose Window > Effects & Presets.
19. In the Effects & Presets panel’s search field type drop
20. Make sure the text layer is still selected.
21. Double–click on the Drop Shadow effect (it’s under Perspective) to apply it to the selected layer.

22. In the Effect Controls panel (at the top left of the window) set the following:

    • Distance: 51
    • Softness: 74
    • Opacity: 40
    • Direction: 0x+224

23. In the Timeline, unlock the infographic screen 1.ai layer.

24. Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the Opacity property and choose Reset.

    This changes Opacity back to 100%.

25. In the Timeline, select the infographic screen 1.ai layer (so the layer we’re about to create will go on top of it).

26. Choose Layer > New > Solid or Cmd–Y (Mac) or Ctrl–Y (Windows) and:

    • Click the Make Comp Size button.
    • Under Color, click on the Eyedropper .
    • Click on the background color of the infographic to choose that color.
    • Click OK.

    NOTE: Why are we creating a solid layer instead of changing the background color in the composition settings? The composition background color will end up becoming transparent when we place this composition into another composition (for sequencing with scene 2) so we can’t rely on that.

27. In the Timeline, press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) and change the new solid’s name to background.

    Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) again to finalize the change.

28. In the Timeline, hide the infographic screen 1.ai layer by clicking off its eye .

29. Choose File > Save or hit Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Adding Text Animators

Text animators are one of the most powerful features when working with live text layers in After Effects. Unlike the transform properties, animators can be applied on a character, word, or line basis.

1. In the Timeline, to the left of the DID YOU KNOW? layer click on the arrow to reveal the layer’s properties.

2. To the left of the Text category click on the arrow to reveal the text properties.

3. Click on Animate (to the right of the Text category) and choose Position.

   This adds the Animator 1 property group to the text properties.

   NOTE: The Animate button is located in the column to the right of the Text category.

4. Set the Animator 1 Position property’s second value to 150

   For text animators we usually don’t add keyframes to the properties, we add keyframes to the Range Selectors.

5. Click on the arrow to the left of Range Selector 1.

6. Move the playhead to 0;10

7. Click on the stopwatch for the Start property (under Range Selector 1).

8. Move the playhead to 1;09

9. Change the Start property to 100%

10. Use the Spacebar to preview the animation. The text now moves up letter by letter.

    The preview video had the text fly up word by word, so let’s change that.

11. Click on the arrow next to Advanced (under Range Selector 1).

12. Change the Based On menu to Words.

13. Click on the arrow again to close the Advanced property group.

14. Use the Spacebar to preview the animation. The text now moves up word by word.

    The animation would look better if the words faded in as they move.

15. Click on the Add button to the right of Animator 1 and choose Property > Opacity.

16. Set the new Opacity property to 0.

17. Use the Spacebar to preview the animation. The text now fades in as it flies up.

18. Press Cmd–Tilde (Mac) or Ctrl–Tilde (Windows) to hide the layer’s properties.

19. Choose File > Save or hit Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows) to save your project.

Optional Bonus Challenge: More Text Animation

If you have extra time and want to practice working with and formatting text you can import the infographic screen 3 from the images folder. On your own, replicate the steps in this exercise to:

1. Create a new text layer in After Effects and format it to match the template. (If you have Adobe Illustrator you can copy and paste the text.)
2. Animate the text however you like using text animators.