While all the basic transforms (Anchor Point, Position, Scale, Rotation, Opacity) can be applied to Text Layers, they also have unique properties.
Text Animators
Text Layer Animator Properties allow you to control the individual characters and/or words within a layer and to create more dynamic animated text.
There are 17 Animator Properties and each of them has several basic and advanced parameters. They are listed within the little “Animate” button to the right of the Text tab within the Text Layer.
We’ll do a simple tutorial demonstrating the general workflow for using them, but there’s a lot more to explore beyond this example.
You can watch the finished example below and download the .aep file here:
Before starting to use Animator properties, we must have some Text Layers to apply them to. You can create your own or use this example file. It consists of 5 Text Layers, each one appearing at a different points on the Timeline. No Transform nor Animator properties have been applied so far.
The “microphone check” layer appears all at once at 0;00;01;15. What if wanted each letter to fade in one by one?
- Set your Time Indicator to the beginning of the “microphone check” layer (0;00;01;15)
- Toggle the arrow to the left of the “microphone check” Text tab.
- Click and hold the “Animate” button and select “Opacity”. Notice that an “Animator1” tab has been added to the layer.
- Toggle the “Range Selector 1” tab.
- Make sure the Time Indicator is still where you want your text to start fading in (0;00;01;15).
- Click on the little Stop Watch next to to Start property and set its value to 0%.
- Position the Time Indicator where you want your text the fade to end (0;00;02;15) and change the value of the Start property to 100%,
- Preview your Animation by hitting the Spacebar. You’ll notice that each letter gradually appears on the screen.
- The Offset option allows you to apply the effect to only a portion of the layer (i.e: if set to 50%, the first part of the line will appear without the effect and the second half will fade-in)
- The Advanced tab allows you to control things even further: For example, the “Based on” dropdown lets you decide wether the property is applied to individual characters, words or lines
You can always remove an Animator property by selecting its tab and hitting the deletekey.
Next, we’ll try the Scale Animator. We’ll use it to gradually scale up the “what is this?” layer:
- Toggle the arrow to the left of the “what is this?” Text tab.
- Click and hold the “Animate” button and select “Scale”. Notice that an “Animator1” tab has been added to the layer.
- Set the Scale percentage to 0% (essentially saying you want the initial Scale to be 0).
- Toggle the “Range Selector 1” tab.
- Position the Time Indicator where you want your text to start scaling up (0;00;03;00).
- Click on the little Stop Watch next to to Start property and set its value to 0%.
- Position the Time Indicator where you want the text to reach its full scale (0;00;03;15) and change the value of the Start property to 100%
- Preview your Animation by hitting the Spacebar. You’ll notice that each letter gradually appears by scaling up on the screen.
But what if I wanted each word (not letter) to scale up one by one?
- Toggle the Advanced tab within Range Selector 1
- In the Based On dropdown, select Words
- Preview your Animation by hitting the Spacebar. You’ll notice that the letters within each word now scale up at the same time.
Finally, let’s give the Blur Animator property a try. We’ll use it to blur each word one by one after they’ve been scale up.
- Make sure you are still within the “what is this?” Text tab.
- Click and hold the “Animate” button and select “Blur”. Notice that an “Animator2” tab has been added to the layer.
- Set the Blur percentage to 30% (this time we’ll set the value to what we want the end state to be – 30% blurred).
- Toggle the “Range Selector 1” tab.
- Position the Time Indicator where you want your text to start blurring (0;00;04;00).
- Click on the little Stop Watch next to to End property and set its value to 100%.
- Position the Time Indicator where you want the text to reach its full blur (0;00;05;00) and change the value of the End property to 0%
- Preview your Animation by hitting the Spacebar. You’ll notice that each letter gradually blurs.
Animating type on a path
By default, After Effects’ Text tool will create linesof text. However these lines can be transformed into different shapes and can even be animated along a path. These shapes/path could be simple vector shapes (i.e: ellipse, rectangle etc.) or something custom created with the pen tool.
We’ll use both in this simple example. You can watch the finished example below and download the .aep file here:
We’ll start with a New Composition.
- Go to Composition > New Composition(or Command + N) and use the following Settings:
- Name: “TextPath”
- Preset dropdown: HDTV 1080 29.97
- Duration: 0;00;05;00
- Set the background color by clicking on the color swatch at the bottom of the Window
Now let’s add some text:
- Activate the Text tool
- Set the options in the Characters panel.
- Click on the Composition and type the word “ball” 4 times with a double space between each instance.
Next, we’ll create the simple shape we want this Text layer to map unto. We will use the Shape tool, but to create a Mask rather than a Layer:
- Make sure the “ball ball ball ball” Text Layer is selected in the Timeline.
- Activate the Ellipse tool. Notice that there are no Fill/Stroke options since the shape will be created as a Mask
- Click and drag in the center of the Composition to create your circular Mask. Hold Shiftif you’d like it to be a perfect circle.
- Notice that a Mask tab has been created within the Text Layer
- Also notice that the only part of the Text Layer still visible on the screen is that inside the Mask.
Next, we must tell our Text content to follow the Path defined by the Mask we just created:
- Toggle the little arrow next to the Text tab.
- Toggle the Path Options tab.
- In the Path dropdown, Select “Mask 1”
- Notice that the text is now mapped onto the shape of the Mask.
- By default, the text will be placed inside the shape. If you’d like the characters to sit on the outside, you can set the Reverse Path option to On
We’ll add a few more instances of the word to fill in our circle
- Activate the Text tool.
- Click on the existing text and type as many instances as you need to go all around the shape.
We could also adjust the Mask to accommodate the text:
- Select Mask 1 within the Masks tab.
- Activate the Selection tool and double-click on the Mask in the Composition window.
- Click and drag the transform box to change the shape’s dimensions.
This might be a good time to center our ball on the Composition:
- Make sure the Text Layer is selected in the Timeline.
- Go to Layer > Transform > Center Anchor Point in Layer Content.
- Go to Layer > Transform > Center in View
There are several ways we could animate this circle. We could use our basic Layer Transform properties to rotate the ball, but the Path Options can be used to create a similar effect (there are no right/or wrong workflow in this instance – just different possibilities):
- Set the Time Indicator to where you’d like the rotation to start (i.e: 0;00;00;00)
- Toggle the Path Options tab
- Click on the little Stop Watch next to the First Margin option and set its value to 0.
- Set the Time Indicator to where you’d like the rotation to end (i.e: 0;00;05;00)
- Set the First Margin option value to 360.
- Preview your animation by hitting the Spacebar. You will see your letters rotate around the shape. You can slow down or speed up the rotation by changing the value of the First Margin property.
For our next path, we’ll use the pen tool to create something a little more organic. We’ll use a single word and have it follow a “squiggly” path:
Let’s first create a new Text Layer:
- Make sure the “ball” text layer is inactive by activating the Selection tool and clicking outside the Composition
- Activate the Text tool
- Set the options in the Characters panel.
- Click on the Composition and type the word “bee” once
Next, we’ll draw the squiggly line we want this Text layer to follow as a Mask.
- Make sure the “bee” Text Layer is selected in the Timeline.
- Activate the Pen tool. Notice that there are no Fill/Stroke options since what ww draw will be applied as a Mask.
- Draw your “squiggle” by clicking, holding and dragging the Pen tool to create curves. Don’t worry about it being perfect on the first pass. You can always edit individual anchor points after the fact.
- Notice that a Mask tab has been created within the “bee” Text Layer
Next, we must tell our Text content to follow the Path defined by the Mask we just created:
- Toggle the little arrow next to the Text tab.
- Toggle the Path Options tab.
- In the Path dropdown, Select “Mask 1”
- Notice that the text is now anchored on the Mask.
Now. let’s define where we want the text to be along the path at the beginning and end of the animation.
- Set the Time Indicator to the beginning of the animation (0;00;00;00).
- In the Path Options tab, click on the little Stop Watch of the First Margin option and set its value to whatever will bring the text to the beginning of the path. This might be a high and negative number depending on the path you created.
- Set the Time Indicator to the end of the animation (0;00;05;00).
- Set the First Margin value to whatever will bring the text to the end of the path.
Preview your animation by hitting the Spacebar. The “bee” should be “flying” along the path.
