Animating Text in Adobe After Effects CC (2014 release)
- Getting started
- About text layers
- Installing a font using Typekit
- Creating and formatting point text
- Using a text animation preset
- Animating with scale keyframes
- Animating using parenting
- Animating imported Photoshop text
- Animating text using a path animation preset
- Animating type tracking
- Animating text opacity
- Using a text animator group
- Cleaning up the path animation
- Animating a nontext layer along a motion path
- Adding motion blur
- Review questions
- Review answers
Note: This excerpt does not include the lesson files. The lesson files are available with purchase of the book.
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Lesson overview
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:
- Create and animate text layers.
- Stylize text using the Character and Paragraph panels.
- Apply and customize text animation presets.
- Preview animation presets in Adobe Bridge.
- Install fonts using Adobe Typekit.
- Animate text using keyframes.
- Animate layers using parenting.
- Edit and animate imported Adobe Photoshop text.
- Use a text animator group to animate selected characters on a layer.
- Apply a text animation to a graphic object.
This lesson will take approximately two hours to complete. Download the Lesson03 project files from the Lesson & Update Files tab on your Account page at www.peachpit.com, if you haven’t already done so. As you work on this lesson, you’ll preserve the start files. If you need to restore the start files, download them from your Account page.
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PROJECT: MOVIE TITLE SEQUENCE
Your type doesn’t need to sit still while your audience is reading it. In this lesson, you’ll learn several ways to animate type in After Effects, including timesaving methods unique to text layers.
Getting started
Adobe After Effects offers many ways to animate text. You can animate text layers by manually creating keyframes in the Timeline panel, using animation presets, or using expressions. You can even animate individual characters or words in a text layer. In this lesson, you’ll employ several different animation techniques, including some that are unique to text, while you design the opening title credits for an animated documentary called Road Trip. You’ll also take advantage of Adobe Typekit to install a font for use in your project.
As in other projects, you’ll begin by previewing the movie you’re creating, and then you’ll open After Effects.
Make sure the following files are in the Lessons/Lesson03 folder on your hard disk, or download them from your Account page at www.peachpit.com now:
- In the Assets folder: background_movie.mov, car.ai, compass.swf, credits.psd
- In the Sample_Movie folder: Lesson03.mov
Open and play the Lesson03.mov sample movie to see the title credits you will create in this lesson. When you’re done, quit QuickTime Player. You may delete this sample movie from your hard disk if you have limited storage space.
As you start the application, restore the default settings for After Effects. See “Restoring default preferences” on page 2.
- Start After Effects, and then immediately hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) to restore default preferences settings. When prompted, click OK to delete your preferences.
Click Close to close the Welcome screen.
After Effects opens to display a blank, untitled project.
- Choose File > Save As > Save As, and navigate to the Lessons/Lesson03/Finished_Project folder.
- Name the project Lesson03_Finished.aep, and then click Save.
Importing the footage
You need to import two footage items to begin this lesson.
- Double-click an empty area of the Project panel to open the Import File dialog box.
- Navigate to the Lessons/Lesson03/Assets folder on your hard disk, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) to select both the background_movie.mov and compass.swf files, and then click Import or Open.
After Effects can import several file formats including Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator files, as well as QuickTime and AVI movies. This makes After Effects an incredibly powerful application for compositing and motion graphics work.
Creating the composition
Now, you’ll create the composition.
- Press Ctrl+N (Windows) or Command+N (Mac OS) to create a new composition.
In the Composition Settings dialog box, name the composition Road_Trip_Title_Sequence, select NTSC DV from the Preset menu, and set the Duration to 10:00, which is the length of the background movie. Then click OK.
Drag the background_movie.mov and compass.swf footage items from the Project panel to the Timeline panel. Arrange the layers so that compass.swf is above background_movie.mov in the layer stack.
- Choose File > Save.
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You’re ready to add the title text to the composition.