Adding animated text
You’re nearly done. All you need to do is to add the animated title between the boy and the background.
Deselect all layers, and then move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler.
Choose Layer > New > Text.
A new text layer appears in the Timeline panel at the top of the layer stack, and a cursor appears in the Composition panel.
Type WINTER BLUES in the Composition panel.
Select all the text in the Composition panel, and then do the following in the Character panel:
Choose Myriad Pro for the font.
Choose Semibold for the font style.
Type 300 px for the font size.
Choose Optical from the Kerning menu.
Select white for the fill color.
Select black for the stroke color.
Make sure the stroke width is 1 px and Stroke Over Fill is selected.
Select the text layer in the Timeline panel to deselect the text. Then press T to reveal the layer’s Opacity property. Change the Opacity to 40%.
Click the Effects & Presets tab to open the panel, and then type Glow in the search box. Double-click the Glow preset under Stylize.
The text gains some texture. The default settings are fine.
Drag the WINTER BLUES layer in the Timeline panel down to position it between the boy.mov and Background layers. Then move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler, if it’s not already there.
You’ll animate the text so that it moves left behind the boy while he crosses to the right of the frame.
With the WINTER BLUES layer selected, press P to reveal its Position property. Change the Position to 1925, 540. Click the stopwatch icon () for the Position property to set a keyframe.
The text moves offscreen, so it’s not visible when the movie begins.
Move the current-time indicator to 3:01 (the end of the clip), and change the Position to −1990, 540.
The text moves to the left. After Effects creates a keyframe.
Deselect all layers in the Timeline panel, and move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the time ruler. Press the spacebar to preview the clip.
Choose File > Save to save your work.