We will be going over five different animations and cover a bunch of different aspects of text animators so by the end you should have a solid grasp on what text animators can do and hopefully go out there and make some really cool animations of your own. Alright, let’s get started.



Part 1: How to Make 5 Text Animations in After Effects

1. Blurry Fade On

Step 1: Make a new composition named Text Animation 1, make sure it’s 1920 x 1080 and hit okay.

Step 2: In the Project Panel go ahead and duplicate this composition until you have five so we’ll have them all for later.

Step 3: Open the Text Animation 1 comp and using the Text tool, click into the composition to create a new text layer. Type “Fade On” (or whatever you want).

Step 4: Twirl down the layer and using the Animate menu select Opacity. This creates a new Animator. Under the Animator, change the opacity to 0%.

Step 5: Then, twirl down the Range Selector and then the Advanced menu. Change Shape to Ramp Up, Ease High and Ease Low to 50%, and Randomize Order On.

Step 6: At frame 0 set a keyframe for the Offset with a value of -100. Move the playhead to frame 45 and change the Offset to 100%.

Step 7: To the right of the Animator use the Add menu to add a Blur. Change the blur value to 10.

2. Animate In From Below

Step 1: Make a new composition named Text Animation 2, create a new text layer, and type “Masked”. Twirl the text layer down and in the Animate menu select Position.

Step 2: In the new animator, change the Y position value so that the text is completely below where it started (and a little bit more for safety).

Step 3: Twirl down the Range Selector and Advanced menus. Change the Shape to Ramp Up and Ease Low to 100%.

Step 4: At frame 0 set a keyframe for Offset with a value of -100%.

Step 5: Then at frame 30 change the Offset value to 100%.

Step 6: With the playhead still at frame 30 draw a rectangular mask around the text making sure that you don’t leave too much extra room at the bottom.

The great thing about using a text animator is that it will move the text but not the mask!

3. Tracking and Opacity

Step 1: Make a new composition named Text Animation 3 and create a new text layer that says “Tracking”.

Step 2: Twirl the text layer down and in the Animate menu select Opacity.

Step 3: In the new animator use the Add button and select Property > Tracking. Change the Tracking Amount to 100 and the Opacity (make sure it’s the animator’s and not the layer’s) to 0%.

Step 4: Twirl down the Range Selector and Advanced menus. Under Advanced, change Based On to Words.

Step 5: At frame 0, under Range Selector, set a keyframe for start with a value of 0%.

Step 6: Then at frame 60 change the Start value to 100%.

Step 7: Right-click the second keyframe and go to Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease. Right-click on it again and select Keyframe Velocity. In the pop-up window change the incoming influence to 80% and hit OK.



4. Type On

Step 1: Make a new composition named Text Animation 4, create a new text layer and type “Type On”.

Step 2: Twirl the text layer down and in the Animate menu select Opacity. In the new animator change the Opacity value to 0%.

Step 3: Twirl down the Range Selector and Advanced menus. Under Advanced, change Smoothness to 0%.

Step 4: At frame 0, under Range Selector, set a keyframe for Start with a value of 0%. Then at frame 40 change the Start value to 100%.



5. Text On Path

Step 1: Make a new composition named Text Animation 5, create a new text layer and type “Text on Path”.

Step 2: With the layer still selected, use the Pen tool to draw a path for the text to move along. If you create a closed path, make sure you change the mask’s mode to None (instead of Add). This isn’t an option for open paths.

Step 3: Twirl down the layer, then the Text menu, and then Path Options. Change Path to the mask you just drew with the Pen tool.

Step 4: At frame 0 set a keyframe for First Margin. Lower the value here to whatever looks good for your path.

Step 5: Then at frame 30 change the First Margin value to 0 (this brings the text to the middle of the path’s length). Apply Easy Ease to this keyframe.

Step 6: Move the playhead to frame 45 and place another keyframe of the same value and make sure it’s eased as well.

Step 7: Move to frame 75 and change the First Margin value to a high number to animate it out of place.



Part 2: Check Out These Free Text Animation Presets for After Effects

Don’t know how to use After Effects presets? Check out this tutorial, and get up to speed.