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5 Ways to Animate Text in After Effects

5 Ways to Do Text Animations in After Effects

There are many ways to give your presentation a bit more finesse, and one of them is with text animations.

Today, we’ll go through five text animations you could use in your next video. We’ll be talking about basic text reveal, liquid text reveal, glitchy text, handwritten and echoey text.

Don’t worry, we’ll go through each text animation step by step.

Here’s a breakdown for each one:

  • Basic text reveal: Text + Mask + Animator tab (under text layer)
    Y position

  • Liquid text reveal: Text + Shape layer (Wave Warp effect) + Shape positioning & offset

  • Glitchy text: Text + Adjustment layer (Displacement map effect) + Static footage

  • Handwritten: Text + Mask + Stroke effect

  • Echoey text: Text + 3D layer + Y Rotation + Echo effect

01 Basic text reveal



Step 1
Add Text Layer



Step 2
Select Text Layer > Use Pen Tool(G) to draw mask on text
(AE pen tool usage: layer selected > Mask, layer not selected > Shape)



Step 3
Use the Animate button inside the text layer (choose position)



Step 4
Add position keyframe in animator (Range Selector)
(Ex: 00:00 frame X 0.0 Y 0.0 > 02:00 frame X 0.0 Y 50.0)



Finished!







02 Liquid text reveal



Step 1
Add Text Layer



Step 2
Create Shape Layer



Step 3
Right-click on layers > Rename
(for the organising purposes)



Step 4
Add Wave Warp effect on shape layer



Step 5
Edit effect properties to your liking (wave height/ width, direction, speed)



Step 6
Put Shape Layer below Text Layer > use Alpha Matte mask



Step 7
After Alpha Matte is selected…



Step 8
Add keyframe on text layer (Y Rotation)
(Ex: 00:00 frame X 0.0 Y 0.0 > 02:00 frame X 0.0 Y 50.0 )



Step 9
Duplicate text and shape layer > give the comps some offset
(so the waves come up at different times)



Finished







03 Glitchy text



Step 1
External download
(download a static animation video of your liking)



Step 2
Add Text Layer



Step 3
Add Adjustment Layer above Text Layer
(Layer > new > adjustment layer)



Step 4
Add glitch video layer below text layer
(Download any static effect video in black and white)



Step 5
Add Displacement Map effect on adjustment layer



Step 6
Change properties for Displacement Map effect|
(Displacement map layer none > Glitch video layer)



Step 7
Turn off glitch video layer visibility



Finished!







04 Handwritten text



Step 1
Add Text Layer



Step 2
Pen Tool(G)



Step 3
Select Text Layer first > draw mask on text



Step 4
Add Stroke effect on the text layer



Step 5
Set properties for Stroke effect
(brush size, brush hardness)



Step 6
Set keyframe for start (text layer stroke effect) in the timeline
(Ex: 00:00 frame 0% > 02:00 frame 100%)



Finished!








05 Echoey text



Step 1
Add Text Layer > Change text property in Character tab
(fill:empty outline:white)



Step 2
Tick 3D Layer box > Add keyframe on text layer (Y Rotation)
(Ex : 00:00 frame 0% > 02:00 frame 360%)



Step 3
After applying 360-degree rotation on Y rotation…



Step 4
Add Echo effect to text layer



Step 5
Change properties for Echo effect
(echo time/distance, number of echoes)



Finished!

That’s all for today! We hoped you gained something from this blog post.
The effects we’ve covered here are applicable to other layers and objects, so why not try them out and see what happens?
Thank you for reading.
Tutorial sources
Basic Text Reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EglpVqoCSy4
Liquid Text Reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOqkwked4xs
Glitchy Text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHN2GSkAP8
Handwritten Text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSmDzScPsTY
Echoey Text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyT4YAO95sI&t=197s