Notes: Week 5 (Feb 14)

Animating Type

It is best practice to work with text either created directly in After Effects or imported as part of another file and converted to Editable Text. This saves you the trouble of linking assets and opens a world of text-specific animation controls.

 

Importing text from Photoshop

• Import your photoshop file as "Composition" (both layer size and document size are acceptable)
• Enter the imported photoshop composition or pull the imported text layer into an independent comp
• Right-click on the text layer and select "Convert to Editable Text"

Importing text from Illustrator

• Text layers imported from an Illustrator file can't be converted to Editable Text
• To use type from an Illustrator file, export the .ai file as a Photoshop format

Creating text in After Effects

• Use the T tool to create text directly in After Effects

Character Window Tools

• Window > Character
• Select fonts
• Leading/Kerning
• Access lower bar of the window for Caps, Small Caps, Superscript, Subscript controls

Paragraph Window Tools

• Left/Right/Center align
• Paragraph spacing and indenting
• Note: Always be aware of your alignment—it will impact text-specific animation controls

Animating Text Manually—back to front

• Though AE has very sophisticated and flexible text animation tools, it is sometimes worthwhile to select a small portion of your animation for a manual treatment (to achieve a more organic, unique feel).
• This approach would require to break up your word/line of text into "animatable" layers.
• Start by creating your main layout as one layer (this will be your "guide" layer)
• Make it a different color from the actual text (for better visibility)
• Duplicate the "guide" layer and lock the original
• Use the duplicated layer to create as many pieces as you want to animate manually
• Position the resulting layers in original order using the guide layer as reference
• Set keyframes on all layers for every property you plan to animate: these keyframes will be your "final" state
• Go to another part of your timeline and start animating with your layers