Save and reuse text animation presets in After Effects by creating custom FFX files. Understand how to apply these presets correctly and adjust animation timing based on the number of text lines in your composition.
Key Insights
- To save a reusable text animation preset in After Effects, select the desired animator, go to the Animation menu, and choose "Save Animation Preset," ensuring it is saved in the default User Presets folder to appear in the Effects & Presets panel.
- Presets are saved as .ffx (Favorite Effects) files and can be shared or renamed descriptively—e.g., using the word "text" in the name helps distinguish text animators from other effect presets.
- When applying a saved preset that includes keyframes, ensure the current time indicator (CTI) is at the correct position, and be prepared to adjust offset values based on the number of text lines to prevent animation timing issues.
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In this video, I'm going to take the Animator that I made previously, the one I use over here to animate this text, and I'm going to basically save it so I can reuse it on other text. So first I want to rename this because using the name Animator 1 is fine, but I'd like a little more descriptive when I apply it to another text layer. So I'll just right click on the name Animator 1, rename, and I'm going to call this random blurry offset.
Return to finalize that text or enter to finalize that text. I have to select the Animator. Now you can add multiple animators to a text layer, and if you want to save a multi-part Animator, you select all the animators before you save the preset.
So in this case, I've only got this one, which I call random blurry offset. I'll highlight it. I'll go to animation, save animation preset.
Now the program is going to, or at least the program should default to taking you to the After Effects folder for the version you have. It's in the documents folder. It will then take your user presets, and it'll give you a list of any existing user presets.
If you've never saved one before, this list will be empty. Okay. The file format for this is FFX.
It actually stands for favorite effects, by the way. So I'll give it a name because this is the name that'll show up when I'm in effects and presets. Now, by the way, this is a file, which means you can share it with other people, and you can save it wherever you want on your computer.
But if you don't save it in user presets, it will not show up in the effects and presets panel when you search. Okay. So I'll save in the default location.
You can, of course, name it whatever you like. Okay. I'm going to call it text to indicate that it's a text Animator.
I'm going to use the word text in the name to tell myself that it's a text Animator. There are two types of presets, text animation presets, and just regular effects presets, where you save the settings of an effect. They have the same file format, so other than naming them specifically, you really wouldn't know which is which.
If you wanted to, you could actually make a subfolder in here, and then you could maybe just save some text, some effects, it's up to you. But I just tend to like use the word text in the name. So I called mine text hyphen random blurry offset.
Call it whatever you like. Okay. I'm saving it in the user presets folder.
So I'll save right here. And I click save. Now, by the way, if you have one already, it'll basically just like tell you, do you want to replace it? No problem at all.
So I've saved the preset. So one thing to keep in mind is don't reuse preset names. If you try to, it'll basically just replace an older one.
So I'm going to zoom out on this. I'll choose fit. I'll zoom in on the right side.
I'm pressing and holding Z on my keyboard, clicking and dragging to zoom in on that text. And I noticed this text only has six lines. Okay.
So this text, I'll click on it, is the right numbers. I'm just going to hide that preset, by the way. Now, this preset is keyframes.
When I apply a preset with keyframes, I have to be very careful where the current time indicator is. Wherever the current time indicator is, the first keyframe of your preset, that's where it's going to place the first keyframe. It matches the position and time of the CTI.
Which means if I started at set four, there'll be no animation to four seconds. However you do it. So I'm moving back to the beginning.
So they'll be timed together. I've got my layer highlighted. I'm going to go to effects and presets.
It may have to load them. Sort of fill. Animation presets.
If this is your first preset you've saved, previously animation presets was just a list of presets. It was actually the content of this presets folder. But once you've saved your first user preset, you get a new folder, user presets.
I'll open that up. And that's what I have. So this is the one I just made text random blurry offset.
That one, by the way, is an example I made for another practice. So that's the one I just saved. So I'll just double click on it or drag and drop it onto the layer.
Same difference. And now, as you can see, there's been a change. So I'll just preview that.
And it's a little different because this one has a pause, a massive pause. Now, this pause is caused by the fact that I'm using index as the units of measure. This animation preset was built for a number of lines, actually 13 lines.
Now I've only got six. That's what's causing the pause. So all I got to do is find that preset.
I'm going to open up the layer properties. It's in text. Random blurry offset.
And I basically need to find my range selector. And it's the keyframe for it. So I'm going to press J to jump back to that keyframe.
Instead of an offset of 12, I'd run an offset. I have 1,2, 3,4, 5,6 lines of 5. Because remember, it starts from 0. Now, it won't have that delay, that gap. It's only running on the total number of lines that we have here.
And that's how you apply a text animation preset.