Even More Text Animation

Topics covered in this After Effects tutorial:

Animating Multiple Text Properties, Animating Dingbat Fonts, Saving an Animation Preset

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you’ll animate the chevrons so they move towards each other using text animators.

Previewing the Final Video

1. Let’s see a preview of what you’ll be making. If you’re in After Effects, keep it open but switch to your Desktop.
2. On the Desktop, navigate to Class Files > After Effects Advanced Class> Text Animation > Preview Movie and double–click Shape Animation - HUD.mp4.

3. Notice the following:

   • The numbers on the left and right side of the screen seem to have a couple of different animations playing through them at the same time.
   • The chevrons in the background seem to have a kind of rev–up animation.

4. Replay the video if you need to, and close it when done.

Setting Up the Workspace

1. In After Effects, go to Window > Workspace > Standard.

2. Choose Window > Workspace > Reset “Standard” to Saved Layout.

3. If the After Effects window does not fill the screen, maximize it:

   Mac:	At the top left of the window, click the green button (the third button).
   Windows:	At to the top right of the window, click the Maximize button (the middle button).

Getting Started

1. In After Effects, if you have a project open, choose File > Save.

2. Choose File > Open Project and:

   • Navigate to Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Advanced Class > Text Animation > Finished Projects.
   • Double–click on HUD - Side Text.aep.aep to open it.

3. Choose File > Save As > Save As and:

   • Name the file Your Name - HUD.aep and
   • Save it into Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Advanced Class> Text Animation.

Animating Text with Character Offset

There are two layers we want to use in the side by side text animations. First we will combine them together using the Precompose command. For this lesson, two text layers have been prepared for you.

1. Select both the Numbers Left and Numbers Right layers.

2. Press Cmd–Shift–C (Mac) or Ctrl–Shift–C (Windows) or choose Layer > Pre–compose

   NOTE: you can also Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on a highlighted layer and choose Pre–compose from the menu.

3. In the Pre–compose dialog name the new comp Numbers Animation.

   • Confirm that both checkboxes at the bottom are disabled.
   • Click OK

4. Double–click on the [Numbers Animation] comp to open it.

5. Select the Numbers Left layer and click the reveal arrow to view the Text and Transform groups.

6. Click the Animate button and choose Character Offset.

7. Set Offset to 2.

8. Click the reveal arrow for Range Selector 1 to reveal its properties.

9. Click the reveal arrow for the Advanced group of Range Selector 1.

10. Set Based On to lines and then set Units to Index.

    NOTE: It is important to set the two properties in the order listed above. This is the only way the Start and End properties will automatically reset to the right number of lines.

    Using Index will give us a more precise unit of measure than using percentage.

11. Close the Advanced properties.

12. In the Range Selector properties change End to 1.

13. Click the Add button across from Animator 1 and choose Property > Blur

14. Click off the link for blur and change the first value (this is horizontal blur) to 5

15. If necessary, move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline and click on the stopwatch for Offset.

16. Move the playhead to 03;00 and change the Offset value to 12

17. Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) on your keyboard and click on the stopwatch for the Offset property to add an expression.

18. In the expression text field type: loopOut();

    Click anywhere outside the field to finalize the expression.

19. Reveal the Advanced properties again and change Randomize Order to On.

20. Save the project by choosing File > Save or pressing Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Saving an Animation Preset

1. Click on Animator 1 and press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to make the name editable.

2. Change the name to Random Blurry Offset.
   • Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) again to finalize the name change.

   NOTE: If you like you can definitely add more flair to your names. For organizational purposes we tend to keep them descriptive.

3. With the animator selected choose Animation > Save Animation Preset

4. Name the new preset Text-Random Blurry Offset.ffx and save it in the default User Presets folder.

   NOTE: The Save Animation Preset dialog should automatically open in the default folder if you some reason it doesn’t, you can find the User Presets folder at Documents > Adobe > After Effects(you version number) > User Presets

5. Hide the properties for the Numbers Left layer

Applying an Animation Preset

1. If necessary, move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline.

   NOTE: When applying an animation preset, the first keyframe of that preset is always placed at the position of the playhead.

2. Select the Numbers Right layer

3. In the Effects and Presets panel type Random Blurry into the search field.

4. Double–click on the ext-Random Blurry Offset preset to apply it.

5. Press U on your keyboard to reveal the keyframes of the selected layer.

6. Move the playhead to the second keyframe and change the Offset to 5.

   Using index is more accurate but also not as easily scalable using percentage. When using index you will have to adjust its value based on the number of elements.

   NOTE: You can navigate from keyframe to keyframe by pressing J and K on your keyboard.

7. Click back on the Shape Animation - HUD comp.

8. In the Project panel drag the Numbers Animated comp into the 02 - Pre Comps folder.

9. Save the project by choosing File > Save or pressing Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Setting up a Pre–comp

In this part of the exercise, we are going to use text properties to adjust the chevron to match a reference image and then animate it in a type of rev–up effect.

1. Turn on the eye for the Chevron layer.

2. Click on the Chevron layer, hold Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) on your keyboard and click on the Diagonal Chevrons layer as well.

3. Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on either of the selected layers and choose Pre–compose.

   NOTE: You can also precompose layers using a keyboard shortcut, Cmd–Shift–C (Mac) or Ctrl–Shift–C (Windows).

4. In the dialog, name the new composition Chevron Animation.

   • Confirm that both checkboxes are disabled.
   • Click OK

5. Drag the new Chevron Animation comp layer down until it is just above the BG - Grid layer.

6. Double–click Chevron Animation to open it.

7. Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the Diagonal Chevrons layer and choose Guide Layer from the menu.

   NOTE: a guide layer remains visible in this pre–comp but will not be visble when this pre–comp is used anywhere else.

8. Click the lock switch for the Diagonal Chevrons layer.

9. 1. Save the project by choosing File > Save or pressing Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Animating with Range Selector Shape

When working with text animators it is important to remember that the advanced properties of range selectors offer a wide range of options that can completely change he look of your animation.

1. In the Timeline, double–click on the Chevron layer.

   NOTE: Several things happen when you double–click on a text layer: the application switches to the text tool, all the text on the layer is selected and the Character and Paragraph panels pop–up.

2. Press Cmd–C (Mac) or Ctrl–C (Windows) on your keyboard to copy the selected character.

3. Click to the right of the selected character to place the cursor.

4. Press Cmd–V (Mac) or Ctrl–V (Windows) 6 (six) times so that you end up with 7 copies of the character.

5. In the Paragraph panel, click on the Right Align Text button.

6. Activate the Selection tool and reposition the text until it is more centered on the screen.

7. In the Timeline, double–click on the Chevron layer again to re–select all the text.

8. In the Character Panel, adjust the Vertical Scale and Horizontal Scale until the chevrons look more like the reference layer.

   We used 90 for Vertical Scale and 60 for Horizontal Scale.

9. Change the Tracking to move the characters closer to each other.

   We used a value of -100, but the value will vary depending on if you changed the font, size, or scale values.

10. In the Timeline, click on the name of the layer to finalize your changes.

    NOTE: You can also finalize the text change by clicking on any empty area of the Timeline or by pressing Cmd–Return (Mac) or Ctrl–Enter (Windows) on your keyboard.

11. Click on the reveal arrow for the Chevron layer.

12. Click the Animate button to the right of the text group and choose Opacity.

13. In the new animator, set Opacity to 0.

14. Click the reveal arrow for Range Selector 1 to reveal its properties.

15. If necessary, move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline.

16. Change offset to -50 and click on its stopwatch to enable animation.

17. Move the playhead to 01;15 and change Offset to 100.

18. Hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) on your keyboard and click on the stopwatch for the Offset property to add an expression.

19. In the expression text field type: loopOut();

    Click anywhere outside the field to finalize the expression.

20. Press Spacebar on your keyboard to preview the animation.

    The current animation isn’t bad but it may look better if the fade out aniation was a bit more spread out over the characters.

21. Click the reveal arrow for the Advanced group of Range Selector 1.

22. Change the Mode to Subtract

23. Change the Shape to Triangle.

24. Press Spacebar on your keyboard to preview the animation again.

25. Save the project by choosing File > Save or pressing Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Duplicating and Repositioning Layers

1. Move the playhead to the beginning of the Timeline.

2. Click off the eye switch for Animator 1. This will disable the animation.

3. In the Timeline, click on the Chevron layer to make it active.

4. In the Tools panel, click on the Pan Behind tool to activate it and click on the snapping switch to the right.

   NOTE: You can activate the Pan Behind tool by press the Y key on your keyboard.

5. In the Composition panel, move the Anchor Point to the middle right of the layer. You want it to line up with the middle of the first chevron.

6. Click the visibility of animator 1 back on.

7. Now we’re going to duplicate and flip the layers. With the chevron layer still selected:
   • Choose Layer > Transform > Center in View.
   • Choose Edit > Duplicate.
   • Choose Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal

8. Select both Chevron layers.

   NOTE: You can select multiple layers by holding down the Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) key on your keyboard when you click on them.

9. Click on the Rotate tool in the Tools panel or press W on your keyboard to activate it.

10. In the Composition panel, click on one of the layers and rotate them into position.

    NOTE: If you want to contrain the rotation to 45 degree increments press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard while rotating.

11. Return to the Shape Animation - HUD composition and preview the new layer animation.

12. Save the project by choosing File > Save or pressing Cmd–S (Mac) or Ctrl–S (Windows).

Optional Bonus: Creating a Grid in After Effects

1. Create a new solid layer and make it about double the dimensions of the composition.

2. Rename the new layer Grid BG and move it to just above the imported BG - Grid layer.

   • Delete the original BG - Grid layer.

3. Apply the Grid effect, Effect > Generate > Grid

4. Adjust the grid size, color and opacity to your liking.

5. Animate the Rotation of the layer to your liking.

Optional Bonus: Colorizing Pre–comps

The easiest way to colorize all of the layers in a pre–comped layer is to apply the effect to the pre–comp itself.

1. Select the layer you want to colorize.

2. Apply Effect > Generate > Fill

3. In the Effect Controls panel change the fill color to your liking.

   You can also control the Opacity of the layer from the Fill effect.

Optional Bonus: Adding Drop Shadow to the Globe

1. Double–click on the World Map comp layer to open it.

2. Ctrl–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the Adobe Illustrator layer and choose Create > Create Shapes from Vector Layer

3. Duplicate the new shape layer to make a second one.

4. Name the top shape layer Continents and the bottom one Water

5. In the Continents layer reveal the layer properties and delete the group that makes up the Water graphics.

6. In the Water layer reveal the layer properties and delete the group that makes up the Continents graphics.

7. Select the top layer and apply Effect > Perspective > Drop Shadow.

8. Adjust the Drop Shadow effects properties to your liking.