Social Media Ad: Adding Text & Layer Styles

Topics Covered in This After Effects Tutorial:

Adding Text, Adding Layer Styles: Drop Shadow & Stroke

Exercise Preview

Exercise Overview

In this exercise you’ll create text, and add styling such as drop shadows and strokes.

Getting Started

1. You should still have Your Name—Guitar Picks.aep open in After Effects. If you closed it, re-open it now by going to File > Open Project then Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Guitar Picks. We recommend you finish the previous exercises (1B–1C) before starting this one. If you haven’t finished them, do the following sidebar.

   If You Did Not Do the Previous Exercises (1B–1C)

   1. If a project is open in After Effects, go to File > Save, then File > Close Project.
   2. Go to File > Open Project and navigate to Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Guitar Picks > Finished Projects.
   3. Double–click on Guitar Picks—Ready For Text.aep.
   4. Go to File > Save As > Save As. Name the file Your Name—Guitar Picks.aep and save it to Desktop > Class Files > After Effects Class > Guitar Picks (replacing the file if it’s already there).

Adding Text

Many of the assets you work with are created in other programs (such as Photoshop or Illustrator) and animated in After Effects. Text on the other hand can be created entirely within After Effects.

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

2. In the Tools panel at the top left of the window, choose the Horizontal Type tool .

   When you activate the Type tool, After Effects automatically opens the Character and Paragraph panels on the right side of the window.

   TIP: You can press Cmd–T (Mac) or CTRL–T (Windows) to activate the Horizontal Type tool .

3. In the Character panel, make the following changes:

   Font Family: Arial Black Font Size : 70 Leave the other settings the same.

4. In the Paragraph panel, click the Center text button .

5. In the Timeline, click on the topmost layer to make it active. (New layers are placed above the current active layer when they are created.)

6. Don’t worry about exact position for now, but click in the middle of the Composition window and type Rockin’ Guitar Picks

7. Press Cmd–Return (Mac) or CTRL–Enter (Windows) or click on any empty area of the Timeline to finalize the creation of the text layer.

8. In the Timeline, CTRL–click (Mac) or Right–click (Windows) on the text layer and choose Transform > Center in View.

9. With the Rockin’ Guitar Picks text layer still selected, press P to reveal Position.

10. Change the second value (vertical position to 200 to move it above the guitar picks in the background.
11. Hit Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctr–A (Windows) to select all the layers.
12. Press Cmd ~ (Mac) or CTRL ~ (Windows) to hide the properties of the all the layers.
13. In the Tools panel at the top left of the window, choose the Selection tool .
14. Click in an empty part of the Timeline to deselect the layers.

15. In the Timeline, drag the Rockin’ Guitar Picks text layer below the photo layers (just above the background layer).

16. Press Spacebar to preview the animation.

    You can see that when the two images fall onto the screen they now cover the background and the text (which is what we want).

17. Press Spacebar again to stop the preview at anytime.

Adding a Drop Shadow (Layer Style)

Lets add a drop shadow to the 2 rotated photos to give the scene more depth.

1. At the top left of the Timeline, click on the Timecode to edit it.

2. Type 500 and hit Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).

   This will move the playhead to 0;00;05;00 (5 seconds) so you can see both photos.

3. In the Timeline, select the photo1 layer.
4. Hold Shift and click on the photo2 layer so both photo layers are selected.
5. Choose Layer > Layer Styles > Drop Shadow.
6. In the Timeline, below both of the photo layers you should see a new Layer Styles below Transform.
7. Under the photo2 layer, below Layer Styles, click the arrow to expand Drop Shadow to see its properties.

8. Change the settings listed below. After entering a value hit Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to apply it (or Tab to the next value), but do NOT click off because we want the layers to remain selected.

   Distance: 30 Size: 70

9. Now that you can better see the shadows, change the following:

   Opacity: 90% Angle: 0x+90°

10. Close up the Drop Shadow settings using its arrow .

Adding a Stroke (Layer Style)

Let’s also add a colored border to the 2 photos.

1. With both photo layers still selected, choose Layer > Layer Styles > Stroke.
2. In the Timeline, below both of the photo layers the Layer Styles now have a Stroke below Drop Shadow.
3. Under the photo2 layer, expand the Stroke settings using its arrow .
4. Set the Stroke’s Size to 12
5. Change Position to Inside. (Outside strokes have rounded corners, which we don’t want. Inside strokes have nice square corners.)

6. Next to the Stroke’s Color, click the color swatch and:

   • Change the hex code to #d46371
   • Click OK.
7. Press Cmd–Shift–A (Mac) or CTRL–Shift–A (Windows) to deselect all layers.

8. Both strokes should currently look the same, but we want them to be different colors.

   The photo2 layer’s Stroke options should still be open. Next to the Stroke’s Color, click the color swatch and:

   • Change the hex code to #eac06e
   • Click OK.

9. Press Spacebar to preview the animation with the new styling.

10. Stop the preview by pressing Spacebar again.

11. Hit Cmd–A (Mac) or Ctr–A (Windows) to select all the layers.

12. Press Cmd ~ (Mac) or CTRL ~ (Windows) to hide the properties of the all the layers.

13. Choose File > Save or hit Cmd–S (Mac) or CTRL–S (Windows) to save your file.