AE 6.0 Text Exercise
Without a doubt one of the biggest and best new features in After Effects 6.0 is the new Text Tool. With it you can animate your text all over the place. You can even animate text changing over time. In this After Effects 6.0 exercise, we’ll take a quick look at how to do this. Not only is it an easy process, but it will save you a great deal of potential headache and hassle.
If you have seen those Nissan car commercials that end with SHIFT_whatever, you will notice that the text after the Shift change about every half second or more (or less). In a previous versions of After Effects and in some other compositing/editing applications, in order to create this effect you would have to have multiple layers or multiple files that your application then cuts or switches to. Not so in AE6.0.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Step 1: Create a New Composition in After Effects.
Step 2: Use the Text Tool and type anything you desire in the Comp Window.
Step 3: When you are finished with your text, you will notice you have a text layer in the Timeline.
Twirl down this layer by clicking on the triangle next to the layer. Also twirl down the arrow next to the Text Property. In addition to Path Options, which let’s you animate/position text on a path, you also have Source Text. Next to this Text Property is a stopwatch, which as you have learned over the years is a visual clue that this item can be animated.
Step 4: With the Timeline Indicator at the beginning of the Timeline, click on the Stopwatch Icon to create an initial keyframe for the text layer. The keyframes created are Hold keyframes. These keyframes keep the property from changing until reaching the next keyframe.
Step 5: Move further down the Timeline (say frame 15). The easy way to jump to a time is to press Command+G on the Mac or Control+G on the PC and entering the time.
Step 6: With the Text Tool, highlight the portion of the text you wish to change.
Step 7: Change the text.
You will notice that a new keyframe is created in the Timeline. Scrub the Timeline Indicator through the Timeline and you will see that your text automatically switches at the correct point.
Repeat this process through the remainder of your Timeline.
This text animation ability saves you a tremendous amount of time when creating a lot of changing text. You no longer have to position multiple layers, making sure everything is lined up correctly. If your producer wants to change one of the words, you don’t have to go and create a new layer, you simply highlight the offending text and change it.
HINT: If you find your text is jumping around as you scrub your Timeline, it may be because you have your paragraph set to center instead of Left or Right. Make this change and you’ll be golden.
Source: Digital Media Online, Inc.
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