AE 6.0 Text Exercise
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With the new Text Tool you can also animate an individual character in your text. In this next portion of this exercise, we’ll animate the underscore between the words.
Step 8: With the Text Tool, highlight the underscore between the words. If you so desire, change the color the underscore to Red.[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Step 9: Across from the Text Property you will see a fly out menu labeled Animate. Click on the Animate fly out and then select Opacity.
This adds an Animator to the Text Layer (called Animator 1) along with a Range Selector (currently set around the underscore), and the property we are animating (Opacity).
Because you can add a large number of Animators to Text, you will find it helpful to rename your animators as you work. This is done in the same way you rename a layer. Highlight Animator 1, press Return on your keyboard and type in the new name. For this example, you can rename the Animator to Underscore Opacity Wiggle.
Step 11: In the Switches/Mode column across from our Animator, you will see another fly out menu, this time called Add. This option allows you to add additional Properties (Scale, Position, etc), and Selectors. Click on Add>Selector>Wiggly.
This adds a Wiggle control for our Animator.
Step 12: Twirl down the Wiggly 1 selector. A little observation and you should understand what all of the options do. For this exercise we are concerned with Wiggles/Second. Change this amount to 20 and we are done with this selector.
Step 13: Change the Opacity amount to 0%.
Now the Animator will wiggle the Opacity value for the underscore 20 times per second at a range from 0 to 100%.
| This entire animation took less than 3 minutes to create. |
The Text Tool in After Effects 6.0 is so powerful and fun to play around with. Experiment by adding additional Animators and animating other properties for the text. Hopefully you’ve picked up a really cool tip on how to animate a great deal of changing text without a lot of hassle. In future exercises, we’ll explore more neat-o tricks and tips.
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicherSource: Digital Media Online, Inc.
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