Text animation presets



Browse and apply text animation presets as you would any other animation presets. You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the Animation menu. (See Apply an effect or animation preset and Animation presets overview and resources.)

A great way to see how advanced users use After Effects is to apply an animation preset, and press U or UU to reveal only the animated or modified layer properties. Viewing the animated and modified properties shows you what changes the designer of the animation preset made to create the animation preset.

Tips, notes, and caveats for text animation presets

The text animation presets were created in an NTSC DV 720x480 composition, and each text layer uses 72-point Myriad Pro. Some preset animations move the text on, off, or through the composition. The animation preset position values may not be appropriate for a composition that is much larger or smaller than 720x480; for example, an animation that is supposed to start outside the frame may start inside the frame. If the text isn’t positioned as expected or the text disappears unexpectedly, adjust the position values for the text animator in the Timeline panel or Composition panel.

After you apply a 3D Text animation preset, you may need to rotate the layer or add a camera to rotate around the layer to see the results of the 3D animation.

Text animation presets in the Paths category automatically replace the source text with the name of the animation preset and change the font color to white. These animation presets may also change other character properties.

The Fill And Stroke category of animation presets contains presets that may change the fill color and stroke properties of the preset that you apply. If the animation preset requires a stroke or fill color, the animation works only if you have assigned one to your text.

Additional online resources for animation presets

You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the After Effects Exchange on the Adobe website.

A gallery of animation presets included with After Effects 7 is available on the Adobe website. This set of animation presets is similar to the set included with After Effects CS4. For a list of animation presets included with After Effects CS4, see Animation preset list.

Chris and Trish Meyer provide an in-depth look at animation presets—including behaviors and text animation presets—in a PDF excerpt from their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects on the CyberMotion website.