After Effects

When opening/creating a new project you need you create a new compostion which is when this box appears. Your settings need to be : - HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) - 25 frames per second The background colour and duration can be set and changed by you.

Creating and Editing Text

In the top menu bar, select the Text Tool (the tool pictured that looks like the letter T). On your stage in the compostion panel (centre, middle) click anywhere to begin typing.

To edit the text, highlight it then use the panel on the right to change attributes such as colour, size, font, distance between the letters etc.

Animating Text

When you have added text to the compostion, it will appear in the timeline. Click on the triangle on the left to expand the options to select the attributes to animate.

Move the time slider (red line with yellow triangle above it) to the point where you would like the animtion to begin. Select the stopwatch of the attribute you would like to animate. This has added a keyframe (yellow diamond shape on the timeline). Move the time slider to where you would like the animtion to end. Change the values of the attribute and this will add other keyframe (shown by another yellow diamond) on the timeline. Scrub the time slider along the timeline and you will preview your animtion (not in real time).

Animating Text along a path

On the top menu bar, select the Pen Tool. Making sure the text layer is selcted on the timeline, start draing a line on the stage in the compostion panel. If it is yellow, it is creating a mask which is what you want. If it is blue then it is creating a shape layer. This is not what you want so delete the layer and try again, making sure the text layer is selected before drawing the line.

The options and sttributes have now changed with a new masks option added. Expand the Text Options and then Path options. From the drop down list, select the mask you have just created. The text will then sit on the path. The new attributes under Path Options can now also be animating in the same way as earlier to make the text move along the path.