Positioning the type – Animating Text – Animating Text and Adobe Exams

May 2, 2022

Positioning the type – Animating Text

To precisely position layers, such as the text layer you’re working on now, you can display rulers, guides, and grids in the Composition panel. These visual reference tools don’t appear in the final rendered movie.

Make sure the Snorkel Tours text layer is selected in the Timeline panel.
Choose Layer > Transform > Fit To Comp Width. This scales the layer to fit to the width of the composition.

Now you can position the text layer using a grid.

3. Choose View > Show Grid and then View > Snap To Grid.

4. Using the Selection tool (), drag the text up in the Composition panel until the text is in the top quarter of the composition, centered in the surface of the water. Press Shift after you start dragging to constrain the movement and help you position the text.

5. When the layer is in position, choose View > Show Grid again to hide the grid.

This project isn’t destined for broadcast TV, so it’s okay that the title extends beyond the title-safe and action-safe areas of the composition at the beginning of the animation.

6. Choose File > Save to save your project.

Animating with scale keyframes

The text layer was scaled to nearly 250% when you applied the Fit To Comp Width command to it earlier in this lesson. Now, you’ll animate the layer’s scale so that the type gradually shrinks down to 200%.

In the Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to 3:00.
Select the Snorkel Tours text layer.
In the Properties panel, click the stopwatch icon () next to the Scale property to add a keyframe at the current time (3:00).

4. Move the current-time indicator to 5:00.

5. Reduce the layer’s Scale values to 200, 200%. After Effects adds a new Scale keyframe at the current time.

Previewing a range of frames

Now, you’ll preview the animation. Although the composition is 13 seconds long, you need to preview only the first five seconds, since that is where the text animation occurs.