Web Development: January 2025

How to make an animated text effect in After Effects

Do you want to take your text animations to the next level? Look no further! With its powerful tools, Adobe After Effects is a must-have for designers and beginners looking to add that extra flair to their projects.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through step-by-step how to create an eye-catching animated text effect in After Effects. You’ll learn everything you need to know to bring your text to life.

So grab your creativity and let’s go!

Final result

What exactly are we creating here? Hit play and take a look at our animated text effect!

How to create a composition in After Effects

Step 1

Start by creating a Composition with the following settings:

Width: 2000 px
Height: 2000 px
Frame rate: 24
Background color: Gray

Step 2

Create a black text with the word you want and convert it to Shape layer.

Step 3

Using the Selection tool (Shortcut V), move the points of the shape to make it roughly the size of the Composition, or you can just Scale it vertically if the text distortion doesn’t bother you.

Step 4

Select the text, right-click and select Pre-compose shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + C).

Step 5

Repeat the same steps to create the second word and Pre-compose it. Make sure the second word is white.

How to create and adjust masks in After Effects

Step 1

While selecting the first composition, double click the Rectangle tool (Q) to create a mask exactly the size of the composition.

Step 2

Adjust the mask size by selecting the top left and right points using the Selection tool (V) and move them to cover half of the word.

Step 3

Duplicate the layer using Ctrl + D or go to Edit > Duplicate and move the bottom two points of the mask to the top to reveal the other half of the word.

Step 4

Using Pan behind tool (Y), move the anchor point of the bottom half of the word to the bottom edge, and move the anchor point to the top edge of the top half of the word.

How to add and set and keyframes in After Effects

Step 1

Selecting all the layers, use shortcut (S) to reveal the scale property and create a keyframe at the first frame by clicking on the stopwatch icon.

Unlink the scale dimensions and edit the values like shown in the image. Then, move the keyframe two frames forward.

Step 2

Move the time indicator to the one 24th frame (1 second mark) and edit the values like shown in the image.

Adding values to keyframes in After Effects

Step 3

Select all the layers and go to Edit > Split layer (Ctrl + Shift + D) to split the layers at the 1 second mark.

How to select and arrange layers in After Effects

Step 1

Select the top two MAKE layers, and while holding Alt, grab the MISTAKE composition and release it on top of one of the two layers to replace them.

Step 2

Repeat the same steps to replace the top word MISTAKES with the word MAKE.

Step 3

Select all the layers and press (U) to reveal all the Keyframes. Select the keyframes of the top three layers, and move them to the 1 second mark.

Revealing keyframes and layers in After Effects

Step 4

Create a new adjustment layer by right-clicking an empty space and going to New > Adjustment Layer.

Adding a new adjustment layer in After Effects

Step 5

Search for CC Power Pin in the Effect panel and apply it to the adjustment layer.

Move the time indicator to the first frame and click the stopwatch on all the elements shown in the image to create keyframes.

Change the values of the effect to match the values in the image.

Step 6

Move the time indicator to the 1 second mark and input the values shown in the image.

Step 7

Select the first keyframes and Copy them (Ctrl + C).

Move the time indicator to the 2 second mark and Paste the keyframes (Ctrl + V).

Step 8

Select all the keyframes and right click > Keyframe assistant > Easy Ease or use the shortcut (F9).

Step 9

Select all the layers and the adjustment layer, and Pre-compose them with (Ctrl + Shift + C).

Step 10

Right click on the new Composition and go to Time > Enable Time Remapping

Step 11

Move the time indicator to the 2 second mark and create a new keyframe by clicking on the stopwatch icon.

Go to the last frame and delete the keyframe.

How to animate in After Effects

Step 1

Alt + Left click to enable expressions and write the following expression: loopOut()

Step 2

To ensure the animation loops seamlessly, move the time indicator to the 2 second mark and press (i) to move to the start of the animation.

Move the time indicator to the 4 second mark and press (O) to move to the end of the animation.

Step 3

Create a new solid by going to New > Solid. Name it Displacement map.

Step 4

Apply the following effects to the solid:

Gradient ramp
Fast box blur

Make sure to copy the values shown in the image.

Step 5

For the Main Animation layer, apply these effects:

Time Displacement
Gaussian Blur
Curves

Match the values with the values shown below.

Step 6

Select all the layers and Pre-compose them.

Step 7

Duplicate the new layer by going to Edit > Duplicate or use shortcut (Ctrl + D).

Step 8

Select the top layer and apply a stroke to it by going to Layer > Layer Styles > Stroke.

Step 9

Change the fill opacity to 0% and stroke size to 6pt.

Step 10

Pre-compose the top layer and name it Outline. Make sure to check Move all attributes into the new composition.

Step 11

Create a new solid, name it Background and give it a dark color.

Step 12

Arrange the layers like shown in the image.

Step 13

Change the blending mode of the top layer to Exclusion.

Step 14

Add the following effects to the Outline layer and match all the values:

Echo
Gaussian blur
Colorama
Colors used: #FF7D26 - #FFFCDE - #17E6FF

Step 15

Add these effects to top layer (Animation + Time Displace):

Tint
Gaussian blur
Color: #FFD738

Step 16

Create a New Composition and add different textures you want to use. Move the time indicator to frame 4 and trim layer out point to current time (Alt + [ ).

Step 17

Select all layers, duplicate them (Ctrl + D) and move them to the top. Repeat this process multiple times.

Step 18

Select all layers and right click > Keyframe Assistant > Sequence layers.

Step 19

Put the Texture Composition on top of everything and set Blending mode to Screen.

And that’s it!

This striking animated text effect can be used in a variety of projects, from social media posts and motion graphics to short films and commercials. Apply these techniques to your own projects and watch your creativity take off.

Looking to up your video editing game? Check out this Adobe After Effects course from Envato Tuts+!

Expand your After Effects knowledge

Also, if you want to master After Effects and create stunning motion graphics, you can find awesome tutorials on Envato Tuts+ that cover everything from beginner to advanced techniques.