Creatively Using Text Animators in After Effects

In this text animators tutorial for After Effects, Kyle Hamrick will show you how to creatively use text animators to create unique animations in Adobe After Effects.

- Explanation of the Text Animator (2:17)
- Creating a Tapered Stroke (15:31)
- Creating a Path Arrow (21:00)
- Creating an Abstract Dots Pattern (22:59)
- Creating a 3d Extruded Rotating Pattern (28:13)

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Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇

Music (00:02): [intro music]

Kyle Hamrick (00:55): Let's check it out and see what we can do with this really powerful tool that you might have totally overlooked. I'm guessing that a lot of people have their first experience with the text animator by typing out some words, and then they dive into these presets over here. Uh, they look at a couple, they apply one and it's okay, but it's kind of lame and weird. And you know, maybe you just assume that it's kind of an outdated tool or something, right. Or maybe you get ambitious and start looking into the properties, but they just seem confusing and they're different than everything else. You just kind of give up there too, but you still needed to get your titles done. So you just broke them all up into individual words or letters and maybe just use the transform properties to bring them in. So, pretty soon you've got like 20 layers here for this basic title and you've got like 50 titles to do.

Kyle Hamrick (01:44): So that's a mess too. Right? So let's stop for just a second and talk about what texts on a computer actually is. It's just a bunch of vector shapes, right? These just happened to be vector shapes that we have collectively given meaning to once you stop viewing the text animator as a way, just to bring on words and understand what it's actually doing, you'll realize it's a really awesome procedural effector based animator for vector shapes. I know what the heck is he talking about? Right. Let's dive in and I'll show you as you can see, I've changed my layout a little bit. When you twirl a text layer open all the way you end up needing quite a bit of vertical space. So this is my timeline over here, just making it so I can see a lot of height. This next portion is going to be a little bit technical.

Kyle Hamrick (02:31): I'm just going to explain how all the different parts of the text animator work. I think it's important for us to understand the tool. So then we can start exploring and have some fun with it. So I'm going to start off by right clicking new text. There's a couple other ways that you can create this. I liked doing it this way because it will be centered in the composition, which is going to be good for this example. I'm just going to hit my period key several times until I've kind of filled up the width of the screen. I find this to be a very helpful way to help understand these various properties and tools are working in here because you're not focusing on this being words. You can just view it as abstract shapes for the purposes of this demonstration. I'm going to go ahead and control D duplicate this layer.

[drg]

I just sat here the whole time face palming... most informative AE tutorial I've found in years..

[DavidMFranks]

Why oh why did I not find this earlier. This should be bundled with AE and mandatory viewing for everyone that uses AE. Thanks so much for this.

[paigedall]

Been working with AE for 7 years now and never seen or knew of a lot of the things you covered in this tut. So thank you!!

[HDHunterDad]

Badass.... No one else actually teaches the TOOL... they only tutorial an effect, or end result. You actually tutorial the CAUSE, the HOW and WHY. Really spectacular.

[BladeV]

I really hope someone, somewhere is paying this man a lot of money.

[mainie_videoediting]

This is literally the best tutorial I've ever seen, it's absolutely perfect. I want to frame it and put it up on my wall.

[TimmyCrackCorn]

MIND = BLOWN. Nice job, Kyle! Amazing revelations here ... I feel like I just took the "red pill" and a whole new reality has been shown to me. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[onrimotiondesign]

I jump back to this tutorial every 6 months or so. There's so much good info in this FREE video. Thank you School of Motion!

[simoharjane]

The best video explaining the subject . Always comes back to it

[junew]

I have spent the last two months trying to understand the animate tool and no one really broke it down like this. My jaw has hit the floor and you've flooded my brain with SO many ideas. THANK YOU!

[tkpcreativespace]

I've ignored the text animator for so long EVERYTHING is delightfully new!

[lukakoprivica]

This is motion graphics poetry... And the bubbly part? Classical music... it was a joy. Thanks!

[AlexandreMS]

My mind has been drained of uncounted tears of AE and replenished with real knowledge ... thank you.

[ActiveServo]

you are doing young motion animators everywhere a great service.

[DarioKham]

Been using AE for 19 years and still learning new things everyday. Best explanation of animator I've seen so far. And some very creative uses as well. Good host and perfect edited length. (PS I watched this at 2x and still kept up along with it.) 30 mins played down to 15 mins... Kudos!

[sanikapalsikar]

I don't think anyone has explained this so beautifully! I want to cry and do a cartwheel at the same time! KYLE!! YOU MY MVP!

[mauricecalloway]

After watching this I've realized how expansive AE is! GREAT tutorial, Kyle. I'll be exploring this along with ALL the other effects. This was definitely one of the best tutorials I've seen.

[brepazil]

I have 3 years with ae, but never understand the exact way of text animator works, thank u, you are awesome

[JulsFox]

Jaw dropped. Eyes blank. Wig snatched. Edges smoothed. What an unexplored world of possibilities!! Thanks for this video!

[mielconejo]

HONESTLY, hands down the best tutorial I've encountered. Like EVER.