Path Text Effect; Animating Text With Text Effects - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
534
User Guide

Path Text effect

The Path Text effect lets you animate text along a path. You can define a path as a straight line, a circle of any
diameter, or a Bezier curve. You can also import a path created in another application, such as Adobe Photoshop or
Adobe Illustrator. The Path Text effect works with nonsquare pixels, adjusting both character shape and path shape
accordingly.
This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Original (left), after Path Text effect is applied (center), and with Shape Type set to Bezier and Baseline Jitter and Scale Jitter values increased
(right)
You can animate text on an existing layer or, for additional control over placement of text, create a solid and animate
the text on it. The layer on which you animate text is transparent, unless you specify compositing. To modify and
animate text, type the text using a specified font, define the path, and then create keyframes for the text properties
you want to change over time. To move text along a path, create keyframes for the left margin or right margin. To
change the text after closing the Path Text dialog box, click Edit Text in the Effect Controls panel.
Note: If you are using Adobe Type Manager (ATM) and large text looks blocky or does not otherwise render properly,
increase the Character Cache Size in the ATM control column.

Animating text with Text effects

When changing the shape of a Bezier path over time, make sure to create initial keyframes for all four path control
points; moving a control point without an initial keyframe does not move it over time. You may find it easier to
animate a path by modifying the motion paths of individual control points in the Layer panel.
Note: Handles appear in the Composition panel only if the effect is selected in the Effect Controls panel and if you are
not animating text along a mask or path.
If you want to move a Bezier path across the composition but you don't want to change its shape, animate the layer
rather than the path. If you want to stretch, shrink, or wag one side of the Bezier path while keeping the other half
in the same position, move a tangent-vertex pair together. To do this, create keyframes for both by dragging the outer
circle of the appropriate vertex.
Note: When animating the control points of a Bezier path, don't confuse the Bezier path shape with the Bezier spatial
interpolation of the keyframes. Like keyframes for other position controls, those for the vertex or tangent of a Bezier path
can be set to either linear or Bezier. The default spatial interpolation is specified in General Preferences. Spatial interpo-
lation can be selected for individual keyframes by choosing Animation > Keyframe Interpolation.
You can apply motion blur to motion that you create with the Path Text effect. Blurring occurs on each character.
Like motion blur for layers, blurring for characters is more visible when movement is quick. For example, blurring
is quite pronounced when you choose negative jitter values, which produce jumpy motion.