Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 305

See also
"Create a composition" on page 112
"Enter point text" on page 273
"Work with selectors" on page 287
"Set keyframes" on page 189
"Preview video and audio" on page 124
Example: Animate text position with expressions
This example uses the
textIndex
Create a new composition.
1
Create a new text layer.
2
Expand the text layer in the Timeline panel to view the text properties. Add a Position animator group from the
3
Animate menu.
4 Delete the default Range selector, Range Selector 1.
Add an Expression selector by selecting the Add menu, then choosing Selector > Expression. Expand the
5
Expression selector to reveal its options.
6 Expand the Amount property to reveal the expression. The following expression appears by default:
selectorValue * textIndex/textTotal
7 Replace the default expression with the following expression:
seedRandom(textIndex);
amt=linear(time, 0, 5, 200*textIndex/textTotal, 0);
wiggle(1, amt);
The method is used in this example to ramp down the maximum wiggle amount over time.
linear
Set the vertical position value. The greater the value, the more the characters wiggle.
8
9 Preview your composition.
See also
"Create a composition" on page 112
"Enter point text" on page 273
"Work with selectors" on page 287
"Set keyframes" on page 189
"Preview video and audio" on page 124
Example: Animate text as a timecode display
❖
With no layers selected in the Timeline panel, double-click the Current Time Format animation preset in the
Effects & Presets panel. (You can locate the animation preset by typing its name in the Contains field in the Effects
& Presets panel.)
and attributes with the
textTotal
expression to animate a line of text.
wiggle
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 299
User Guide