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mattv51698573
Inspiring
March 4, 2026
Question

reveal text from the center outwards

  • March 4, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 36 views

I have a line of text that I want to reveal from the center out. I tried making 2 shape layers as masks each moving in opposite directions to reveal the text. I want to use the scale for the mask so it hides the side of the text I don’t want to see. However, there is drift in the scale even though I have unlinked the scale parameters. It is about 5% drift that reveals the side of the mask I don’t want to see as the correct side of the text appears. How do I do this?

    1 reply

    thepixelsmith
    Community Expert
    thepixelsmithCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 5, 2026

    Why don’t you just use a single shape layer, and place it in the middle of the line?

    Set this layer as the track matte for your text and scaling it from the center 0-100% would give you what you want?

    Though if it’s an actual live text layer in AE you could just use a text animator and that would be less trouble.

    M
    mattv51698573Author
    Inspiring
    March 5, 2026

    Thanks! It was live text and I used 2 masks that moved away from the center. Using a “solid” layer and making it a mask solved the drift problem. I couldn’t find an effect that did that. The iris wipe would have worked if it would go down to 4 points, but it stops at 6. 

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