How to make warped text move along a path in Ae?

[despinac24538527]

Hello, I have a few words that I have warped to form a word cloud shape (basically a few words that make the shape of an animal) in Ps. I would like to animate these text layers in Ae so that they move along a path. I have tried to make the path and then wrap the text in Ae, but it comes out distorted and weird-looking.

Is there any way to do this to a text that has been warped? Sorry if this is confusing, but it's hard to explain. Thank you!

[RobShultz]

You may want to highlight the text layer and go to the top of the interface and select/Layer/Create/Covert to editable text and see if you have better results.

[despinac24538527]

My layers are rasterized, so Ae won't let me convert them into editable text.

[Rick Gerard]

If you want the entire shape to animate I would suggest Puppet Pin.

When you get the animal shape animated then pre-compose Attach a null, then animate the position of the null or draw a vector path with a shape layer or mask, copy it, then paste it to the position property of the null. Now your animated animal will follow the3 path.

A screenshot would really help us help you...

[despinac24538527]

There is a picture of my layers in Ps (they are text layers that I have converted into smart objects in order to be able to warp them).

I would like to make each individual word move along a path (not the entire picture) and all "meet" to form the shape. Is that possible?

Thanks again!

[despinac24538527]

Maybe this screenshot will help illustrate my problem.

I can see all my text layers but can't convert them into editable text in Ae.

[Rick Gerard]

Way too many effects applied to the text layer to convert it to editable text in AE.

What are you trying to do to the text? Do you want the entire shape to animate? Do you want to have the text flow in and fill the shape you have created? I'm still not sure where you are going with the design. I can think of hundreds of approaches that would make the text end up in this shape and a bunch of ways to make the shape move.

10 seconds with puppet pin gives me a different shape that can be animated:

[despinac24538527]

I would like to make each word move individually, not the picture as a whole.

[Rick Gerard]

I would animate text on a path to get the words to move by animating the offset, then apply Mesh Warp or Bezier Warp to each text layer to get the words to deform.