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ZippyLomax
ZippyLomax
Known Participant
July 31, 2019
Answered

Simple Acronym Animation – How to?

  • July 31, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 3904 views

Hello, helpful humans...

I'm generally quite adept at finding suitable answers to my many and varied 'how to' queries, yet this particular question is leading me in frustrating circles.

My intention is simple; I'm editing a fundraising video for a client whose company name is an acronym. I want the opening title animation to be a clean horizontal animation of the acronym which then 'swings' down into a vertical position, followed by the spelling out of the words each letter represents.

The initial and ending animations are easy, of course – it's the transition between horizontal and vertical that I can't seem to figure out. I can find no readily available tutorials for this, which surprises me as I'd think it would be a reasonably common text animation.

I've tried using the pen tool to draw a vertical line, selecting 'mask 1' as the path option, toggling 'perpendicular' off, but this doesn't give me a visual transition between the two orientations. I want it to appear as the same characters are shifting positions, rather than appearing, disappearing, then reappearing vertically, which is all I can seem to create now using several layers.

Can anyone help me figure this out?

Thanks, in advance.
Zippy

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Kyle Hamrick

The text animators are admittedly a little weird to learn at first, but this is totally possible with a single text layer.

Animate the layer's Rotation property from 0 to 90.

Create a text animator for Rotation. You don't need the Range Selector, and can delete it. Animate the rotation from 0 to -90, aligning those keyframes with the previous ones. We should be pretty close to what you're after.

Depending on the typeface and spacing, you may need to create another text animator for Tracking. You can again lose the Range Selector, and animate the tracking value from 0 to whatever looks right.


In this case, you'd just create additional text layers with the remaining letters of each word, manually align them with the existing letters, and reveal as desired.

If you'd rather go the parenting/nulls route, I'll let you do the research on that one, as those will be useful skills for a great many things in AE.

1 reply

Kyle Hamrick
Community Expert
Kyle HamrickCommunity Expert
Community Expert
July 31, 2019

Using the approach you've already tried, you could add a test animator for Rotation, and match that with the swing of the path.

You could also use three separate layers, plus some parenting (and probably a Null) to do this pretty easily as well. Let me know if you'd like additional direction on either of these suggestions.

ZippyLomax
ZippyLomaxAuthor
Known Participant
July 31, 2019

Thank you for offering such a prompt reply!

Here's where I admit that I'm entirely self-taught and have only just begun to dip my toes in with After Effects. Trying what you've described will take further searching for applicable tutorials, but at least it gives me a place to start, and – more importantly – search terms that might actually produce relevant results.

That said – your suggestions sound promising; if offering additional direction regarding their implementation feels within your means, I welcome your generous instruction. Of course, if that seems like too much hand-holding, I completely understand!

Kyle Hamrick
Community Expert
Kyle HamrickCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 31, 2019

The text animators are admittedly a little weird to learn at first, but this is totally possible with a single text layer.

Animate the layer's Rotation property from 0 to 90.

Create a text animator for Rotation. You don't need the Range Selector, and can delete it. Animate the rotation from 0 to -90, aligning those keyframes with the previous ones. We should be pretty close to what you're after.

Depending on the typeface and spacing, you may need to create another text animator for Tracking. You can again lose the Range Selector, and animate the tracking value from 0 to whatever looks right.


In this case, you'd just create additional text layers with the remaining letters of each word, manually align them with the existing letters, and reveal as desired.

If you'd rather go the parenting/nulls route, I'll let you do the research on that one, as those will be useful skills for a great many things in AE.

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