How to make flashing/changing text

[Lisa Di Paola]

I'm looking to make a version of this rapidly changing text - Neil Patrick Harris on Instagram: “Take a screenshot. If you get the gold card, post it and tag @ina... 

I'm not even sure if After Effects is the program I should be using.  Is there a name for this?  I can look for a tutorial to walk me through it, but I'm not sure where to start.  I'd like it to be around 1 minute long, and I need it to play on an iPad or possibly an android phone.  I don't know if I should be making a video or a gif, or something else?  I need the images to be very crisp, like in the link, so that a screenshot will capture a clear word.

I'm most comfortable with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, I've never done any video work.

Thanks for any help in pointing me in the right direction!

[RobShultz · Accepted solution]

Probably easiest done with source text. Create a composition. Select the timeline then double click on the type tool to create a text layer then type in the first word. Twirl open the text layer in the timeline and set a stopwatch on source text. (A) Move the timeline indicator to where you’d like the next word to appear and use the type tool to replace what is typed word with the next word. Keep repeating step A until all of your text is entered.

[Lisa Di Paola]

That's much easier than I expected. Thanks!!

[Lisa Di Paola]

I have a (hopefully) quick question for you.  I've followed your steps above and the project looks fine so far.  I'd like the gif to be 1-2 minutes long, but using up all of the text that I'd like to cycle through has only gotten me to about 20 seconds. Is there an easy way to copy and paste those timeline text changes, so that I can duplicate those 20 seconds several times?  I've tried googling but I can't find anything that deals with this specifically.

Thanks again for any help you're able to give!

[RobShultz]

Maybe try clicking on the words source text by the stopwatch to make the keyframes blue. Then edit/copy. Move the timeline indicator to where you would like it to start again and do an edit paste. Repeat if desired.