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Welcome to you.
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In this explainer, I’ll create a new text layer, add the movie title text to it, and display the video inside of this title text.
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This video is part of a series, but it can be viewed on its own.
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Currently, I have only one layer in my composition, the short video clip titled clip 5.
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To add text to this composition, I’m going to need a new after effects text layer.
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Right click in the timeline panel.
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New.
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Text.
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An empty text layer is created above the existing clip layer.
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As this is a text layer, the text tool is active in the toolbar and basic text properties are displayed on the right.
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I’ll click centrally in my preview and enter the text models, which is the main title of the movie.
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And, no, it’s not a sequel to the 1999 film of the same name!
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Text can be edited, moved, and resized in just the same way as in most applications.
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I can change the font, the size, and the alignment, etcetera, in the properties panel or by clicking the selection tool and working directly with the text in the preview window.
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I’d like this text to be precisely centered horizontally in the composition.
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To avoid guessing, I’ll click on the window menu and switch on the align panel.
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From here, I can easily align the currently selected layer horizontally in the composition.
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At the moment, I’m setting this text to be as I’d like it to look when it finishes zooming in and is at rest.
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Next, I want the video clip to show through my text as though the text is a window.
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This technique’s very popular in movie and TV titles.
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Here’s a recent example from the BBC’s Sherwood drama.
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To the left of the timeline are the properties for each layer.
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To start with, there’s this eye icon on the far left which toggles on and off the visibility of a single layer.
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At the very base of this panel, click the button to toggle between switches and modes.
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The fields here update to show the mode and the track matte for each layer.
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The modes are blending modes.
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In other words, how will the colors on the selected layer interact with colors on layers below it?
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You’ll recognize these options already if you’ve worked with layers before in almost any creative software.
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This track match field lets me select the video clip layer, but only display the video content based on the colors of a specific other layer, which in this case is going to be my text.
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I’ll select the model’s text layer like this, and the video now shows through the text.
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It’s as easy as that.
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Think of the white text as a window through which you want to look at the video, and it all makes sense.
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It’s time to animate the text.
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After Effects includes hundreds of built in effects and animations.
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Before learning to manually animate, let’s have some fun with the built in text animations.
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In the effects and presets panel here on the right, search for the word text then select the text folder.
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Next, select the ‘animate in’ category.
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Make sure the playhead is at the point in the timeline where I want the animation to start.
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I’ll select decode in and drag and drop the effect onto the text layer and play the composition to see how it looks.
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As you start your after effects journey, the built in effects can be all you need.
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Before continuing to the next explainer, try out some of the other built in text effects.
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You can undo your last action using the keyboard shortcut control Z.
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In the next explainer, I’m going to create a precise animated zoom for the movie title using keyframes.