Animate individual text glyphs

The Transform Glyph tool lets you animate text characters independently of their text objects.

Animate text characters with the Transform Glyph tool

  1. Select the text object that contains the glyphs to modify.

  2. Click and hold the 2D tools in the toolbar, then choose the Transform Glyph tool from the pop-up menu.

    Selecting the Transform Glyph tool from the 2D tools pop-up menu

    Selecting the Transform Glyph tool activates glyph transform handles in the Canvas and adds additional controls to the Text HUD.

  3. In the Text HUD, ensure that the Attribute pop-up menu is set to Transform Glyph.

    The Transform Glyph option in the Attribute pop-up menu lets you modify and animate the position, rotation, and scale of text characters by dragging in the Canvas. You can choose other options from the Attribute pop-up menu to activate transform handles that spatially distort the Face, Outline, Glow, and Drop Shadow attributes of text characters.

  4. Move the playhead to the frame where you want the animation to begin, then click the Record button in the transport controls under the Canvas (or press A) to enable keyframe recording.

  5. In the Canvas, select and drag glyphs to their starting position in the animation sequence.

    Canvas showing starting point of animation
  6. Move the playhead to the frame where you want the animation to end, then drag the glyphs in the Canvas to their ending positions.

    Canvas showing end point of animation, and visible animation path

    An editable animation path is created for the keyframed glyphs. You can add and remove control points and change the shape of the path in the Canvas. For more information on working with animation paths, see Manipulate animation paths.

  7. Move the playhead back to the start frame and press the Space bar to play the project.

    The glyphs animate from their starting positions to their ending positions.

    Note: The other options in the Attribute pop-up menu—Face, Outline, Glow, and Drop Shadow—can be animated in the same manner as the Transform Glyph option.