Fine-tune an applied Sequence Text behavior

You can further customize an applied Sequence Text behavior, by softening transitions between characters and words or removing parameters. You can also adjust the appearance of the text independently of the Sequence Text behavior.

Remove a parameter from the Sequence Text behavior

  • Select an applied Sequence Text behavior in the Layers list or Timeline, then, in the Parameter row of the Behaviors Inspector, click the Remove pop-up menu and choose a parameter.

    The chosen parameter is removed from the behavior.

Create a softer transition between each text character

If the transition between two characters in a sequence animation is too abrupt, control the amount of falloff by adjusting the Spread value.

  • After assigning parameters to a Sequence Text behavior, drag the Spread slider (in the Behaviors Inspector) to the right to soften the changes between the text characters.

    Comparison: Sequence Text behavior with Spread value set to 0, and then set to 11

Modify a parameter without adding it to the animated sequence

If you want to modify the face, outline, glow, or drop shadow of text, but don’t want that modification to be animated, make the adjustment in the Appearance pane of the Text Inspector. Parameters modified in the Appearance pane do not affect an applied Sequence Text behavior. For example, by adding an outline to text via the Appearance pane, the text outline remains constant during the sequence animation.

  1. Select a text object has an applied Sequence Text behavior, then open the Appearance pane in the Text Inspector.

  2. Select the Outline activation checkbox.

    When selected the activation box is highlighted blue. Additionally, the Outline controls become available, and an outline is added to the selected text in the Canvas.

  3. In the Appearance pane, adjust the Outline controls.

    When you play back the project, the text is animated according to settings in the Sequence Text behavior, but the text outline remains constant, and does not sequence.

Note: Because parameters set in the Sequence Text behavior are independent of parameters set in the Appearance pane, you may see changes in the appearance of some attributes when you select parameter checkboxes in the Appearance pane. For example, if you create a sequence that animates text glow and then select the Glow checkbox in the Appearance pane of the Text Inspector, the effect is additive. The glow in the Appearance pane is added to the glow created in the Sequence Text behavior.