Work with per-character 3d text properties, Creating and animating text on a path – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual
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AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
293
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Do any of the following:
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Choose how to group the text layer’s character anchor points from the Anchor Point Grouping menu.
•
Lower the Grouping Alignment values to move each anchor point up and to the left.
•
Raise the Grouping Alignment values to move each anchor point down and to the right.
To center the anchor point in a string of capital letters, try a Grouping Alignment value of 0%, -50%. To center the
anchor point in a string of lowercase letters, or if you’re using both lowercase and uppercase letters, try 0%, -25%.
Work with per-character 3D text properties
You can move, scale, and rotate individual characters in three dimensions using 3D animator properties. These
properties become available when you enable per-character 3D properties for the layer. Position, Anchor Point, and
Scale gain a third dimension; and two additional Rotation properties (X Rotation and Y Rotation) become available.
The single Rotation property for 2D layers is renamed to Z Rotation.
Enabling per-character 3D properties causes each character in the text layer to behave like an individual 3D layer
within the text layer, which behaves like a precomposition with collapsed transformations. Per-character 3D layers
intersect with other 3D layers following the standard rules for 3D precompositions with collapsed transformations.
A text layer itself automatically becomes a 3D layer when you enable 3D properties for its characters; this occurs
implicitly whenever a per-character 3D property is added to the layer—whether by copying and pasting the Y
Rotation property from another layer or applying a 3D Text animation preset.
A per-character 3D layer is designated by a special icon
in the layer’s Switches column.
Inter-character blending and the Fill & Stroke options in the More Options property group are not available for per-
character 3D layers.
Per-character 3D layers can decrease rendering performance. When you convert a layer from per-character 3D to
2D, the animator properties and dimensions specific to per-character 3D layers are lost. Re-enabling per-character
3D will not restore values for these properties.
You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the
Adobe After Effects Exchange:
.
•
To enable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer, select the layer and choose Enable Per-character
3D from the Animation > Animate Text menu or from the layer’s Animate menu in the Timeline panel.
•
To disable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer and convert the layer to a 2D layer, click the layer’s
Per-character 3D switch
in Switches column in the Timeline panel.
•
To disable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer but keep it as a 3D layer, choose Enable Per-
character 3D to deselect it.
See also
“Example: Animate characters with per-character 3D properties” on page 295
Creating and animating text on a path
Once you create a mask on a text layer, you can make the text follow the mask as a path. You can then animate the
text along that path, or animate the path itself. You can use open or closed masks to create paths for text. After you
create the path, you can modify it at any time. When using a closed mask as a text path, make sure to set the mask
mode to None.