Introduction

In this lesson, I created a motion graphics animation in After Effects using typography and keyframes.

Motion Graphics

Motion graphics are animations that are applied to text, images or any visual graphics. They are used in title sequences, advertisements and idents on TV. Motion graphics is a clear example of pose-to-pose animation, where computer software is used to interpolate between keyframes.

Typography

Typography is the use of fonts, colours and shapes in text to create a visual style for the text. It is a form of graphic design.

Creating My Own Typography Motion Graphic

To make a typography motion graphic, I started by creating a new composition in Adobe After Effects. I then wrote some text that I was going to animate. Next, I created a rectangle behind the text as a guide for animating so that the text kept the same footprint on the screen but still moved within that.

I then went to the layer menu and selected “create shapes from text” on my text layer. This turned each letter into a shape. You can see this below.

I then distorted my text within the bounds of the red rectangle.

I was then able to select the nodes of the shapes to distort them over time using keyframes to create a motion graphic. This is the rendered video.

Conclusion

Over all, I learned some useful skills in After Effects this lesson. One skill that will definitely help me with my own After Effects work is the “create shapes from text” function.