Chapter 6. Auto-Scaling TypeIf you're a huge fan of James Bond movies, it's probably not just because of the action but also because of the opening titles. Even if you're not a fan of Bond movies, you have to admit the titles, like 'em or not, make quite an impact and are an integral part of the Bond "dynasty." This chapter may not show you how to design a title as snazzy as those you've seen in Bond movies or elsewhere, but it will demonstrate some really useful techniques for animating type and building a background from scratch. The new text tools in After Effects 6.0 made animating individual characters in a text layer a piece of cake, and version 6.5 makes it absolutely effortless by providing nearly 300 slick prebuilt text animations (see Help > Text Preset Gallery). If the text animation you want appears in the gallery, then lucky you. But eventually you'll want to create your own from scratch (or at least customize an existing text preset), so you really should get to know the text Animator and Range Selectors. |