Creating Bouncing Text in Adobe After Effects

Benjamin Arango

Nov 18, 2020• Proven solutions

The modern age is an age of animations and visual effects. Gone are the days of static texts. You can create exquisite Bouncing texts with breathtaking animations.

Bouncing texts will help you get your message through by making your content more engaging and user friendly. In this tutorial, we will go over three methods of creating Bouncing texts with After Effects in detail. If you don’t want to spend time learning and start using Bouncing texts right away, you can use some free bouncing text presets as well.

How to Create Bouncing Text in After Effects [3 Ways]

Firstly, you need to open a new composition open. Then,

• Select the horizontal type tool
• Type your text
• Format text e.g. size, align, font, etc.

Method 1: Create Bouncing Text in After Effects using Animator

We will now learn to animate text using the animator. After you have finished formatting your text, do the following,

• Click the toggle on the left of your text then click on the animate button. A menu will pop up.

From the menu, choose the position option. The other options are for other types of animations such as rotations, skew, etc. Feel free to experiment with these options later on.

• Now let’s work with the animator 1 layer which controls the text animations. This is the first position of our text.

With this layer selected, press ctrl+D on your keyboard. This will duplicate animator 1 and create animator 2. Animator 2 will handle the second position of our text.

• Now select animator 1 again. In the position tab, there are (x,y) coordinates for the text. Type in a suitable coordinate for your project to move the text up or down.
• Now go to animator 2. In the position tab, input the negative value of your previous (x,y) coordinates because they must add to zero so that the text is centered.
• Select the range selector tab in animator 2. Then go to offset. Add a keyframe at 0s with offset value 0% and another one at 2s with 100% (you can change it up according to your project). This will allow us to animate from animator 1 to 2.
• Click the toggle for the advanced tab below the offset. Then select shape and change it to triangle (or any other preferred shape).
• Change ease high to 100% to fix the animation position (or try other values to get a suitable position).
• Create animator 3 using ctrl+D while selecting animator 2. Change the (x,y) coordinate in position to (0,70). Change both the ease high and ease low values to 50%.
• Use the mouse to select multiple keyframes at once and change the position of the keyframes until the bouncing effect looks good.

Congratulations! You just made a bouncing text in After Effects. But this is not the only way you can make Bouncing text in AE. Try the other options and make the right Bouncing text for your project.

Method 2: Create Bouncing Text in After Effects using Expressions

Expressions allow you to control pretty much every aspect of your Bouncing text. They can get complicated at times because they use scripts. But today we will go through how you can make a simple Bouncing text using Expressions. Format your text as stated above then,

• Click S on your keyboard while selecting the text layer. This will open the scale tab. Add a keyframe at 0.3s with 100% scaling. Next, add a keyframe at 0s with 300% scaling.

• While holding alt key (or command key on a MAC) on your keyboard click the stopwatch icon next to the scale tab. This opens up the Expressions option where we can type our script. Don’t worry, you won’t need to learn to write scripts. Scripts are widely available on the internet. For now, just copy and paste the one below,

amp = 5; freq = 7.0; decay = 5.0; n = 0; time_max = 4; if (numKeys > 0){ n = nearestKey(time).index; if (key(n).time > time){ n--; }} if (n == 0){ t = 0; }else{ t = time - key(n).time; } if (n > 0 && t < time_max){ v = velocityAtTime(key(n).time - thisComp.frameDuration/10); value + v*amp*Math.sin(freq*t*2*Math.PI)/Math.exp(decay*t); }else{value}

But how does this script work?

• The amp controls the magnitude of the bounce
• Freq controls the number of bounces
• Decay controls how long the bounces last.

Play around with the script until you feel confident enough to use it yourself.

• You can add additional texts. Just copy the first text layer by selecting it and pressing ctrl+D on your keyboard. Adjust the timeline to your preference. Add Expressions just like before. Remember, you can use different Expressions for each layer.

There you have it! You just learned to use Expressions. Experiment with the script. Search the internet for the script that best suits your project.

Method 3: Using Text Animation Presets: Bouncing Text Presets for After Effects [Free Downloading]

We just learned to create Bouncing text in After Effects using Animator and Expressions. But it might be too hard for you, or you may not have the time to develop Bouncing text for your project manually. In that case, you can try some templates or presets. Here, I have found a totally free bouncy text preset from motionarray.com, you can check out it here: https://motionarray.com/after-effects-presets/10-free-after-effects-text-presets-22460. They have an extensive collection of Bouncing text presets available for free.

Create Bouncing Text Animation with Filmora9

If you want to create a bouncing text effect but feeling After Effects is too hard to edit, you can try some easy to use yet powerful enough video editing software, example, Wondershare Filmora9.

Summary

We hope you had fun learning to make Bouncing text using Animator and Expressions in Adobe After Effects. These animations will improve the overall quality of your content, helping you to better connect with your audience. Remember to practice and experiment. There are infinite ways of doing these animations. It would help if you made the Bouncing text that suits your project. Get creative and change the world!

Benjamin Arango

Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Benjamin Arango