How to best achieve this look?

[Eric Santiago]

If not animating each character may be using a tight mesh warp?
I wonder if there is a scale/anchor script?

[Jim Curtis]

I’d convert the text to masks, and then animate the Mask Paths.

Jim Curtis
jamesphilipcurtis.com

MacPro7,1 24-core – 256 GB RAM – AMD Radeon Pro Vega II 32 GB – 10.15.5