Text animation question

[Matthew Daday]

You could do it manually… typing one character at a time, then making each a 3D layer and set keyframes. Are you typing whole sentences or just a word or two? It will certainly effect how much time it would take. As far as automation or expressions are concerned… I am sure it is possible but I am not so good with the expressions.
Matt

[Dave Hirschberg]

I know I could do it 1 letter at a time but I have a whole bunch of letters and numbers to reveal and that would take forever. I know there is a way to animate it using the animation selectors in the text layer, I just can’t figure it out.

D

Dave Hirschberg | Motion Graphics Designer | Creative Department
TELEMUNDO/NBC NY | 201.969.4204 | dave0@lowerthird.com | david.hirschberg@nbcuni.com

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

After Effects text animation engine was designed so that you DON”T have to separate characters to different layers and animate them one at a time. And in CS3, it’s getting the amazing ability to work in 3D as well.

If you have CS3 Public Preview you can do this easily.
Select the text layer and go to Animation > Animate Text > Enable per character 3D (or use the Add menu inside the text layer)
Now go again to Animation > Animate Text > Rotation (or, you know, use the Add menu inside…)

You will get three rotation properties inside the text animator group.
Set Y Rotation to -90