TV snow animating to text? Can anybody help?

[Jeff Mcbride]

Try typing the word you want, then go to Layer–> Create Outlines. This creates a new layer that uses masks to replace your text (making it unsuitable for editing later) If you type M with the layer selected it will drop down all the mask properties.

For TV static, apply Fractal Noise and set it up roughly like this:

Noise Type: Block
Transform–> Scale: 2
Complexity: 1

Then animate the evolution over time.

To get the pull together text effect you could select all your masks, set a keyframe, move backwards on the timeline and double-click them in the comp window to get a bounding box, then scale them up holding Shift+Apple (or whatever the Windows equivalent to Apple is) If you need more distortion you can continue to skew the mask shapes and plays with some distortion effects.

Hope that helps.