[Ross Ishikawa]

Thanks Dave,
I had moved all attributes, but I did indeed mess up my pre-comping and where the displacement map was applied. Instead of applying the displacement map within the displacement layer precomp, I had applied it on top of the precomp.

Thanks again for your help – works great now!

[Ross Ishikawa]

FYI, this was the tutorial with the effect I am trying to emulate:

https://tv.adobe.com/watch/digital-video/creative-cow-after-effects-tutorials-light-writing-part-1/