Create a new project, and click the Create A New Composition button. Choose Medium, 320 x 240 from the Preset menu; enter 20 for Frame Rate, and enter 0:00:07:00 for Duration. Choose Composition > Background Color, and click the color swatch to display the Adobe Color Picker. Select a color (#000000 in our example) for the background, and click OK; then click OK again in the Background Color dialog box. In the Character palette, click the fill color swatch to display the Adobe Color Picker, select a text color (#FFCC66 in our example), and click OK. You can set any other text properties you want in the Character and Paragraph palettes. (The text properties in our example include the following: Font is Myriad Pro Bold; size is 60; tracking is -50; and alignment is Centered.) Select the horizontal type tool in the Tools palette, and drag in the composition window to create a bounding box that’s approximately the same size as the composition window; then enter some text.

By dragging with the type tool, you’ve created a bounding box for entering paragraph text. If you subsequently change your mind and want the layer to be point text, just select the text layer in the Timeline window, then right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) with the type tool in the Composition window, and choose Convert To Point Text command to convert the layer; you can also use this method to convert horizontal text to vertical or vice-versa.

In the Effects & Presets palette, expand the categories *Animation Presets, Text, and Animate In. Select your text layer with the selection tool, and then double-click Spin In By Character to apply the preset to your layer. Choose Animation > Reveal Modified Properties to expand, in the Timeline window, every property that was just modified by the preset. Press Enter on your keyboard to rename Animator 1 in the Timeline window, and type a new name (we typed Zooming In). Press the space bar on your keyboard to preview the animation you just created.

The Animation Presets category in the Effects & Presets palette contains nearly three hundred prebuilt text animations. To preview all of the animation presets, choose Help > Text Preset Gallery, or visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects/indepth.html to view the gallery.

Drag the current-time indicator to 04:00f, and then select the text layer with the selection tool. In the Effects & Presets palette, expand the categories *Animation Presets, Text, and Animate Out, and double-click Twirl Off Each Word. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (Mac OS) to rename the animator in the Timeline window. Type a new name (we typed Twirl Off), and press Enter again to accept the name change. Press Home on your keyboard to return the time to the start of the animation. To perform a RAM preview, click the Ram Preview button in the Time Controls palette, or press zero on your numeric keypad.