Add, edit, and animate text

Enhance your designs by adding, editing, and animating header and paragraph text in your motion graphics projects.

Published January 12, 2026

00:01

Introduction

Hi, I'm Sarah, a Videographer and Motion Graphic Artist.

Adding animated text to a video project, social media post, or a motion graphic project is a fun way to draw attention to a specific text, create a professional modern appearance, or even enhance the story you're telling.

In this tutorial, I'll show you the basics of adding and then animating text in your After Effects projects.

In your new project, create a new composition.

00:22

Creating text layers: point text vs. paragraph text

To add text, choose the Type Tool in the Toolbar.

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl T on Windows or Command T on Mac.

If you're adding a block of text, paragraph text is likely a better choice.

Let's add some paragraph text and look at the difference.

With the Text Tool active, select and drag anywhere within your composition.

This will create another text layer where we can add details.

As you can see, the text automatically wraps when we reach the end of the line.

If we change the size of the bounding box, the text size does not change, but it will wrap or expand as needed.

If we do the same with our point text, it actually gets bigger.

Hold the Shift key as you drag to keep it from distorting.

Now that we have some text to work with, we can adjust how it looks using the Properties panel.

01:10

Formatting text with the Properties panel

This is where we can edit the Font, Size, Text Alignment within the layer, and more.

For now, let's change the font size and color.

In the Font dropdown menu, let's select a new font.

We can also change whether we want it to be regular, narrow, italicized, bold in this dropdown.

Whatever properties the font itself has can be edited here.

We can change how big our point text is by selecting a size from the Font Size dropdown.

Or we can drag right to increase or left to decrease the size.

Finally, let's change the color.

Select the box next to Fill to select a different color.

Let's also adjust our paragraph text.

Now that our text looks the way we want it to, let's reposition it.

01:56

Positioning and aligning text in the composition

First, we need to make sure we're using the Selection Tool by choosing it from the Toolbar or using the shortcut V.

Now we can freely move the layer around by dragging it.

We can also get a more precise placement by enabling Snapping, which will allow to snap the layer to the center of the composition.

If you want to temporarily disable this feature, you can hold down Control on Windows or Command on Mac to fine-tune placement to your liking.

I think the text looks great up here, but let's also make sure it's perfectly centered using the horizontal center option in the Align panel.

We'll also go ahead and make some adjustments to our paragraph text.

Now, let's add a simple animation to draw attention to the heading.

We have the text in the center of the composition,

02:37

Animating text with position keyframes

which is where we want it to end up when the animation is complete.

I'll drag the Current Time Indicator, or CTI, to a spot a few frames in and create a keyframe by selecting the Stopwatch next to Position in the Properties panel.

Next, I'll move the CTI back to where I want the animation to begin, and I'll drag the layer upward off the page while holding the Shift key to keep it center aligned.

If we look in the Timeline, we can see both keyframes there.

Another way to add keyframes is directly in the Timeline itself.

Let's try it using the paragraph text.

In the Composition panel,

03:14

Adding opacity fades and previewing the final animation

open the Text layer options and then open the Transform options.

I want this text to fade in after the heading drops in.

So, let's move the CTI to about a half a second after the first animation completes and select the Stopwatch next to Opacity to create a keyframe.

Now we can move the CTI back a few frames and change the Opacity to 0.

Let's check out our animation by moving the CTI to the beginning of the composition and pressing the Spacebar to preview it.

Looking pretty awesome thanks to those animation keyframes.

Now that you've mastered adding text with a simple animation, keep learning with another After Effects tutorial.

What you’ll learn

Add different kinds of text

Use the type tool to add text to your project. Add headings using point text by clicking anywhere in your composition. Add paragraph text by dragging to create a text box.

Change the style

Customize your text by changing the font, fill color, size, or text alignment in the Properties panel.

Animate using keyframes

Add movement to your composition by adjusting transform properties and adding keyframes to mark the start and end points of your animation.

Instruction by: Sarah John

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