Easy text animation using presets

Quickly add movement to your project using preset text animations.

Published January 12, 2026

00:01

Introduction

If you're looking for a fast way to add animated text to your project, text animation presets are probably the way to go.

Hi, I'm Sarah John, a Videographer and Motion Graphic Artist, and in this tutorial, I'll show you exactly how to apply and edit text animation presets.

00:15

Finding text animation presets

To add a preset to a text layer, locate the Effects & Presets panel.

If you don't see it in your workspace, go to Window and select Effects & Presets to open it.

At the top of the panel, open the Animation Presets folder and then open the Text folder.

Within these folders are hundreds of presets available to be dragged and dropped onto your text layer.

00:38

Applying an animate in text preset

First, let's choose an Animate In effect.

Let's go with Slide Down By Character.

With the Current Time Indicator, or CTI, near the start of the composition, we'll drag the preset onto the text layer.

Now when we press the Spacebar, we can see the text animates in one letter at a time, fading in from the top of the layer.

To see the details and keyframes of the preset, you can open the Text dropdown in the Layer panel and open the specific effect.

01:08

Adding an animate out text preset

Next, let's add an Animate Out effect.

Well, first move the CTI farther down the Timeline to the point where we want the exit animation to happen.

We'll drag the preset we want onto the layer.

The keyframes are again automatically added to the Timeline, and when we preview it, we can see what it looks like.

If we want the text to remain on screen longer, we can undo what we just did with control Z on Windows or Command Z on Mac and re-add the preset after moving the CTI to the spot where we want it.

But say we've already made a bunch of tweaks to the preset before we made this decision.

Instead of redoing everything,

01:49

Editing preset timing and keyframes

we can expand the layer's properties until we can see the specific keyframes in the Timeline.

We can drag to select them all and move them around that way.

Let's play back our composition.

These quick animations look really cool, and the hardest part was choosing which one to use.

Just remember the presets are located in the Effects & Presets panel.

Move the CTI to where you want the animation to begin and then drag the preset of your choice onto your text layer.

Try it in your own projects.

What you’ll learn

Add an animation preset

Move the CTI to where you want the animation to begin. Then use the Effects & Presets panel to find an animation preset and drag it onto the text layer.

Adjust your chosen preset

Open the text layer properties in the Timeline panel and then open the properties for your chosen preset. Adjust the properties and keyframes to refine the animation.

Instruction by: Sarah John

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