After Effects tips… Creating handwritten text

Here’s a short After Effects tutorial showing how I create the handwritten text effect.

To follow this tutorial, you’ll need to download and install a handwritten-looking font. The one I use is Bradley Hand ITC, which you can find and download free of charge with a quick Google search.

Here’s the process:

1. In your After Effects project, Create a New Composition.
2. Create some text using the Text tool or Layer > New > Text.
3. Choose the Pen tool and draw a Mask Path on the text layer as if you were actually hand writing something – this may take some getting used to!
4. Make sure the Text layer is active and choose Effect > Generate > Stroke.
5. In the Effect Controls panel:
   1. Tick All Masks and Stroke Sequentially.
   2. Set the Brush Size to approximately 50, or a size that equates the real letters.
   3. Set Brush Hardness to taste – I use around 50%.
   4. Make sure the Opacity is 100%.
   5. Set Paint Style to Reveal Original Image.
   6. Turn on the stopwatch for the End value and set it to 0.0% at the point in time where you want the animation to begin.
   7. Move the CTI forwards in time (around two seconds works for me) and set the End value to 100%.

Play it back and your words should be revealed:

I hope you can make use of this technique in your projects!

Chris

Armada offers After Effects training to users at all levels. See Introduction to After Effects and Advanced After Effects.