Matt from the Mt. Mograph channel calls this one “Hipster Calligraphy” which made me chuckle a bit. What Matt is showing in this tutorial is creating frame by frame animation using the best bits of three applications. Each of these are used towards the end goal, animating typography.

In creating and animating typography, Matt jumps around from Adobe Illustrator, to Photoshop, and then After Effects. The build of the work here is done in Photoshop however, creating the loose, free, and rough look of the piece by painting on every frame.

This video is CRAMMED with helpful stuff! I had a ton of fun making this video for you so I hope you enjoy!Matt – Mt. Mograph

You would think that is a bad thing, but it really doesn’t take that long for something like this, and it provides a believably loose look to the animation. As Matt mentioned, all the drips, splotches and splashes would have been longer to create in After Effects than actually getting in there and painting frames.

Animating typography can be done a host of ways, but typically it will be automated in some sort of way. Here Matt starts out creating a template for the type in Illustrator, and then uses that to paint the frame by frame animation out in Photoshop. After Effects takes care of the final animation, importing the image sequences into Ae and then adding the time-shifted colours that will ad interest to the final animation.

More With Animating Typography

Mt. Mograph had another great look for creating a complex looking type animation using a simple process in the post Animating Type With Alpha Mattes in After Effects.

Evan Abrams had a look at animating typography weights easily in After effects with the post Animating Typeface Weights Easily in After Effects.

Mathias Möhl showed a technique for creating animated typography using Ae’s puppet tools with the post Bring Text to Life in After Effects With the Puppet Tool.

Andrew Devis demonstrated the basics for animating type along a path in Ae with the post How To Animate Text On A Path In After Effects.

and finally of note is Adam Everett Miller who offered a good resource for understanding and using the Text Animators in Ae with the post Understanding Advanced Text Animator Motion Control in After Effects.

1 comment

  1. Charles

    Hey, great video! I’m a researcher w/ Photoshop and forwarded the link to the engineer who led on Timeline. The step by step will be really interesting to him. If you have feedback or suggestions on timeline or Ps and motion in general be in touch — we’re all ears.

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