Text Modifiers

Text Modifiers let you animate or transform individual characters, words, lines, or glyphs within a text object.

By combining ranges, falloff, and animated offsets, you can create effects such as text reveals, wave animations, bouncing characters, and per-letter motion.

Modifier Group

A Text Modifier Group combines a Range and a set of Properties.

• Properties determine what changes, such as position, rotation, scale, opacity, or follow path.
• The Range determines which characters, words, or lines are affected.

A single modifier group can affect multiple properties that share the same range.

Multiple modifier groups can be combined to create layered effects. For example, one modifier group might animate character scale while another animates position.

Adding a Modifier Group

Select a text object, then click the + button in the Text Modifier panel.

Properties

Properties determine how the text is modified.

Each modifier group can modify one or more of the following properties:

• Position - Move text along the X and Y axes.
• Rotation - Rotate text around its origin.
• Scale - Change the size of the text.
• Origin - Adjust the pivot point used for rotation and scale.
• Opacity - Change the transparency of the text.
• Follow Path - Align text to a path and control how glyphs follow its direction.
• Variables - Adjust variable font axes such as weight or width. Requires a variable font that supports the selected axis.

Multiple properties can be combined within a single modifier group to create more complex effects.

Adding a Property

Select a text object, then click the + button in the Modifier Group. Each property has its own settings, which can be adjusted and animated.

Opacity

The Opacity value controls the opacity of text within the modifier group’s range.

The Invert option controls the opacity of text outside the range:

• Disabled: Text outside the range is fully transparent (0% opacity).
• Enabled: Text outside the range is fully visible (100% opacity).

Follow Path

To make non-text objects follow a path, use the Follow Path Constraint instead.

The Follow Path modifier allows text to follow the shape of a vector path. This can be used to create curved text, circular text layouts, or animated text that moves along a path.

• Follow - The path to follow.
• Trim Start and End - Defines where text begins and stops following the path. Text outside the trimmed section continues from the nearest trim point in the direction the path is facing.
• Offset - Where along the path to start.
• Strength - Controls how strongly the text follows the path. At 0%, text stays in its original position. At 100%, text follows the path completely. Animate Strength to transition text onto or off of a path.
• Auto Orient Glyphs - Make the rotation of the glyph follow the path.
• Auto Orient Lines - Rotates each line to follow the direction of the path.

Range

The range can be defined as a percentage of the text length or as an index value.

Ranges can be applied by character, word, or line. Open the Range Options fly-out to configure the range behavior.

You can see a visual representation of the range via a shaded area on the stage. You can configure the stage visual options in the visibility menu on the toolbar.

Multiple ranges can be added to a single modifier group to create complex effects.

Run

Determines whether the modifier is applied to the entire text object or only to a specific text run.

When a text object contains multiple text runs, modifiers can be limited to a single run instead of affecting all text.

Falloff

Use the falloff values to add interpolation to the applied modifier properties. For example, a modifier group that scales glyphs to 200% with a range from 0% to 100% and a falloff of 25% to 75% will gradually scale glyphs up from 100% to 200% over the first quarter of the text, and back down again over the last quarter of the text.

The falloff can be visualized via the darker shading on the stage guide.

Offset

Use Offset to move the range along the text. Try animating the offset value to create wipe effects along a text value. For example, a scale modifier can animate the offset to make individual glyphs scale up and back down again.

Range Options

Additional range options can be found in the fly-out alongside the range name for more fine-grained control over the range selection behavior.

Increment

Define whether modifier properties get applied by:

• Characters (with or without spaces)
• Words
• Lines

The increment value will affect an index-based Range Type.

Mode

Defines how modifier values are combined when multiple ranges overlap.

For example, if two overlapping ranges each apply a scale of 200%, an Add mode would combine them to produce a scale of 400%.

Turn on Modifier Range Values in the visibility menu to get a numerical indication of how much a Text Modifier is affecting glyphs.

Strength

Adjust the overall influence of the modifier within the range. A value of 0% disables the modifier, while 100% applies its full effect.

Range Type

Set the range type to configure range start, end, and offset values as a percentage of the text length, or by indices. You may also want to consider which increment value to use alongside the Range Type. For example, an index value of 1 incremented by characters will target the second character, whereas an index value of 1 incremented by words will target the start of the second word.

Falloff Interpolation

Modify the falloff interpolation to define a custom cubic curve. The falloff defaults to linear interpolation.

View Options

Toggle visual guides on the stage via the visibility menu in the toolbar:

• Text Modifier Range: Toggle the display of a shaded area on the stage to highlight the range position on a selected text object.
• Text Modifier Range Values: Toggle the display of per-glyph values on modifier ranges to indicate the applied strength of a given modifier.

Use case: Animating a text pendulum

This simple example will get you used to animating with Text Modifiers.