Easily create text animations and effects in Premiere Pro (tutorial)

Using the right post-production elements, like music, effects, color grading, and titles, can take your video project to the next level, so they’re well worth learning. Who doesn’t want to go from good to great? Some editors treat titles as just some text that appears on-screen telling the viewer the name of the film or who made it, but titles can be used for so much more. You can use animated text to open titles, credits, time and location information, lower thirds, and even display on-screen dialogue. All in a pretty package that catches the viewer’s eye and keeps them engaged.

Today, Motion Array will look at the Premiere Pro text animation styles that are open to you and how they can be used to reinforce themes and narratives in your film. So, let’s dive into how to animate text in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Part 1: How to add text animation in Premiere Pro

Animated text can bring new life and vibrancy to any project. As with all creative effects, you don’t want to over-edit your video. After all, if the viewer can’t even see your video for all the bouncing text, you’ve missed the point! However, adding an eye-catching effect like this can really elevate a project.

With Premiere Pro text effects, it’s easy. There are several ways to add titles to your project, each offering different options for controlling and changing the text. Motion Array also has some tips on placing text in Premiere Pro that might help.

Step 1: Add text using the type tool

Adding a title to your project is easy and can be done with just a few clicks.

1. In your project, select the T tool.
2. Create a text box in the viewer and type your titles.
3. In the Effects Controls panel, you can change your text’s font, size, alignment, and color.

For a deeper look into how to add and format text, check out this Premiere Pro tutorial.

Step 2: Use pre-animated templates

Before looking at all the fun things you can achieve with downloadable text transitions in Premiere Pro, let’s look at what is offered within the program itself. The Essential Graphics panel offers a range of pre-animated text templates, which you can customize in various ways.

1. In the Graphics tab, open the Essential Graphics panel.
2. Browse the title templates until you find one you like.
3. Drag and drop it to your timeline, and place it above the clip you wish it to appear on.

Once you’ve selected a template, here’s how to edit it:

1. Double-click the text on-screen to edit.
2. Select the title in your timeline, in the Essential Graphics panel. The customization options will appear.
3. You can edit the Font, Color, and Size, as well as any elements or effects included in the template graphic (such as boxes and lines around the text).

Step 3: Customize your animation settings

If the Essential Graphics template isn’t quite right, you can do several things to customize the animation from within Adobe Premiere Pro.

1. The first step is to look at the keyframing of your chosen graphic. So, select the graphic in your timeline.
2. In the Effects Control panel, open the keyframe box by grabbing the edge and sliding to the right.
3. Grab the keyframes and spread them along the timeline to slow down the animation. To speed it up, drag the keyframes closer together. Click the drop-down next to the property with the keyframes to open the Velocity controls.
4. The Velocity controls the variable speed of your animation — so you can adjust elements like how quickly your title comes to a stop.

Now you know how to make epic text transitions in Premiere Pro. If you’re not sure what title to use for your video, here are some tips for creating eye-catching titles that might inspire you.

Part 2: Use effects for cool text animations in Premiere Pro

The Essential Graphics option is a great solution for animating your titles in Premiere Pro, but what if you want more control? No problem! You can animate titles in the same way as your clips, images, and other graphics. Here are a few simple animations you can try.

1. Fade

The fade is a classic animation that is incredibly simple. You might not consider a fade an animation, but think of how your titles would look just appearing on-screen in one big, sudden pile. The fade is your best friend when you don’t want a big, flashy animated title.

1. Select your title in the sequence.
2. Find the Opacity settings in the Effects Control panel.
3. Place the playhead about a second into your title.
4. In the Effects Control panel, click the stopwatch next to Opacity.
5. Move the playhead to the start of your title.
6. Decrease the Opacity to 0%. A new keyframe will be added, indicating the start of the animation. You can adjust the speed of the animation by dragging the keyframes further apart.

2. Scale

Scale is another property you can easily play with to create fun and dramatic titles. For example, if you want the text to start small and get bigger or change shape, here’s how that digital magic is created.

1. Select your title in the sequence.
2. Find the Scale settings in the Effects Control panel.
3. Place the playhead about a second into your title.
4. In the Effects Control panel, click the stopwatch next to Scale.
5. Move the playhead to the start of your title.
6. Shrink or enlarge your title accordingly.

Bonus: You can add a bounce to your text by adding additional keyframes and adjusting the Velocity. This is a cute way to draw visual attention to what’s happening on screen. You can see it in action in the clip below. Motion graphics like this Premiere Pro text animation can be very useful in keeping your audience’s attention.

3. Position

For this final Premiere Pro text animation, you’re going to work with the Position tools. You can change the position of any layer in your project, but this will affect everything in that layer. Try separating your titles into separate layers for slightly more advanced title animation so you can animate them independently.

1. Place your playhead where you want the animation to finish, select a title layer and click the stopwatch next to the Position property in the Effects Control panel.
2. Keeping your playhead in the same position, select your second title and click the stopwatch. This will make sure both titles finish their animation at the same time.
3. Place the playhead where you want the animation to start, and change the Position of each title in turn so that they come from different sides of the screen.

That’s looking great. Let’s add some opacity effects to this animation to make it look even better:

• Place the playhead between the 2 Position keyframes, and select the Opacity stopwatch.
• Place the playhead over the first Position keyframe, and decrease the Opacity to 0%.

You can create many fantastic text animations for your projects using just these three properties. Try playing around with timing and mixing animation effects for different results. You’ll be surprised by what even a simple set of effects like this can do to spice up your project. Why not try spinning and rotating text in Premiere Pro next?

Part 3: Use After Effects with dynamic link to use titles in Premiere Pro

While you can create basic text transitions in Premiere Pro, After Effects is the industry standard for work like this. Premiere Pro text effects are limited, but with After Effects, you can do almost anything you imagine. Fortunately, Adobe has made it incredibly simple to create After Effects titles and use them directly in Premiere Pro.

1. Select File > Adobe Dynamic Link > New After Effects Composition from your Premiere Pro project.
2. Ensure the new composition settings are the same as your current project, and click OK.
3. Once After Effects has opened, create your animated titles and save them.
4. Your new title will appear in your project browser as a clip. Drag and drop it to your timeline, and render it to play. You can return to the After Effects project at any time to update the title.

Now you know how Premiere Pro text animation works. You also know how to use Adobe After Effects to make even more text transitions for Premiere Pro. Now, deciding what you’ll create with them is the only thing left. Why not check out this tutorial on RGB text trail animations in Adobe After Effects?

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There are many ways to add movement to your text and titles in Premiere Pro. Animating text elements can give your videos a more professional feel, and help tell your story in an exciting and original way. Now that you know how to use Premiere Pro for text animation, you can practice and get creative.