In addition to Adobe Flash, what other tools people usually use to make text animations.
By text animation I mean, like animations that has a narration and word or letters from the narration dance on the screen, change in size and color, bump to each other, fall down or fly away.
I am looking for something that professionals would use, some like what is used to produce this video:
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2After Effects, standard.– datageistJan 29, 2012 at 12:23
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1I'm a coder AND video maker (20 years of each), but I still don't know what software to use. Your PowerPoint idea sounds good! There are of course animation programs you can buy. I used Anime Studio (Mac) for a few weeks but got frustrated - probably because my first project was too complicated for a newbie. Hopefully someone else will have a helpful answer for you.– BrettFromLAMay 1, 2014 at 18:53
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So what do you use generally to make videos?– user5881May 1, 2014 at 19:03
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I had the same problem at first- biting off more than I could chew. Keep your first few projects short-- like 5-10 seconds.– Justin BrunsonMay 1, 2014 at 19:36
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@user5881 I shoot with a Sony Handycam HD, edit with iMovie, and compose music with Garage Band. I have a film degree so I know the ART of editing, so a simple tool like iMovie is good enough. (I sometimes have to think of creative ways to get iMovie to do what I want, when it comes to special effects, but I always achieve my vision.) My YouTube channel is listed in my stack exchange account if you want to check it out.– BrettFromLAMay 1, 2014 at 21:57
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7 Answers
All of the pro video editors have a means of animating titles to some degree, some are better than others. I am only experienced with Sony Vegas Pro 10, but I have seen my colleagues use Adobe Premiere with Adobe After Effects to create some mind blowing 'dancing' titles. Vegas has plugins available to boost their basic package but the basic package can do most if not all the effects you have in your example while Adobe's Premiere and After Effects might be able to take this to another level as in more 3d attributes.
I recommend a pro video editor over power point as you have tons of flexibility (avi, mov, mp4, m2t, etc) vs. only a ppt file. However, there are many products available to convert ppt files into video such as this free version I just found:
http://www.effectmatrix.com/PowerPoint-Video-Converter/Free-PowerPoint-Video-Converter.htm
Caution: I have never tried this product so I am uncertain on quality.
I should mention that animating titles is not the only thing going on in your example, there is some degree of track motion control and pan/crop as well not to mention compositing.
If you are seriously looking for a pro product, I would seek advice from professionals that already use these products in conjunction with trying out the trail versions if available. I do know that Sony Vegas Pro 11 is available for free download for a 30 day trail. Most of these products will cost between $500 and $2500 and the learning curve can be heavy.
Sony Vegas trial version: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro?keycode=64506
This is a serious product that costs you both time and money.
I would recommend posting on the appropriate forum on creative cow to seek more inside advice.
Hope this helps
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Thanks, what about Final Cut Pro X? It has some title animation features. But making complext things in it takes a lot of time and is kinda hacky (if you want to do complicated animations). Basically it is not a pro "text animation" tool, are all video editors like that? Is Sont Vegas like that?– AliJan 25, 2012 at 23:22
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1I don't have any experience with FCPX or on any FCP version so far but I can tell you that in Vegas Pro it would take me hours to reproduce what is in your example. Pro video editors are precise tools that require time to learn and master, the more practice the faster you can get what you want. I can easily spend 40 hours to edit a 2 minute piece depending how much I am pushing the learning curve.– filzillaJan 26, 2012 at 1:14
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I arrived at this question because I was hoping to learn how to mimic this Tony Robbins video where text slides in with cool effects and the frame centering is frequently changing/sliding too: cf.c.ooyala.com/B2bHAweTrCYvvw4T3SRS6_9XzuuSa9ql/… (businessinsider.com/…) I assume from the answers of this question that After Effects would be the recommended software to make a video like Tony's? Any ideas for terms that I could search on Google to learn how to do this? Thanks!– RyanAug 19, 2016 at 17:16
Adobe After Effects is probably the most common application for creating motion graphics. There are plenty of books and tutorials out there to get your started.
I would personally use After Effects, but that's because it's what I have/know. If you don't want to take the purple pill (it's a questionable life decision, let's face it) there's heaps of other software you could use, but three free ones are:
Blender a FOSS 3D animation package that also does 2D and even traditional hand drawn animation, as well as editing video and bringing you cups of tea.
Natron another FOSS alternative, still in its early days as a stable package, probably the closest FOSS software to After Effects, although being node based, it's really more like…
Fusion a professional level node based compositor, similar to After Effects, but completely different. There is a free version of this which is well worth having, as well as a commercial one.
Powerpoint is often used for this sort of simple animation in corporate environments.
MovieMaker can do this sort of thing on home movies.
answered Jan 25, 2012 at 9:39
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Thanks, I was hoping for more pro tools, although I have used powerpoint and keynote and sometimes flash (old days when it was Macromedia Flash!).– AliJan 25, 2012 at 13:28
Your example looks like it was made in Aftereffects.
Apple Motion could do it as well, much more cheaply, and it may be relatively easy to learn if Final Cut X is any indication.
Photoshop also has rudimentary animation controls, but the lack of easing makes it nearly unusable for this type of project.
Flash has many of the features that you need, and would certainly be better than Powerpoint, but the learning curve can be steep.
My two cents on this oldie question.
Watching the animation (not necessarily for text only) we can notice that it is playing with the 3 basic elements for motion graphics, translation, scale, and rotation.
Although some parts could be achieved by scaling and translations, a camera movement outside the plane would make life easier.
I would categorize the programs that can achieve these effects in:
Animation software
Already mentioned, a great option and free is Blender. It is a 3D program for animations, but a 2D animation can be easily done just preparing flat elements with the correct material.
You could also use more expensive ones like C4D, or the ones from Autodesk.
There are several programs that are used for dedicated 2D character animations, and any of them can be used for this.
There are programs made for web animations, but normally for small clips.
Compositing
Normally the effects shown in the video are done on either an animation program or a composting one.
Another free program but quite interesting is HitFilm Express, that has both, a video editing and a composting module.
Video Editing
Video software is evolving, and some have some built-in options to translate, scale and rotate elements. Lately, I am playing a bit with these options on Davinci Resolve. But I would leave this to the previous ones. A nice point tho is that Fusion, already mentioned too, is integrated inside Davinci Resolve.
Apple Motion that comes with FinalCutPro is very versatile and if you like Apples approach to video editing you'd like it.
I am learning it at the moment, I'll update as I make progress.
EDIT: I ended up liking After Effects more because of its versatility, and community support, availability of educational resources, and all the paid or free tools around it. And usually you will end up having it for no additional cost if you use any other Adobe products.