You’ve seen tracking text. It is onscreen text that seems to move with the image, almost as if it were part of the shot. Done well, it can be mesmerizing.
The reason it’s so captivating is because it is both unexpected and organic. It is certainly something that attracts the eye. You sort of can’t not look at it. Tracking text can be an excellent way to reinforce key words or phrases, or call out important concepts in your video.
If you’re interested in how it’s done, tracking text is created in post production, typically using After Effects (our go-to motion graphics application.) We use motion tracking to animate the text in unison with the camera movement. We may also use rotoscoping to set the text behind an object on screen. For example, a person walking in front of the text.
Tracking text works best when you plan for it in advance. If we know how the final shot should look, we can plan the shot accordingly. That’s why we often create storyboards when we know there will be tracking text.
Here’s a nice example of some motion tracking text we did for our friends at The Hill School:
May all your text be engaging.
P.S. Have a question about video? Let me know and I’ll try to answer it in a future post.