How to Create a Quick Professional Text Reveal in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

Knowing a few quick text animation tricks can make a plain video look a lot more professional. Whether you are introducing an interviewee, opening a scene, or displaying a location, putting a little movement on your text goes a long way. One of the cleanest and most versatile text animations is the reveal. The text slides up into view from behind an invisible line, like a curtain lifting.

Today I am going to show you how to create this effect in Premiere Pro. Once you learn it, you can pull it off in about 30 seconds.

How to Create a Text Reveal in Premiere Pro

Setting Up the Text

1. Create a new sequence with your footage on the timeline.
2. Select the Type Tool (T) and click on the Program Monitor to create your text.
3. Format the text with your font, size, and color. Position it where you want it to end up when the reveal is finished. This is the final resting position.

Creating the Mask With Crop

4. Go to the Effects panel and search for Crop (under Video Effects > Transform). Drag it onto your text/graphics layer.
5. In Effect Controls, find the Crop effect. Drag the Bottom value up until it creates a clean line just below your text. This creates an invisible boundary. Anything below this line is hidden.

Animating the Reveal

6. Now, in Effect Controls, look for the Motion controls that belong to the text element itself. Important: Use the motion controls for the text element inside the graphics layer, not the motion controls for the entire layer at the top. They are different.
7. Click the stopwatch next to Position to start keyframing.
8. Drag the text downward so it sits below the crop line and is completely hidden. This is your starting position.
9. Move forward about 10 to 15 frames in the timeline.
10. Drag the text back up to its final resting position. The text will now animate from hidden to visible, sliding up through the crop boundary.

Adding Easing

11. Select the first keyframe, right click it, and go to Temporal Interpolation > Ease Out.
12. Select the second keyframe, right click it, and go to Temporal Interpolation > Ease In.
13. This makes the animation start slow, speed up in the middle, and slow down at the end. It looks much smoother and more professional than a linear movement.

Tips

• Adjust the timing by moving the keyframes closer together or further apart. Faster reveals (8-10 frames) feel punchy. Slower reveals (20-30 frames) feel elegant.
• Duplicate for multiple lines. If you have a title and subtitle, create the reveal on each line separately with a slight offset in timing. The subtitle starting a few frames after the title creates a nice cascading effect.
• Combine with other effects. Try adding a parallax effect or a rolling text reveal for more complex animations.
• Add motion blur using the Transform effect to smooth out the movement even further.

There you have it. A quick, clean text reveal that takes your titles from amateur to professional. Once you memorize the steps, it becomes second nature.