Per-character 3D text properties

You can move, scale, and rotate individual characters in three dimensions using 3D animator properties. These properties become available when you enable per-character 3D properties for the layer. Position, Anchor Point, and Scale gain a third dimension; and two additional Rotation properties (X Rotation and Y Rotation) become available. The single Rotation property for 2D layers is renamed to Z Rotation.

Enabling per-character 3D properties causes each character in the text layer to behave like an individual 3D layer within the text layer, which behaves like a precomposition with collapsed transformations. Per-character 3D layers intersect with other 3D layers following the standard rules for 3D precompositions with collapsed transformations. (See How render order and collapsed transformations affect 3D layers.)

A text layer itself automatically becomes a 3D layer when you enable 3D properties for its characters. Therefore, a text layer becomes a 3D layer when a per-character 3D property is added to the layer—whether by copying and pasting the Y Rotation property from another layer or applying a 3D Text animation preset.

A per-character 3D layer is designated by a special icon in the Switches column.

Inter-character blending and the Fill & Stroke options in the More Options property group are not available for per-character 3D layers.

Per-character 3D layers can decrease rendering performance. When you convert a layer from per-character 3D to 2D, the animator properties and dimensions specific to per-character 3D layers are lost. Re-enabling per-character 3D will not restore values for these properties.

You can download additional animation presets that take advantage of per-character 3D text animation from the Adobe After Effects Exchange: www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_cs3additionalanimationpresets.

To enable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer, select the layer and choose Enable Per-character 3D from the Animation > Animate Text menu or from the Animate menu for the layer in the Timeline panel.
To disable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer and convert the layer to a 2D layer, click the Per-character 3D switch for the layer in Switches column in the Timeline panel.
To disable per-character 3D animator properties for a text layer but keep it as a 3D layer, choose Enable Per-character 3D to deselect it.

Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the Creative COW website that demonstrates how to use per-character 3D text animation to animate text along a path in the shape of a 3D tornado.