Text animation plugin for After Effects
Flexile’s Text page animates a text layer by character, word or line. Switch on any of 15 effects, pick In, Out or Keyframes, and Apply.
Flexile builds native After Effects text animators that stay editable. Or start from 39 free text presets.
Free during beta. No card. Needs After Effects 2025 or newer.
Updated Oct 2026 · Flexile 0.19
Why text animation takes so long in After Effects
The old way
New users split a word into one layer per letter to time each one.
Adobe CommunityWith Flexile
Base On picks characters, words or lines, and Offset sets the delay. It all stays on one layer.
The old way
Text that springs into place takes a tutorial and a set of hand-made keyframes.
YouTube tutorialWith Flexile
Turn on Enable Overshoot. Each letter springs past its place and settles.
How does the Flexile text engine work?
Select a text layer, open the Text page, pick a mode and switch effects on. Flexile adds a native After Effects text animator with an Expression selector, and each effect you switch on becomes a property of that animator with its own control on the layer. Expressions tie the selector and every property to those controls.
You end up with plain After Effects: animators in the timeline and controls in Effect Controls. Each effect you apply is one undo step.
In, Out and Keyframes modes
- In animates each character, word or line into place from the layer’s start. With overshoot off it eases on an ease-out quint curve and starts exactly at the layer’s in point.
- Out animates them away at the layer’s end. With overshoot off it eases on an ease-in quint curve.
- Keyframes replays motion you keyframe yourself. You animate one Power slider, and Flexile plays it on each unit in turn, shifted by the Offset.
In and Out add five controls: Time, Offset, Enable Overshoot, Overshoot and Frequency. Offset is the delay in frames between units. With overshoot on, a damped spring curve replaces the quint curve. Each unit springs past its final value and settles, shaped by Overshoot and Frequency. Keyframes mode has two controls, Power and Offset.
For bigger moves, Keyframes mode lets a text layer hold several groups, each with its own effects.
Which text effects can you animate?
Fifteen, each mapped to a native After Effects text animator property. A group can mix any of them:
- Transform: Position, Anchor Point, Scale, Rotation, Skew, Opacity
- Look: Blur, Fill Color, Stroke Color, Stroke Width
- Spacing: Tracking, Line Spacing, Line Anchor
- Characters: Character Offset, Character Value
Each effect starts from a default you can change in Effect Controls: Opacity 0, Position 200 px down, Rotation -45°, Scale 0, Blur 15, Skew 30, Character Offset and Character Value 15.
Letter Flow, Base On and Anchor Point
The settings menu holds the stagger and grouping options:
- Base On picks the unit that gets its own timing: Characters, Characters Excluding Spaces, Words or Lines.
- Letter Flow sets the stagger direction: Left, Right, Center, Edges or Double Wave.
- Anchor Point sets the layer’s anchor point grouping: Character, Word, Line or All.
The menu also has Remove Effects and Enable 3D. Copy to clipboard saves the layer’s setup as JSON, and Paste from clipboard rebuilds it on each text layer you select.
For the native method, our guide to word-by-word text animation builds the same kind of reveal with After Effects’ own Range Selector.
Can an AI app animate text with Flexile?
Yes. Flexile has included an MCP server since 0.17.0, and the Text page is one of the panels it covers. An AI app such as Claude or Cursor can drive the same engine (modes, Base On, Letter Flow) or build a Range Selector reveal by characters, words or lines from a request like “reveal word by word”, “type on” or “premium title”. It can create the text layer too.
Every Flexile call is one undo step, and the panel shows the step the AI is on. You need Flexile 0.17.0 or newer, the panel open and signed in, and Allow AI assistants on. The AI guide shows how to set up Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, and the page on the MCP server built into Flexile covers the rest.
How does Flexile compare with other text animation plugins?
Flexile is our product. Competitor details come from each vendor’s official page, checked in September 2026.
Most text plugins are preset libraries: you browse finished looks and apply one. Flexile is an engine: you combine effects and settings into your own move.
Tool | How it works | Price | After Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
Text animators with a Range Selector by characters, words or lines, plus presets such as Typewriter | Built in | — | |
Flexile | 15 effects in In, Out and Keyframes modes, written as native animators you can edit. One layer at a time. | Free during beta | 2025 or newer |
1,414 presets for the Animation Composer plug-in | — | 2025 or newer | |
64 kinetic typography elements with In and Out animations | Free | 2021 and above | |
50+ presets by characters, words or lines, with a box that resizes to the text | $49 | 2019 and newer | |
Characters, words or lines without keyframes, with Overshoot, In and Out, and marker sync. Edits several layers at once. | $23.99, free trial | CC 2015 to 2026 |
Pick a preset pack for a finished look in one click. Pick Flexile to build the move from effects, free during beta. Pick TextFlex to edit several layers at once.
The Text page is one part of Flexile for After Effects, next to easing, transitions, quick tools and the Audio page.
What you need
Adobe After Effects 2025 or newer
macOS or Windows
A free Flexile account: start for free
The extension, installed with the installation guide. After your first sign-in the panel adds its Flexile Events plugin, which tells it which layer you selected. On Windows this asks once for administrator approval. After Effects then needs a full restart.
One selected text layer, since the Text page works on one at a time.
Which After Effects versions does Flexile support?
Flexile supports After Effects 2025 or newer, on macOS and Windows.
Do the animations stay editable?
Yes. Flexile builds a native After Effects text animator, and each effect reads its value from a control in Effect Controls. Change the control and the animation follows. Each effect you apply is also one undo step.
Can I animate several text layers at once?
You build and edit the animation on one selected text layer at a time. To reuse it, choose Copy to clipboard in the settings menu, select the other text layers and choose Paste from clipboard. Flexile rebuilds the setup on each of them.
Is Flexile free?
Yes, for everybody with an account during the beta: every feature, no card, no trial. The free period has no commercial restriction. Paid plans will be announced in advance on the pricing page and by email.
Can I start from a preset?
Yes. Copy one of the 39 free text presets on flexile.io and paste it into the Text page. It stays editable like any Flexile text animation.
Still have questions?
Write to us at contact@flexile.io.
39 free text presets
Text Animator builds rendered in After Effects, from a one-line fade to stacked keyframe groups. Copy one and paste it onto any text layer.
More in Flexile
The same panel also does this, free during beta.
- Easing
Back, Elastic and Bounce curves, speed editing and stagger.
- Shape morph
Morph shape layers into each other in one Apply, without the twisting.
- Transitions
Preview a transition, double-click to insert it and retime it to the cut.
- Scripts and expressions
Save scripts and expressions as one-click tools, or let your AI write them.
- Beat sync
Turn the kick, the bass or any frequency band into keyframes.
- Auto subtitles
Turn speech or lyrics into subtitle layers with a model on your computer.
- AI for After Effects
Ask Claude, ChatGPT or Codex to animate your comp with real keyframes.
- MCP server for AI apps
Let Claude, ChatGPT desktop or Cursor work in your After Effects project.
Free for everybody during beta
Every feature unlocked while Flexile is in beta. No card, no trial.
After Effects 2025 or newer, macOS and Windows