how to create a terminal text scroll effect in after effects

Zack recreates the classic chunky text scrolling that you would typically see in films when a hacker is doing his thing in some sort of terminal application. This is a great thing to have around if you are looking to have something in After Effects to create a FUI or Fake/Fantasy User Interface.

something I notice so very often in these screens is that the animator just keyframes the y-position and calls it a day, whereas in any console I’ve seen, the text always jumps up in little steps of equal height

Zack takes special care to have the After Effects Expressions jump the line of text up in steps of equal height for a more realistic looking text scroll. Zack provides the Expression for the After Effects Position Property, and also provides an explanation, and the After Effects file for download. Check out the Chunky Text Scrolling in After Effects post here.