Whether you're designing kinetic typography, lower thirds, or stylish captions in Adobe After Effects, the Character Panel is your go-to hub for customizing text. This powerful panel offers total control over how your text appears — from font type to spacing, kerning, and everything in between.
🎯 What is the Character Panel in After Effects?
The Character Panel is a text styling tool in After Effects that allows you to customize every aspect of your text, including:
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Font family & weight
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Size
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Leading (line spacing)
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Kerning & tracking (letter spacing)
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Color
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Baseline shift
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Faux styles (bold/italic)
📌 Think of it as your Photoshop/Illustrator text toolbox inside After Effects.
🔓 How to Access the Character Panel
To open the Character Panel:
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Go to Window > Character
OR -
Press Ctrl + 6 (Windows) / Cmd + 6 (Mac)
It usually docks by default near the Paragraph and Align panels.
🛠️ Features Explained: Every Setting in the Character Panel
Let’s break down the key features with examples:
1️⃣ Font Family & Style
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Choose from installed fonts
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Includes weights like Regular, Bold, Light, Italic
📌 Example: Use Montserrat Bold for modern headers or Roboto Light for subtitled text.
2️⃣ Font Size
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Adjust text size in pixels.
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You can keyframe size to animate text growth.
🔧 Use this for title animations that scale in from 0 to 100 px.
3️⃣ Leading (Line Spacing)
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Controls space between lines of text.
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Especially useful for multiline subtitles or paragraphs.
🧠 Tip: Set it manually for tight cinematic looks or auto for flexibility.
4️⃣ Kerning & Tracking
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Kerning: Adjusts space between two specific characters.
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Tracking: Adjusts space across a range of selected text.
🎨 Example: Set tracking to +100 for a spaced-out title effect.
5️⃣ Text Color
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Apply solid colors, gradients, or animated fills.
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Click the color box to choose or input hex values.
🟣 Example: Animate color from white to red using keyframes for a flashing alert effect.
6️⃣ Stroke & Fill Options
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Add outlines (stroke) or change the fill behavior.
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Ideal for adding contrast or glowing text.
🧪 Combine white fill with black stroke for high-contrast readability.
7️⃣ Faux Styles
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Faux Bold, Faux Italic, All Caps, Small Caps, Superscript, Subscript.
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Quick formatting options (note: not as refined as true font styles).
⚠️ Avoid excessive faux styles — they can distort your font’s original design.
8️⃣ Baseline Shift
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Moves selected characters up/down vertically.
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Great for subscript or stylized logo animations.
🎬 Animating Text with the Character Panel
Though the Character Panel itself doesn’t animate, changes made here affect your Text Animators and Range Selectors, which are key for kinetic typography.
🔁 Combine:
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Character Panel styling
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Animate > Position / Scale / Opacity
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Keyframes and motion blur
For pro-level animation results!
✅ Best Practices
| Do’s | Don’ts |
|---|---|
| Use consistent font families | Overuse multiple fonts |
| Animate size/color with ease | Animate every character unnecessarily |
| Keep leading and tracking readable | Stack too much text in one comp |
📷 Real-World Use Cases
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YouTube Lower Thirds: Stylized text using bold fonts, tracking, and animated color.
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Event Titles: Leading adjusted for stacked words with matching font family.
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Music Visualizers: Character panel + expression animations for pulsing letters.
🧠 Final Thoughts
The Character Panel is the heart of text styling in Adobe After Effects. Mastering its settings gives you the freedom to turn static text into cinematic, polished motion graphics. Whether you’re working on a short film, explainer video, or YouTube intro, knowing how to wield this panel efficiently will make a huge difference.
📎 Summary: Key Functions of Character Panel
| Feature | Function |
|---|---|
| Font & Style | Select typeface and weight |
| Size | Change text dimensions |
| Leading | Adjust line spacing |
| Tracking | Control space between characters |
| Color | Set text fill color |
| Baseline Shift | Move characters up/down |
