If you want to emphasize key points in your videos, the highlighter effect is a great solution. It’s perfect for educational videos, presentations, or attention-grabbing social media content. Plus, it’s super easy to create in After Effects!
Why Use a Highlighter Effect?
- Directs the viewer’s attention to the most important words.
- Gives your videos a professional and dynamic look.
- Makes informative content more engaging and memorable.
How Does It Work?
The idea is simple: draw a line above or below the text and animate it to make it more impactful. This is done using the Pen Tool, and by adding slight transparency, you can achieve the classic highlighter look.
For a more natural effect, you can change the Blending Mode to Multiply, which makes the highlight transparent so the text underneath remains visible.
The best part? Trim Paths allows you to animate the highlight gradually. Instead of appearing instantly, the underline can be animated to draw itself over time. You can also smooth the movement using Easy Ease settings for a more polished effect.
While yellow is the most common choice, alternatives like red, blue, or green can also be effective. If you're highlighting multiple words, using different colors can help distinguish different sections more clearly.
Additionally, adding a hand-drawn brush effect can give a more organic, chalkboard-like look. You can achieve this using the Stroke or Brush effects in After Effects.
You don’t have to redraw the highlight for every word. Simply duplicate the existing highlight and adjust its position to save time. By duplicating the Shape Layer (Ctrl + D) and modifying the path, you can quickly apply the same effect to multiple words.
