Box It!

Dynamic Text Boxes

Box It! allows After Effects users to create dynamic, self-resizing text boxes and has powerful alignment & sizing options.

The easiest and quickest way to create complex dynamic text boxes!

Perfect for lower thirds, labels, chat bubbles, multiple text boxes and more!

Templates included.

Get up and running in no time with these included templates. Use them in as many commercial projects as you like. Templates are provided as an After Effects 2020 project file (1080p/30fps).

Box It! Features

Core Features

• Add a shape layer box under the text layer, that will perfectly fit the text and will automatically update, when the text is changed.
• Choose between “Cap Height”, “x-Height” and “Full Height” – No more height differences, when animating text with different-sized letters (ascenders / descenders / accents).
• Works with paragraph text and vertical text (only with “Full Height”).
• Works in 3D.
• Expansion (Individual & All), Roundness & Skew.

Elements

• Add “Lines” (horizontal & vertical), that will perfectly fit the bounding box. The lines are shape layers, so you can make use of all the benefits of shape layers, like tapering, dashes, waves, repeater, trim paths etc.
• Add “Boundary Nulls” to add nine Null Objects to the corners, sides and center of the bounding box. You can then attach any layer to any Null Object and the layer’s position will always update with the text.

Master Settings

• When you apply “Box It!” to a text layer, effect controls get added to the text layer and a shape layer box is created with it’s own effect controls.
• If you add several boxes, you can adjust the settings for each box individually or use the effect controls on the text layer to adjust all the boxes at once.

Align To Composition

• Align your text boxes to the composition (x- and y-achsis) and add position offsets (x, y, z).
• It will update with the size of the composition.

Align To Parent Layer

• Align your text boxes to a parent layer (25 different positions).
• You can change the source text, size, scale and expansion settings of all text layers, and the alignment will automatically update.
• The alignment calculations are based on the master controls (effect controls on the text layer). The effect controls on the shape layer box are ignored. This way you have more flexibility when designing your setups.

Minimum Width/Height

• Set a minimum width and height for the box (pixel value).
• Perfect for when you want several text boxes to be the same width or if a lower third should always be a certain width or height, no matter how short the text is.

Get Min Width/Height from Layer

• Set the box width/height to be at least the width/height of a chosen layer.
• Perfect for lower thirds.

Size At Time

• The box adapts to the size of a text, but the size of a text can change over time, e.g. when you use text animators.
• You can choose when the box references the text layer to determine its size.
• Choose between: Current Time, Layer In Point, Layer Mid Point, Layer Out Point, Custom Time (for both width and height individually)
• a) uses “Current Time”. b) uses “Layer In Point”.