Adding Motion Blur to Text in After Effects

Motion blur is a commonly used feature of After Effects. It automatically blurs layers based on movement. But how do you add a motion blur to something that doesn't move?

The Problem

When working with text animations -- such as animating numbers, displaying time, or simulating typed text -- no actual layer movement occurs. Instead, only the source text changes. Since After Effects' native motion blur detects physical movement, it cannot blur text that remains stationary while its content changes.

The Solution

We built a text motion blur feature into Type, our comprehensive text layer toolset for After Effects. This feature analyzes character changes frame-by-frame within text layers.

Users can customize:

• Maximum horizontal and vertical blur amounts
• Falloff duration (frames the blur persists)
• Balance (weighting previous vs. future frames)
• Right alignment option (inverts character index for right-aligned text)