Animate variable font axes in After Effects

Animate variable font axes in After Effects — without the manual keyframe work. Auto Variable Font reads your font's available axes and generates smooth animations in just a few clicks, from sine waves to audio-driven motion.

8 Animation Types

Sine Wave

Smooth, continuous oscillation. Control speed and frequency for fluid, organic motion.

Interval

Pulsing rhythmic effect at set intervals. Ideal for attention-grabbing displays.

Sequential

Each character animates one after another — a wave ripples across the text.

Sawtooth

Sharp linear ramp from min to max, then instant reset. Mechanical, energetic motion.

Sawtooth Reverse

Axis drops from max to min before resetting. A falling, collapsing rhythm.

Stepped

Discrete jumps instead of smooth transitions. Digital, quantized feel.

Audio Link

Font axes pulse directly with the amplitude of an audio track in your composition.

Audio Link Sequential

Like Audio Link, but cascades across each character in turn for a wave-like effect.

Sine Wave

Smooth, continuous oscillation. Control speed and frequency for fluid, organic motion.

Interval

Pulsing rhythmic effect at set intervals. Ideal for attention-grabbing displays.

Sequential

Each character animates one after another — a wave ripples across the text.

Sawtooth

Sharp linear ramp from min to max, then instant reset. Mechanical, energetic motion.

Sawtooth Reverse

Axis drops from max to min before resetting. A falling, collapsing rhythm.

Stepped

Discrete jumps instead of smooth transitions. Digital, quantized feel.

Audio Link

Font axes pulse directly with the amplitude of an audio track in your composition.

Audio Link Sequential

Like Audio Link, but cascades across each character in turn for a wave-like effect.

How To Use

Select a variable font text layer

Make sure your text layer uses a variable font. Click "Read Axis" to detect all available axes.

Choose axis and animation type

Select which axis to animate and pick an animation type from the dropdown. Adjust Min, Max, Speed, and Frequency.

Click Apply

Keyframes are generated automatically. For audio-based types, ensure your composition has an audio track.

FAQ

I get an error saying "No readable variable axes."

The selected font may not be a variable font. When selecting a variable font text layer, you can confirm it by looking for the Variable icon next to Weight in Properties (Window > Properties > Text). If you have both variable and non-variable font layers selected at the same time, make sure you select only the variable font layer. Another possible situation is if the font has rare unsupported axes. Please test with the Trial version before purchasing.

Some animation types are greyed out in the dropdown.

This happens in the Trial version, which has a limited number of animations. Please purchase a license or enter your activation code in the License field.

There's almost no animation after I click Apply.

If the Min and Max values are too close together, there will be very little visible movement. Set a wider gap between them for a stronger animation. Note that the usable range differs from font to font, so the values that work well depend on the font and the axis you are animating.

Audio Link animation shows an expression error.

If you delete the generated "Audio Amplitude" layer, an expression error will appear in After Effects because the text expression is linked to that layer. To resolve this, either remove the Animator from the text layer (Text layer > Animator), or regenerate the Audio Amplitude layer from the Auto Variable Font panel.

I can't select my variable font in After Effects.

Variable and non-variable fonts can normally coexist, but occasionally a non-variable version of the same font interferes with selecting the variable one. If that happens, deactivating the non-variable copy usually resolves it. Note that removing it from your Library/Fonts folder may not be enough — if you have activated the same font through Adobe Fonts, a separate copy is stored outside your system font folders. In that case, deactivate it from the Adobe app.

Italic text sometimes doesn't animate correctly.

Italic axes usually animate without problems, but in some fonts they don’t behave correctly when combined with upright axes such as Weight. If you run into this, apply the Weight or Width animation first, then set the italic axis manually in the Properties panel.

I'm still seeing an error after trying the above.

If an error persists, remove the Animator from the text layer (Text layer > Animator) and apply the animation again.