Open Paraplex

Quickstart: your first animation

Beginnerabout 5 minutes

In five minutes you'll take a ready-made template, put your own words in it, change a color, and export a video you can post anywhere.

The finished animation: the words NEW, DROP and FRIDAY stomp onto a black screen, then EVERY FRAME COUNTS

You'll learn how to

  • Start from a template
  • Play your animation
  • Change text right on the canvas
  • Change a color
  • Name your project
  • Export an MP4 video

Before you start: Nothing to prepare. Everything you need is already in Paraplex.

Step 1: Pick a template

A template is a finished animation that you edit instead of starting from a blank page.

  1. Open Paraplex. The home page appears.
  2. Scroll down to Titles & text.
  3. Hover Kinetic stomp and click Use template.
The Kinetic stomp template card on the home page, with Use template highlighted

The template opens in the editor. You'll see its words on the canvas in the middle, its layers on the left, and the timeline along the bottom.

Step 2: Play it

Press Space, or click the play button at the left end of the timeline (1). Press Space again to pause.

The editor with Kinetic stomp open and the timeline's play button highlighted

Here's what it does: three words stomp in, then three more, in time with a drum beat.

Kinetic stomp playing: MAKE IT MOVE, then EVERY FRAME COUNTS

Step 3: Put in your own words

You change text right where you see it, on the canvas.

  1. Pause the animation where you can see MAKE IT MOVE. If the canvas is empty, drag the playhead (the white marker on the timeline's ruler) to about 2 seconds.
  2. Double-click MAKE on the canvas. The word is selected, ready for typing.
  3. Type your own word.
  4. Press Esc to finish.
  5. Do the same for IT and MOVE.
Double-clicking the word MAKE and typing NEW in its place

The second set of words, EVERY FRAME COUNTS, appears after the 4-second mark. Drag the playhead past 4 seconds to change those too.

Important

Double-clicking does nothing while the animation is playing. Pause first.

Step 4: Change a color

  1. Click a word on the canvas to select it. A Text settings panel appears below the frame.
  2. Next to Color, click the swatch and pick a color. Or type a hex code such as #ffd23f into the box beside it and press Enter.
Text settings with the color swatch and hex code highlighted; the word FRIDAY is now yellow

Tip

Text settings is also where you change the font, size, alignment and letter spacing.

Step 5: Name your project

  1. Click Untitled in the top bar.
  2. Type a name, such as My first animation.
  3. Press Enter.
The project name field in the top bar, now reading My first animation

Your scene became a project with your first change; now it has your name. You can open it again later from Recent on the home page. See Saving your work for how saving works.

Step 6: Export your video

  1. Click Export Video at the bottom of the properties panel on the right.
  2. Wait while Paraplex renders the video. The button dims and a progress bar fills above it.
  3. When it's done, your browser downloads an MP4 file, named something like paraplex-1920x1080.mp4.
The Export Video button at the bottom of the properties panel, highlighted

The video includes the template's drum beat, so it's ready to post.

Note

Exporting draws every frame at full quality, one at a time. It takes longer than playing the animation, and longer still for long or detailed scenes.

Try this next

You've made and exported your first animation. Here's where to go from here: