Learn how to use an invisible circle to push letters away using Newton in After Effects.

Tools used

Author Notes

I came across this post recently   / how  

Huge thanks to John Burgess for this fantastic piece. Be sure to check out his original post here:   / b-fbt6yhwny  

 I really liked the visual idea: an invisible circle pushing letters outward in a clean, fluid motion.

I figured I'd take a shot at recreating it inside After Effects usgin Newton — and it turns out the setup is quite straightforward.

Get Newton for Adobe After Effects : https://aescripts.com/newton

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Here's what I did:

 

-Converted the text into shape layers

-Launched Newton and separated each letter into its own object

-Created a shape layer (a circle), animated its scale

-In Newton, set the circle to Kinematic

-Set all letters with convex hulls and lower the mesh precision to keep the simulation fast

-Disabled gravity, adjusted Sub-steps and Collision Tolerance

-Ran the simulation, hid the circle in the final comp, and that was it

 

It’s a simple technique that works well visually, and it's surprisingly quick to set up.

Let me know if anyone wants to dig deeper into how it’s built.

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