Subtitle text animations, side by side
An entrance animation decides how each caption arrives: it can scale up, rise, slide, fade or pop. Seen one at a time they all look fine; seen together at the same speed, the differences in how much they move become obvious. Change the duration and replay them below.
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Five entrances at one duration
Each caption uses the same text, outline and footage, so the only difference is how it arrives. The slider covers the editor's whole range, 0 to 900 ms, and starts at its 180 ms default.
Your device asks for reduced motion, so the previews hold still. Each still shows where the caption settles.
Animation settings in the editor
| Setting | Editor range | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entrance | None · Grow · Shift · Slide · Fade · Pop | Fade or Shift | The two that move the least. Grow and Pop change size, and Slide travels the furthest, about one letter height sideways. |
| Entrance duration | 0–900 ms | 150–250 ms | Long enough to see, short enough to finish before the viewer starts reading. 0 ms means instant. |
| How captions appear | One word · One line · Block · Build lines · Build words | One line | This decides what the entrance animates. With One word, every word gets its own entrance, which multiplies the motion. |
| Emphasis on the spoken word | None · Colour · Scale · Pill · Underline · Glow | Colour | Emphasis runs during the caption, not as it arrives. Scale adds motion on top of the entrance; Colour adds none. |
Use it when
Cuts are fast and captions change often
A short fade or shift tells the eye a new caption has arrived, so viewers do not reread the old one.
The clip is made for scrolling feeds
Motion catches attention in a feed. A brief Pop or Grow on short captions gives energy without slowing reading.
The duration is short
Under a quarter of a second, any of the five reads as a transition rather than an event.
Skip it when
Captions are long or fast
Text that is still moving cannot be read. If captions change every second, a long entrance eats into the time viewers have to read them.
Every word animates
With One word or Build words, each word gets its own entrance. Combined with Pop or Slide, the screen never settles.
Viewers may be sensitive to motion
Animation burned into a video cannot be switched off by the viewer the way a website can honour reduced motion. Prefer Fade, or no entrance, for explainers and accessibility-first content.
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What each entrance does
Grow scales the caption up from 60% of its size. Shift raises it into place from just under half a letter height below. Slide moves it in from the side by about one letter height. Fade changes only its opacity. Pop scales from nothing past full size to 115%, then settles. All of them fade in at the same time.
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Duration matters more than the choice
At 150 ms the five entrances are hard to tell apart; at 600 ms they all feel slow. Pick the entrance for its character, then keep the duration short. The editor's 180 ms default sits at the quick end on purpose.
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Seeing it in the editor
The editor preview is a still frame most of the time, and an entrance only lasts its first fraction of a second. Play the video, or scrub across the start of a caption, to see it arrive. For the full styling workflow, see animated captions.
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Motion that follows the voice
Entrances animate captions as they arrive. Highlighting each word as it is spoken is a separate setting, covered in word-by-word captions.
Questions about this effect
Which subtitle animation is easiest to read?+
Fade, followed by Shift. Both move little and finish quickly. Pop and Slide move the most and suit short, punchy captions rather than full sentences.
How long should a caption entrance take?+
Around 150 to 250 ms. That is long enough to notice and short enough to finish before viewers start reading.
Can captions animate out as well as in?+
The editor's motion settings control how captions arrive. Some preset styles include their own exit; the entrance is the part you set directly.
Do animations work in SRT or VTT files?+
No. Subtitle files carry text and timing only. Animation is drawn into the video when you export an MP4.