Spellbound breaks text into words, lines, or letters so you can animate each piece on its own. It is a free micro tool in Motion Dock and requires After Effects 24.3 or later.
Select a text layer in the active composition, choose Words (W), Lines (L), or Letters (A), then click Split.
The sample shows how the mode divides text. It always says “Spell bound” and does not preview your selected layer.
Keep the layout, separate the pieces
Each piece becomes a layer at its place in the original text. Text pieces keep their character styles, including mixed colors within a layer. Lines follows the lines After Effects actually displays, including wrapped paragraph text.
By default, the pieces remain editable text. Turn on Letters as shapes when you need shape paths instead.
Animate one piece or the whole group
The default split centers each piece’s anchor and parents the pieces to one null at the original’s anchor. Move the null to move the whole group. Animate the pieces to move them independently.
Spellbound prepares layers. It does not add animation keyframes. Its optional Stagger delays when successive pieces begin.
Keep a way back
The original stays in the composition with its video switch off and its Shy switch on. One After Effects undo reverses the entire split.
Try your first text split with a short practice layer. For existing animated text, read how Spellbound handles source text and transforms.