Professional text animation software

Question

In addition to Adobe Flash, what other tools people usually use to make text animations.
By text animation I mean, like animations that has a narration and word or letters from the narration dance on the screen, change in size and color, bump to each other, fall down or fly away.
I am looking for something that professionals would use, some like what is used to produce this video:

Answer 1

All of the pro video editors have a means of animating titles to some degree, some are better than others. I am only experienced with Sony Vegas Pro 10, but I have seen my colleagues use Adobe Premiere with Adobe After Effects to create some mind blowing 'dancing' titles. Vegas has plugins available to boost their basic package but the basic package can do most if not all the effects you have in your example while Adobe's Premiere and After Effects might be able to take this to another level as in more 3d attributes.

I recommend a pro video editor over power point as you have tons of flexibility (avi, mov, mp4, m2t, etc) vs. only a ppt file. However, there are many products available to convert ppt files into video such as this free version I just found:

http://www.effectmatrix.com/PowerPoint-Video-Converter/Free-PowerPoint-Video-Converter.htm

Caution: I have never tried this product so I am uncertain on quality.

I should mention that animating titles is not the only thing going on in your example, there is some degree of track motion control and pan/crop as well not to mention compositing.

If you are seriously looking for a pro product, I would seek advice from professionals that already use these products in conjunction with trying out the trail versions if available. I do know that Sony Vegas Pro 11 is available for free download for a 30 day trail. Most of these products will cost between $500 and $2500 and the learning curve can be heavy.

Sony Vegas trial version: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro?keycode=64506

This is a serious product that costs you both time and money.

I would recommend posting on the appropriate forum on creative cow to seek more inside advice.

http://creativecow.com/

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Powerpoint is often used for this sort of simple animation in corporate environments.

MovieMaker can do this sort of thing on home movies.

Answer 3

Apple Motion that comes with FinalCutPro is very versatile and if you like Apples approach to video editing you'd like it.
I am learning it at the moment, I'll update as I make progress.