Create lower 3rds that change their size depending on how long the text is. Perfect for anyone looking to make better templates with more dynamic elements. This relies heavily on expressions and using monospaced fonts. And it works in any version of adobe after effects. But it is especially good for Adobe CC now that you can edit text fields from templates in Premiere Pro.

This tutorial goes into detail on how the expression works and where it falls short.

The expressions used in this tutorial are:
temp = thisComp.layer(“TEXT”).text.sourceText;
L = temp.length;
x =100 * (L * .9);
[250+x, value[1]]

temp = content(“Rectangle 1”).content(“Rectangle Path 1”).size[0];
[temp/2, 0]

If you have any questions just let me know in the comments.

Download this project file:

This file ONLY works in After Effects CS6 and NEWER. But would work best in adobe CC.