Text Paths

Something that I thought would be very useful to learn how to use in my animation was how to create and use text paths. 
I looked at a couple of tutorials on YouTube and decided to have a go for myself.

I created a new composition in Adobe After Effects and created a plain black solid shape and some text on top of this.

With the text shape selected, I selected the pen tool at the top of the screen and drew a rough path for my text to follow. 

This path then appeared as a mask for my text layer, and so I selected this mask, and then added an animation preset for my text.

This is how my first experiment using text paths in Adobe After Effects ended up:

Although this was only a rough experiment, I have learned a useful skill and I now feel more confident in how I will progress in my animation.