VFX - starting to make an intro

So I decided to make an always sunny in Philadelphia intro sequence due to the show being so funny and being so open to creativity. The original intro is pretty simple, just showing shots of Philadelphia and having simple titles on top.  

I wanted to first start off by experimenting with how to do the series/show title. It's a pretty long name so I wanted to have two separate animations for it, making it feel less stodgy. I had a look via YouTube to find some tutorials for After Effects and decided to go for once that showed a handwriting style motion graphic tutorial. 

First I had to create a solid layer as my background, then I had to do my text as I would want it animated (ie: if I am using two different graphics then do two different text layers). I did the two different pieces of text in separate colours, the first in a mustard yellow and the second in white. Now the text they use for the actual show is 'Lucinda Big Casual', however, you have to pay for this font so I have had to use one of the other Lucinda fonts that's already on the system. 

I also had to then add a trace layer, this is where I used the pen tool to fully map out my text. When the text is fully mapped out, its good to adjust the brush size on the stoke effect so you can insure all your text is covered by the mask.