Animation (Adobe After Effects): Text rotating without cylindric wrapping of text

Question

I am trying to animate a piece of text rotating in a circle. In itself, this is a relatively easy thing to achieve; using Adobe After Effects I created a string of text and used the CC Cylinder effect (Effects & Presets->Perspective->CC Cylinder) to create the rotation animation. Take a look at this .gif to see my current result:

However, what I would like to accomplish is a more static rotation of the letters, that is, the letters rotating around an axis as individual objects instead of being mapped to an invisible cylindrical surface on which they rotate. Take a look at this example to see what I mean:

How might I be able to achieve this in After Effects?

UPDATE: Thanks to Cai's simple and effective solution I was able to create exactly what I was aiming for. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

You can create a path for your type and animate along the path...

1. Create your type layer

   

2. With your type layer still selected, draw your path; this will create a mask. You should have something like this:

   

3. Open "Path Options" under your type layer and select your mask from the "Path" dropdown. Set "Reverse Path" to "On" and "Perpendicular To Path" to "Off".

   You should now have something like this:

   

4. You can then use the "Margin" options to offset the text and animate as you wish: