Flash
Flash.
I used this quite a bit when it first came out but use it rarely now. My cell phone browser does not recognize Flash files so I leave it off my websites to make them more accessible to cell phones and other non-typical browsers.
If you are not ready to spend a small fortune on Flash or sure you want to put the time in to learning it check out SwishIt is a $30 product that will do all the text special effects and some others. It might be all you need.
Here is an excellent Flash Tutorial, free download or $10/cd. DevHelper. I’ve found it more useful than all but one of the books I purchased. This tutorial will take a week or two to work through, but it covers all the basics and a few advanced things. It is in depth enough to cover most Flashers needs.
Here is a short list of a couple of Flash sites with tutorials.
Adobe Macromedia Support
Extreme Flash