Animating the position of individual characters and using the Wiggly selector

This example demonstrates how easy it is to animate the position of individual characters. It also shows how the Wiggly selector can create a dramatic change to the animation simply by adding it to the layer. The effect is spectacular, but the keyframing is minimal.


Animating the color and position of the characters in the word "Galaxy"

To flash colors and drop characters:

1. Create a new composition.
2. Create a new text layer with the phrase "Galaxy" and set the color to blue.
3. Position the cursor away from the text in the Composition window and when the type cursor changes to the move cursor , drag to move the text to the center of the window. Resize it if necessary so that it fits within the window.
4. Choose Animation > Animate Text > Position.
5. In the Timeline window, drag the Position property's y value to the left until all the characters are off the screen.
6. Expand Range Selector 1.
7. Click the Start stopwatch and leave it at 0% at 0 seconds; then move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and set Start to 100%.
8. Preview the animation.
9. Collapse the Animator 1 group.
10. Make sure nothing is selected except the text layer name in the Timeline window, and choose Fill Color > Hue from the Animate pop-up menu. A new animator group, Animator 2, appears in the Timeline window.
11. Set Fill Hue to 1 x +0.0.
12. Expand the Range Selector 1 for Animator 2.
13. Click the Start stopwatch and leave it at 0% at 0 seconds; then move the current-time indicator to 5 seconds and set Start to 100%.
14. Preview the animation. The colors change now as they drop from the top of the screen, but they all use the same color and end up the same, original color.
15. With the Fill Hue selected, choose Selector > Wiggly from the Add pop-up menu.
16. Expand the Wiggle Selector 1 property and choose Add from the Mode pop-up menu.
17. Preview the animation.

Note: If you add the Fill Hue property to Animator 1 and then add the Wiggly selector, both the position and the colors wiggle, instead of just the colors.