Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Tutorial page 310

characters. At 50%, half of each property value affects the characters. This option is useful for animating the result of animator properties over
time. Using an expression selector, you can use expressions to dynamically set this option.
Units and Based On The units for Start, End, and Offset. You can use either the percentage or index units and base the selection on the
characters, characters excluding spaces, words, or lines. If you select Characters, After Effects counts spaces and effectively pauses the
animation between words as it animates the spaces between words.
Original (left) and with VEN selected by the range selectors, Based On set to Character, Shape set to Triangle, and Scale set to 40% (right)
Range selector properties
Range selectors include the following properties, in addition to properties common with other selectors:
Start and End The beginning and end of the selection. You can modify the Start and End properties by dragging the selector bars in the
Composition panel when the selector is selected in the Timeline panel.
Offset The amount to offset the selection from the selection specified by the Start and End properties. To set Offset in the Composition panel
while you edit the Start or End values, Shift-click the Start or End selector bars with the Selection tool.
Shape Controls how characters are selected between the Start and End of the range. Each option modifies the selection by creating transitions
between selected characters using the chosen shape. For example, when animating the y Position values of text characters using Ramp Down,
the characters gradually move at an angle from the lower left to the upper right. You can specify Square, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Triangle, Round,
and Smooth.
Using different Shape options, you can greatly change the appearance of an animation.
Original (left) and after selecting the entire word, setting Based On to Characters, animating the y Position value so that the word is at the bottom
of the frame, and setting Shape to Ramp Down (right)
Setting Shape to Triangle
Smoothness Determines the amount of time the animation takes to transition from one character to another when you use the Square shape.
Ease High and Ease Low Determines the speed of change as selection values change from fully included (high) to fully excluded (low). For
example, when Ease High is 100%, the character changes more gradually (eases into the change) while it is fully to partially selected. When Ease
High is -100%, the character changes quickly while it is fully to partially selected. When Ease Low is 100%, the character changes more gradually
(eases into the change) while it is partially selected to unselected. When Ease Low is -100%, the character changes quickly while it is partially
selected to unselected.
Randomize Order Randomizes the order in which the property is applied to the characters specified by the Range selector. (By contrast, when
you use the Wiggly selector, the value of the animator property is randomized.)
Random Seed Calculates the randomized order of a range selector when the Randomize Order option is set to On. When Random Seed is zero,
the seed is based on its animator group. If you want to duplicate an animator group and retain the same randomized order as in the original
animator group, set Random Seed to a value other than zero.
Wiggly selector properties
The Wiggly selector includes the following properties, in addition to properties common with other selectors:
Max Amount and Min Amount Specifies the amount of variation from the selection.
Wiggles/Second How many variations from the set selection occur per second.