Work with selectors – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual
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AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
289
Character Range
Specifies limits on the character. This property appears whenever you add the Character Offset or
Character Value property to a layer. Choose Preserve Case & Digits to keep characters in their respective groups.
Groups include uppercase Roman, lowercase Roman, digits, symbols, Japanese katakana, and so forth. Choose Full
Unicode to allow for unlimited character changes.
Blur
The amount of Gaussian blur to be added to the characters. Horizontal and vertical blur amounts can be
specified separately.
Work with selectors
Each animator group includes a default range selector. You can replace the default selector, add additional selectors
to an animator group, and remove selectors from a group.
To download a project that demonstrates and explains the use of text animators and selectors, see the After Effects
Exchange website:
Selectors are a lot like masks: You use selectors to specify which part of a range of text you want to affect, and by how
much. You can use multiple selectors and specify a Mode setting for each one to determine how it interacts with the
text and with other selectors in the same animator group. If you have only one selector, Mode specifies the interaction
between the selector and the text—Add is the default behavior; and Subtract inverts the influence of the selector.
If you delete all selectors from an animator group, the values of the animator properties apply to all characters in the
layer. This is useful because properties of the text specified by the Character panel cannot otherwise be animated
(except by using Hold keyframes on the Source Text property itself).
Use a Wiggly selector to vary a selection within a specified amount over time. Use expression selectors to use expres-
sions to dynamically specify how much you want characters to be affected by an animator property.
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To add a selector using the Timeline panel, select an animator group in the Timeline panel and choose Selector
from the animator group’s Add menu, or choose Animation > Add Text Selector. Choose Range, Wiggly, or
Expression from the submenu.
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To add a selector using the Composition panel, select a range of characters in the Composition panel, right-click
(Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the text, and choose Add Text Selector from the context menu. Choose
Range, Wiggly, or Expression from the submenu.
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To delete a selector, select it in the Timeline panel and press Delete.
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To rename a selector, make sure that it is the only thing selected, and then press Enter (Windows) or Return
(Mac OS).
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To copy a selector, select it in the Timeline panel and choose Edit > Copy. To paste the selector, select a layer and
choose Edit > Paste.
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To reorder a selector, drag it to a new location in the stacking order in the Timeline panel.
Adding a new range selector to an animator group