How to Use Wiggly Selectors in After Effects

Wiggly Selectors in Adobe After Effects allow motion designers to add controlled, organic randomness to text animations without writing complex expressions. By pairing a Wiggly Selector with text animators such as Position, Scale, Rotation, or Opacity, you can create erratic jitter, smooth organic drifts, or chaotic typography. This guide explains how to add a Wiggly Selector to a text layer, configure its animators, and fine-tune its core parameters to achieve the exact motion you need.

Step 1: Create a Text Layer and Add an Animator

  1. Select the Horizontal Type Tool (Ctrl+T / Cmd+T) and type your text into the composition.
  2. In the Timeline panel, twirl open the text layer to reveal its properties.
  3. Locate the Animate flyout menu next to the "Text" property line.
  4. Click Animate and choose the transform property you want to randomize (e.g., Position, Scale, or Rotation).
  5. An Animator 1 group will appear under your text layer with your chosen property and a default Range Selector 1.

Step 2: Add the Wiggly Selector

  1. Next to Animator 1, click the Add button.
  2. Navigate to Selector and choose Wiggly.
  3. A Wiggly Selector 1 group will be added beneath your Animator.
  4. (Optional) If you want the wiggle to affect the entire text layer globally rather than within a constrained range, you can select and delete the default Range Selector 1. Keeping both allows you to confine the wiggle to a specific section of the text.

Step 3: Adjust the Animator Property Values

The Wiggly Selector operates based on the deviation you set in the Animator’s property values.

  • Increase or decrease the value of the property you added (for example, set Position to 0, -50).
  • The text characters will immediately offset themselves randomly within the bounds of that value. The higher the value, the further each character can deviate from its original transform state.

Step 4: Fine-Tune the Wiggly Selector Parameters

Twirl open Wiggly Selector 1 to customize the behavior of the randomness:

  • Mode: Controls how the selector combines with other selectors (e.g., Add, Subtract, Intersect).
  • Max Amount and Min Amount: Defines the upper and lower limits of the wiggle strength as percentages. Setting Min Amount to negative values (e.g., -100%) allows bidirectional movement.
  • Based On: Determines whether the wiggle applies to Characters, Characters Excluding Spaces, Words, or Lines.
  • Wiggles/Second: Sets the frequency of the movement. Higher values create fast, jittery shaking, while lower values (such as 0.5 to 2) produce smooth, drifting motion.
  • Correlation: Controls how closely related each character's movement is to adjacent characters. At 0%, every character moves completely independently. At 100%, all characters move together in unison.
  • Temporal Phase: Shifts the animation through time, useful for keyframing to drive the wiggle manually.
  • Spatial Phase: Shifts the spatial distribution of the wiggle across the text.
  • Random Seed: Changes the randomized calculation to generate a different variation of the same movement settings.