How to make an animation of individual letters in a word falling? Is this even possible?

[stevens70907226]

I'd like to make an animation in which the letters in a word, for example, carrot "fall" into a bowl. I know how to do this by animating each character individually, but I wanted to know if there was a way to do this to letters in a word. 

I've been playing with the Wiggle expression under Animate and I can't gain enough control to make the letters fall in order (I'd like the last letter to fall first up to the first to simulate their being "cut".)

Since I'm learning how to use AE, I'm not looking for a plug in but to learn how to do this myself -- if it's even possible. 

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Each character on its own layer will provide you with the most option, control - you're on the right track. There's nothing much about having an elegant set of KFs - most important is how things look in the Comp Panel. HTH