• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  simple counter expression needed

  Posted by Felicia Van os on November 5, 2010 at 9:23 pm

  Hi, this is my first attempt with expressions. I simply want a number to change from 1 to 21, in sequence, over about 5 seconds. I could make one layer per number and just cut from one to the next, but I am sure there is a better way to do this, and a way that allows me to control the speed with a value or one keyframe. I searched the forum but only found much more complex counters. Can anyone help? Thanks so much.

  Felicia Van os replied 15 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Kevin Camp

  November 5, 2010 at 9:52 pm

  there are a few ways to do this.

  one doesn’t use expressions at all, it just uses the good ol’ numbers effect. add it to a solid, pick a font, then you’ll just keyframe the change and set the color…

  another fairly simple way is to create a text layer (you can type something like ‘counter’ but it doesn’t matter). then add a slider expression control (effects>expression controls). add an expression to the source text of the text layer like this:

  Math.round(effect('Slider Control')('Slider'));
  then key frame the slider control.

  or 100% expression, like this:

  Dur=5; // duration of countdown in seconds
Start=1; // start value for counter
End=21; // end value for counter

  Math.round(linear(time,inPoint,inPoint+Dur,Start,End));
  just adjust the layer’s inpoint to be where you need it to start counting.

  Kevin Camp
  Senior Designer
  KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW
• 

  Felicia Van os

  November 5, 2010 at 9:55 pm

  Thanks so much for the quick response! I’m gonna play around with these options.

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up