• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Basic question from an expression noob

  Posted by Mike Mackenzie on June 3, 2012 at 3:40 pm

  Hey everyone…

  I’ve been using AE since version 3, but have never really dug in to expressions beyond the very basic. The following is something I would like to accomplish, and keyframing isn’t really getting it done for me in a pleasing way.

  I’d like to have the screen filled with about a dozen words, slowly drifting in scale and XYZ position, a cluttered mess. This much I can figure out on my own, expression-wise. What I need to happen is at a particular point in time, in a smooth faster motion, is for all the words to scale down to 100% and line up properly.

  My assumptions are that each word would be it’s own layer, and be positioned and scaled where I want them to end up. I would then generate random values for scale and position parameters, but what I would like help with is, how do I write the expression so that the randomness goes away and they all align properly?

  Thanks!

  Motion Graphics Designer / Art Director
  Boston, MA

  System:
  Mac/Leopard
  2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
  NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
  10 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

  Mike Mackenzie replied 13 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Dan Ebberts

  June 3, 2012 at 6:03 pm

  I think you’re on the right track. You just need to plug the result of your randomness expression into a variable, then at time you specify, ease to the layer’s per-expression value, like this:

  result = (result of your random expression)
  tStart = 5; // When you want transition to start
  tDur = 1; // how long you want the transition to take
  ease(time,tStart,tStart+tDur,result,value)

  Dan
• 

  Mike Mackenzie

  June 3, 2012 at 6:17 pm

  Thanks so much for the help, but as clueless as I am about expressions, please explain (if you have time) how I plug in the result value in the first line you posted.

  If you tell me that what I am asking displays a basic ignorance of expressions and is beyond the scope of a forum response, well I wouldn’t be terribly surprised…

  Motion Graphics Designer / Art Director
  Boston, MA

  System:
  Mac/Leopard
  2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
  10 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  June 3, 2012 at 6:26 pm

  It would help if you would post the expression you’re using to generate the randomness.

  Dan
• 

  Mike Mackenzie

  June 3, 2012 at 7:20 pm

  Thought I was ok with my random expression but apparently I wasn’t. Deadline prevents me from digging any deeper into this right now so I have to just finesse my keyframes. Next downtime I get will be devoted to some of your tutorials, thanks so much for your assistance!

  Motion Graphics Designer / Art Director
  Boston, MA

  System:
  Mac/Leopard
  2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
  NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
  10 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

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