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Retrieving values from ‘source text’
Hi folks.
I’m trying to set up an expression to automatically change the colors of words in a text layer while leaving the punctuation symbols black.
So far, in the set up, I have 3 layers (I may simplify this to two); the layering order is arbitrary.
The bottom layer contains the main source text and, its ‘video-eye’ is turned off.
The middle layer is to contain the words (with the changing colors), but no punctuation.
And, the top layer contains only the punctuation (black and unchanging).In the top two layers, I have pick-whipped the ‘Source Text’ to the bottom layer.
In mocking this up, I added a few Opacity Animators, set to zero, and the range selectors were set to character index numbers that would hide everything but the punctuation in the one layer.
And, conversely, I hid all punctuation the other layer.
In automating this, I’ll need to retrieve a few values.
First, the maximum index number for the characters in the Source Text.
Next, I’ll need to step through the Source Text string, evaluating each character to determine if it is an alpha-numeric letter or a mark of punctuation.
Once I discover a mark of punctuation, that index value will have to be stored and passed to a Range Selector.After Effects seems to already know the maximum index value of a text string.
But, I can’t find those variable names.Tremendous thanks in advance!
-Ed
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8 Replies
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Say you have a text layer with this source text: !a3$V&9
Add an opacity animator, set the opacity value to 0, add an expression selector, delete the range selector, and change the default Amount expression of the expression selector to this:
c = text.sourceText.value[textIndex-1];
if (/^\w+$/i.test(c)) 0 else 100(NOTE–there is a backslash character between the “^” and the “w” in this expression, but it probably won’t print here.)
You should now see: a3 V 9
If you instead want to see: ! $ & , just reverse the 100 and the 0.
Dan
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Mostly there.
Though, there’s an offset of one character index if there’s a carriage return or line break in the source text.
So, once I figure out how to add 1 to the [textIndex] for every carriage return, this should work fine.It seems javascript sees the carriage return as a character that advances the textIndex.
But, After Effects does not. -
Mostly there. Though, since I’m not very code-experienced, special characters evade me.
So, I set up the inelegant script below.
With the variable “show,” I subtract 100 in the other layer to get the reverse effect.(See script below)
******Sadly, with this many IF statements, it slows performance.
Instead, I think I could speed it up by defining an array with all the alphanumeric characters and testing to see if that is my condition at that textIndex moment.Also, I’ve abandoned the carriage-return snafu from earlier and opted to just use a text-box for formatting. It’s a crude workaround. But, it gets it done for now.
Still curious about that.
Would likely have to set a variable to count carriage-returns, then add 1 (one) to a variable holding the [textIndex-1] value for those index-slots occurring after the carriage-return index-slots.
var show = thisComp.layer("word_slider").effect("visibility")("Slider");
c = text.sourceText.value[textIndex-1];
if (/a/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/b/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/c/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/d/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/e/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/f/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/g/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/h/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/i/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/j/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/k/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/l/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/m/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/n/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/o/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/p/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/q/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/r/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/s/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/t/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/u/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/v/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/w/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/x/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/y/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else if (/z/i.test(c)) Math.abs(show-100)
else Math.abs(show);
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Try this:
s = text.sourceText.replace(/r/g,””);
c = s[textIndex-1];
if (/^w+$/i.test(c)) 0 else 100Note there should be a backslash between the / and the r in the first line and another between the ^ and the w in the last line.
Dan
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Oh jeez, do I feel dumb.
The script below worked perfectly…
(with replacing the *’s with backslashes)s = text.sourceText.replace(/*r/g,"");
c = s[textIndex-1];
if (/^*w/i.test(c)) 100 else 0;
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Hi Dan,
I am try to do something similar but I hope Iess complicated is there a way to count the number of carriage returns in a body of text?
I am trying to control a text layer’s position with based on how many carriage return a within it.
Can you help please?
Thanks,
Rex -
This should tell you how many lines there are:
text.sourceText.match(/$/mg).length
you could subtract one to get the number of carriage returns.
Dan
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Thanks a lot Dan, exactly what I needed! 🙂
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