• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Character count and Frames

  Posted by Criis Daw on May 23, 2013 at 10:20 am

  Hi there…

  .

  I am animating the text on using a range selector. I am making it so the text reveals at 1 character per frame.

  Using this “thisComp.layer(“text”).text.sourceText.length”
  I am able to count the characters and put the key frames a corresponding distance apart ..

  but what I would really like to do is have the character count (excluding spaces (it animates nicer that way) ) be used to drive an expression .. rather than just telling me.

  So it would be . ,, Take the charactrs count (excluding spaces) and finish the animation on the range selector this number of frames up the time line.

  Am I explaining this very well ??

  Hope so ..

  Thanks

  Chris

  Eliezer Cisner replied 12 years, 3 months ago 3 Members · 12 Replies
• 12 Replies

• 

  Dan Ebberts

  May 23, 2013 at 1:30 pm

  I’d use an expression selector with an amount expression like this:

  if (timeToFrames(time-inPoint) > textIndex) 0 else 100

  Dan
• 

  Criis Daw

  May 23, 2013 at 1:45 pm

  Hummm

  not sure I understand

  what is an expression selector ?
• 

  Criis Daw

  May 23, 2013 at 4:20 pm

  ha ha

  google is my friend …

  thanks for the help and i’ll be back 🙂
• 

  Criis Daw

  May 23, 2013 at 11:50 pm

  Ha ha

  you beauty .. Never even seen expression selectors hidden way down there. ….

  brilliant , thanks very much
• 

  Criis Daw

  May 23, 2013 at 11:54 pm

  How would I make it so the characters come in every 2 frames for example ?

  I have them coming in at ten frames now but am just experimenting with it.
  Its very cool
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  May 24, 2013 at 12:01 am

  if (Math.floor(timeToFrames(time-inPoint)/2) > textIndex) 0 else 100

  Dan
• 

  Criis Daw

  May 24, 2013 at 12:10 am

  blimey…

  now you are just confusing me …

  One last thing .. Now I have my text writing on simply , beautifully and repeatable with little effort ..

  Using range selectors and duplicate layer above with the blending made set to add i am able to make the leading letters write on with a glow..

  As the range selector write the other writes off so the first character only is displayed giving a pleaseing glow to the lead character…

  I have tried to do it by manipulating what you sent but succeeded in writing off .. not on..

  Any more tip s ??
• 

  Eliezer Cisner

  January 20, 2014 at 9:30 pm

  How can I make this expression ease out?
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  January 20, 2014 at 10:41 pm

  I think something like this would work:

  framesPerChar = 3; // frames per character

  t = time – inPoint;
  tStart = framesToTime(framesPerChar)*(textIndex-1);
  tEnd = framesToTime(framesPerChar)*textIndex;
  ease(t,tStart,tEnd,100,0)

  Dan
• 

  Eliezer Cisner

  January 20, 2014 at 10:45 pm

  Hmm, doesn’t seem to work. It still goes one character per frames (set it as that) even as it’s approaching the end.

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