• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  using layer control to select color or the ramp effect for layers

  Posted by Adam Tanner on February 26, 2014 at 3:13 pm

  Hi,

  I’m trying to create a system in which a user can use a layer control drop down menu to choose the color of specific layers. The catch is one of the color options is also the ramp effect.

  Right now I have a series of nulls. The null “Control” contains the layer control effect. The layer control references other nulls named “black”, “red”, “ramp”, etc.. I also have a null called “colors” which contains all the effects (color control and ramp). These effects are named “black”, “red, “ramp”, etc…

  The expression I use works great for changing the color of a fill on a solid, but I’m not sure how to make it deactivate the fill and add a ramp. Any ideas?

  Let me know if that doesn’t make sense.

  a = thisComp.layer("Control").effect("Color1")("Layer").name;

  thisComp.layer("colors").effect(a)("Color")

  Darby Edelen replied 12 years, 6 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Darby Edelen

  February 27, 2014 at 12:40 am

  [Adam Tanner] “The expression I use works great for changing the color of a fill on a solid, but I’m not sure how to make it deactivate the fill and add a ramp. Any ideas?”

  My suggestion would be to only use the Ramp. Use a Tint effect after the ramp to re-color the ramp as necessary. If you set the “Map Black To” and “Map White To” outputs of the Tint effect to the same color you’ll get a solid color fill.

  Darby Edelen

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