• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Expression to link shape object ‘paths’ but minus x pixels

  Posted by Lance Clayton on April 10, 2014 at 1:27 am

  Hi,

  I need the correct expression to link the paths of two shape layer shapes, but such that one is x pixels smaller than the other, thus creating in inner and outer box as in the example pick.

  

  I want to move the path of only one of the shapes (when reshaping box) and have the other move also, keeping the same separation of n pixels.

  If I simply scale the shape objects when parented then the width of the stroke obviously changes which isn’t desirable.

  I tried something like:

  ON THE SHAPE LAYER PATH TO BE THE CHILD –

  base=thisComp.layer(“BASE”).content(“Shape 1”).content(“Path 1”).path;
  [base[0],base[1]]-[3,-3]

  …but my understanding of the array coding mathematically is wrong.

  Any guidance would be good. Thanks

  Brian Charles replied 12 years, 4 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Dan Ebberts

  April 10, 2014 at 6:45 am

  I don’t think there’s any way to do math on a path shape. I think valueAtTime() is the only tool in the toolbox, and I don’t think it helps for your situation.

  Dan
• 

  George Goodman

  April 10, 2014 at 1:12 pm

  I’m sure Dan is right about the expression. But what if you precomposed it, duplicated it, scaled one down, and then generated a stroke on the smaller precomp so that it matched the sizing of the other? Might not be perfect, but could potentially work.

  “|_ (°_0) _|”

  Sincerely,

  George
• 

  Brian Charles

  April 10, 2014 at 6:00 pm

  

  I’ve linked 2 shape layers with a couple of sliders and a simple expression here, this may work for you.

  Here’s a CS6 version of the file:

  7356_shapelinked.aep.zip

  ….And another version with the shapes in a single layer grouped.

  7357_boxshapegroup.aep.zip

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up