• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  coloring text based on numbers from an array (list)

  Posted by Chris Gulliford on September 10, 2014 at 7:51 pm

  So I have the following expression that takes a number from a list and puts it up on the screen every six frames (30 fps). Works great. Now i need compare each number from the list to the following and change the color of the test accordingly:

  0-100 – Green
  101-140 – Yellow
  141 – 160 – Orange
  161 – Up – Red

  I’ve tried to use different animator descriptions and changing the hue/saturation, but to no avail.

  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

  Thanks.

  // expression to take input of series of numerical values and display them five per second or every six frames
// get our source list
listText = thisComp.layer("heart").text.sourceText;

  // now make an array, assuming a comma delimiter
  list = listText.split(",");

  // what's the biggest value? we'll use this as our denominator
  maximum = Math.max.apply(Math, list);

  // which number should we look at? one per six frames
  wholeSeconds = Math.floor(time-inPoint);
  milliSeconds = Math.floor(((time-inPoint) - wholeSeconds) * 1000);
  indexModifier = Math.floor(milliSeconds/200);
  target = (wholeSeconds*5) + indexModifier;

  // make sure we don't try to find the value-as-a-percentage for an out-of-bounds array number, or try to divide by zero
  if ((target >= 0) && (target < list.length) && (maximum != 0)) {

  // this will print to screen the array number or zero
speed = list[target];
} else speed= 0;

  Chris Gulliford replied 11 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Dan Ebberts

  September 10, 2014 at 8:29 pm

  Assuming that you’re using an RGB fill animator and “n” represents your number, something like this for fill color should work:

  
if (n <= 100)
[0,1,0,1]
else if (n <= 140)
[1,1,0,1]
else if (n <= 160)
[1,.5,0,1]
else
[1,0,0,1];


  Dan
• 

  Chris Gulliford

  September 10, 2014 at 8:59 pm

  that works good, but returns whatever’s between the square brackets… How do I get that number to return and change in the text’s color?

  Thanks again.
• 

  Dan Ebberts

  September 10, 2014 at 9:35 pm

  I’m lost. I would only work as part of an expression for Fill Color.

  Dan
• 

  Chris Gulliford

  September 11, 2014 at 4:12 pm

  This was great! thanks…. It took me a bit to think to put the code in under “color” lol.

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