• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Is there a scripting equivalent to reveal a layers position property? Like the shortcut “P”? – AE Scripting

  Posted by Jason Schwarz on January 21, 2015 at 2:49 am

  I’ve hit a wall on this one.

  I’m making some custom scripts. This one is a simple camera rig. It works fine but I wanted to add some functionality to it to save myself a few clicks.
  Once the layers have been created, I’d like them to reveal certain properties in the UI.

  Question 1:
  Is there a scripting equivalent to the keyboard shortcut “P”?… Or similar shortcuts to reveal a layers Transform Properties?

  Question 2:
  Can you programmatically create a One-Node Camera instead of the default Two-Node Camera?
  I went through the AE scripting guide and found no way of setting the type of Camera.

  Any help is much appreciated.
  Thanks in advance.
  -Jason

  var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
if (myComp != null && (myComp instanceof CompItem)){

  var w = myComp.width /2;
  var h = myComp.height /2;
  var newCamera = myComp.layers.addCamera("Camera", [w,h]); //make a new camera
  newCamera.position.setValue([w,h,-1900]);
  var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers;
  if (myLayer) {
  var PosNull = myComp.layers.addNull();
  PosNull.source.name = "Cam_Pos";
  PosNull.threeDLayer = true;
  PosNull.position.setValue([w,h]);
  PosNull.enabled = true;

  var RotNull = myComp.layers.addNull();
  RotNull.source.name = "Cam_Rot";
  RotNull.threeDLayer = true;
  RotNull.position.setValue([w,h]);
  RotNull.enabled = true;

  newCamera.parent = PosNull; //parenting
  PosNull.parent = RotNull;

  var Lock3D = '[0,0,0]'; //lock unwanted properties
  var Lock1D = '[0]';
  var LockScale = '[100,100,100]';

  RotNull.anchorPoint.expression = Lock3D;
  RotNull.position.expression = Lock3D;
  RotNull.scale.expression = LockScale;

  PosNull.anchorPoint.expression = Lock3D;
  PosNull.scale.expression = LockScale;
  PosNull.orientation.expression = Lock3D;
  PosNull.xRotation.expression = Lock1D;
  PosNull.yRotation.expression = Lock1D;
  PosNull.zRotation.expression = Lock1D;

  /* PosNull.position.selected = true; //Selecting works, but Layer does not twirl down
  RotNull.orientation.selected = true;
  RotNull.xRotation.selected = true;
  RotNull.yRotation.selected = true;
  RotNull.zRotation.selected = true; */

  } else {
alert("Please select at least one layer");
}
} else {
alert("Please select an active comp to use this script");
}

  Jason Schwarz replied 11 years, 6 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Jason Schwarz

  January 21, 2015 at 6:22 pm

  Found the One-Node Camera solution.

  Still needing some help on Question 1.

  var new_camera = comp.layers.addCamera("Camera"), [comp.width/2,comp.height/2]);

  new_camera.autoOrient = AutoOrientType.NO_AUTO_ORIENT;

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