• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Shape layer hierarchy confused

  Posted by Ilya Sire on April 27, 2017 at 8:37 am

  Hello, I have a question about shape layer hierarchy expression as here

  

  how to get opacity from Group 2> Rectangle 1> Opactity?

  Please help me
  Thank you

  thisProperty.propertyGroup(3)(1).transform.opacity

  Ilya Sire replied 9 years ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
• 6 Replies

• 

  Xavier Gomez

  April 27, 2017 at 12:55 pm

  Maybe this:

  thisProperty.propertyGroup(6).content(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity;

  or :

  thisLayer.content(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity;

  Xavier

  thisProperty.propertyGroup(5)(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity; would also work, but less clear imo.
• 

  Kyle Daily

  April 27, 2017 at 2:02 pm

  You can always pick whip the property to get its syntax.

  thisComp.layer("Shape study").content("Group 2").content("Rectangle 1").transform.opacity
• 

  Ilya Sire

  April 27, 2017 at 2:57 pm

  Yes it worked, but could you please explain me why propertyGroup(6)? How did you count it?

  thisProperty.propertyGroup(6).content(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity;

  I dont really understand about shape indexing.
• 

  Xavier Gomez

  April 27, 2017 at 4:05 pm

  In :

  thisLayer.content(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity;

  you “get down 6 times” to go from the Layer to the Opacity.
  (Layer –> Contents —> “Group 2” —> Contents —-> Rectangle 1 —-> Transform —> Opacity

  Hence, the other way round, you need to climb up 6 times to go from the Opacity to the Layer.

  One thing to know is that every Shape Group inside a shape layer has a “Contents” and a “Transform”
  (similarly to the layer itself having a Contents and a Transform)
  The “Contents” step is hidden in the UI though, but it is still there somehow and must be accounted for.

  Xavier
• 

  Ilya Sire

  April 27, 2017 at 4:39 pm

  oh i see it. Thank you for your explanation.

  so i learned this way;

  1) counting from thisLayer down to property, be like:
  thisLayer.content(“Group 2”).content(“Rectangle 1”).transform.opacity;
  thisLayer.content(2).content(1).transform.opacity;

  2) counting from thisProperty climb up to other group, will be like:
  thisProperty.propertyGroup(6).content(2).content(1).transform.opacity;

  i guess level 6 = thisLayer is maximum
• 

  Ilya Sire

  April 28, 2017 at 4:12 am

  Thank you for this lesson. 🙂

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