• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Create Masks From Text on Multiple Layers

  Posted by Jonathan Young on March 22, 2019 at 3:27 pm

  Hello, I’m looking for a way to use the “Create Masks form Text” option on multiple text layers at once. I have hundreds of text layers that I need to apply this to and I can only apply it to one at a time… Any ideas?

  Jonathan Young replied 7 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Andrei Popa

  March 25, 2019 at 8:07 am

  Select your desired layers and then run this script.

  
app.beginUndoGroup('Create Shapes From Multiple Texts');
var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var selectedLayers = myComp.selectedLayers;
for (var i = 0; i < selectedLayers.length; i++){
deselectEverything(myComp);
selectedLayers[i].selected = true;
createMasksFromText(selectedLayers[i]);
}
app.endUndoGroup();

  function createMasksFromText(myLayer){
  if(myLayer.sourceText != null){
  app.executeCommand(3781);
  }else{
  alert(myLayer.name + " is not a text layer.")
  }
  }

  function deselectEverything(myActiveComp) {
mySelectedItems = myActiveComp.selectedLayers;
for (var i = 0; i < mySelectedItems.length; i++){
mySelectedItems[i].selected = false;
}
}

  Andrei
  My Envato portfolio.
• 

  Jonathan Young

  March 25, 2019 at 6:30 pm

  Thanks Andre, appreciate all your help with this!

  It seems like that is creating shape layer, the same as the menu item “Create shapes from text” instead of achieving the same effect as the menu item “create masks from text”… Do you have any idea on how to fix that?
• 

  Andrei Popa

  March 27, 2019 at 8:43 am

  I’m sorry i respond this late, been quite busy lately. Yes, i have a solution. Replace “app.executeCommand(3781);” with “app.executeCommand(2933);”. If you wonder where i got that id number, here is a link to a pdf that provides all menu ids.

  Andrei
  My Envato portfolio.
• 

  Jonathan Young

  March 29, 2019 at 2:29 am

  Awesome! Works great. Thanks so much!

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up