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Adding several text animation options to a dropdown control
I have a project set up with a number of text layers. I needed to provide alignment (left, center, right) options, so every text layer has become three layers, so the dropdown control can select between them.
I added an option for selecting different text animation styles ( the animations are text layer animators) and I’m using a dropdown expression controller. The typical way to turn these on and off is by using Opacity 100 or 0, but I’ve realized that’s not going to work in this case.
Is there a way to use animators (or something else) within a text layer to accomplish this? I’d prefer not to start adding duplicate layers for every animation choice because the final total on even 3 animation options would end up being 27 (3 layers, 3 alignments, 3 animations).
I can get the result I want by turning the animator visibility on and off, but from what I understand, it’s not possible to use layer.active in an expression.
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5 Replies
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My other thought was to use the single animator and define multiple animations within it using an expression and if/else statements.
The code below defines the first animator only and is in the ‘Offset’ property in the range selector. I would need to add a fair bit of code in a number of properties to make this work with multiple selectors, but if that’s the only way to accomplish this, then I’ll look take a stab at it.
If anyone has suggestions on a simpler way using multiple animators, please let me know.
//define timing for animatorsmySlideStart = (comp("Master").layer("SlideContent2.csv")("Data")("Outline")("SlideStart")("SlideStart" + " " + thisComp.name));
startTimeText = (comp("Master").layer("SlideContent2.csv")("Data")("Outline")("Text1Start")("Text1Start" + " " + thisComp.name)); //only need to change these values for new layers
endTimeText = (comp("Master").layer("SlideContent2.csv")("Data")("Outline")("Text1End")("Text1End" + " " + thisComp.name)); //only need to change these values for new layers
mySlideEnd = (comp("Master").layer("SlideContent2.csv")("Data")("Outline")("SlideEnd")("SlideEnd" + " " + thisComp.name));transitionLength1 = 2; //this changes based on the animator
transitionLength2 = 0.5; //this changes based on the animatorvalue1 = -40; //this changes based on the animator
value2 = 100; //this changes based on the animator
value3 = 100; //this changes based on the animator
value4 = 100; //this changes based on the animatort1 = startTimeText; //textStart
t2 = startTimeText + transitionLength1; //textIn
t3 = endTimeText - transitionLength2; //textOut which aren't needed because the out timing is the slide out not the text out
t4 = endTimeText; //textEnd which aren't needed because the out timing is the slide out not the text out
t5 = mySlideStart; //slideOn
t6 = mySlideEnd - transitionLength2; //slideOut start the slide out transition
t7 = mySlideEnd; //slideOff//end timing for animator definitions
//if statement for timing
if (time < t1 + transitionLength1) {
linear(time, t1, t2, value1, value2) //the first transition} else if (time < t4 - transitionLength2) {
linear(time, t2,t3, value2, value3); // hold at key 2} else {
easeOut(time, t6, t7, value3, value4)
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What is the difference between the animators?
Do they control entirely different properties ? (One is a scale in, two move in, 3 fade ?)
Or just differences in timing – speed? -
Hi Filip,
You probably noticed I got the timing expression working. Thanks for the help and teaching me the value of time (bad pun, but it was right there).
The animators are controlling several properties and not all are shared. I anticipate that if I go the route of writing all of the animations out using a single ‘animator’ and switching with dropdowns that it’s going to require a fair bit of code gymnastics, but if that’s my only option, then I’ll do it.
My thought was that I would set expressions out for all of the properties needed across all of the animations and for those properties that didn’t need to be change for specific animations, I would simply apply the ‘value’ or default values to them.
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Use several animators for the different styles.
Animate each of them with your expressions on Range Start/End/Offset
(Although I’d personally find it more intuitive to design/animate with keyframes,
and then use valueAtTime(), but we’ve had that discussion ?)At Amount=0 a Range-selector (and thus the animator) acts as if it isn’t there.
So we only need an expression for the Range’s “Amount”-property:
effect("Dropdown Menu Control")("Menu").value == 1 ? value : 0;
==1 for the first animator, ==2 for the second etc.
That’s more compact than giving a similar expression to each and every property inside of every animator (though that would work too)
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Thanks Filip. That worked like a charm! I entirely forgot about the ‘amount’ attribute (still learning). This was exactly what I was looking for. I’ve provided a few animation choices and it’s working perfectly. Fortunately, most of the animations only modify a single attribute, so it keep the code copying to a minimum.
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