• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  sourceRectAtTime is misbehaving :(

  Posted by Ben Wildi on May 25, 2022 at 10:36 am

  So i have some fantastic expressions saved from a year or two ago that i periodically use. They are to make a shape layer (rectangle) fit exactly to a text layer and update with changing text. Just cracked them out for a job and they’re not working properly. The “size” seems to be doing it’s job but the “position” isn’t quite working, it IS changing the position but it’s overshooting so the text box requires manually repositioning each time. One interesting thing I noticed is that the terms “left” and “top” don’t seem to be the same colours as “width” and “height” so perhaps the expression vocab has changed since I used these. Quick note before you raed the expressions, these are to be pasted in the properties within the rectangle inside the shape layer, NOT in the main transform properties for the layer as a whole. Here are the expressions:

  //Paste in Shape Layer Size//

  s=thisComp.layer(“TEXT 1”);

  w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width;

  h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height;

  [w,h]

  //Paste in Shape Layer Position//

  s=thisComp.layer(“TEXT 1”);

  w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width;

  h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height;

  l=s.sourceRectAtTime().left;

  t=s.sourceRectAtTime().top;

  [w+l,h+t]

  Any help greatly appreciated <3

  Ben Wildi replied 4 years, 3 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Ben Wildi

  May 25, 2022 at 11:30 am

  I FIXED IT!!!

  turns out i had saved it wrong, the correction is in the “position” expression:

  s=thisComp.layer(“TEXT 1”);

  w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width/2;

  h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height/2;

  l=s.sourceRectAtTime().left;

  t=s.sourceRectAtTime().top;

  [w+l,h+t]

  the width and height needed halving to prevent the overshooting.

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