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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Expressions Adding multiple values from Sound Keys in an expression.

  • Adding multiple values from Sound Keys in an expression.

    Posted by Michael West on April 11, 2019 at 6:12 pm

    I’m fairly new at using After Effects, and very new at using Trapcode, so please bear that in mind.

    I’m following a tutorial where I’m applying Trapcode sound keys to a song, with which I would like to animate a simple object.

    I’ve created 3 ranges in Sound Keys, and applied them to the song. The values then show up in the ‘Output’ of ranges 1, 2 and 3.

    Then, I created a solid layer and added an expression to the position. Within this I want to add all three value from the ‘Outputs’ from Sound Keys.

    So I open the expression dialogue box and type ‘a =’ and then drag the pickwhip down to Output 1 on my Sound Keys layer. When I do this, it replaces my ‘a =’ and writes ‘temp = thisComp.layer(“Sound Keys”).effect(“Sound Keys”)(“Output 1”);
    [temp, temp]’

    I have tried deleting ‘[temp]’ and replacing it with ‘a’, and I have tried leaving it as it is, but either way, when I drag the pickwhip down from the next line to ‘Output 2’, it replaces the original text with the same as above, but with the value of Output 2.

    I cannot seem to add more than one value to the expression. I have tried writing it out manually, but this does not work either. It produces an error message.

    In the video I watched, it was a simple as writing ‘a = ‘ and then dragging the pickwhip to the desired value, one after another, and this then allowed other calculations to occur after.

    What am I doing wrong here?

    Thanks so much for any possible help you can give.

    temp = thisComp.layer("Sound Keys").effect("Sound Keys")("Output 1");
    [temp, temp]

    Kalleheikki Kannisto replied 7 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Kalleheikki Kannisto

    April 12, 2019 at 8:17 am

    Is your cursor still in the expression box at the point after “a=” when you pick-whip (it should be)?
    Also, make sure you’re using the expression pick whip. There are nowadays three different pick whips (parenting, property and expression) in the AE interface.

    Kalleheikki Kannisto
    Senior Graphic Designer

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