After Effects + JavaScript: How to change the position of a single axis?

[Steve Blacker]

The third “50” represents your z position, as far as I can tell…

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Conor Grebel]

yes that much is clear to me. but I want to effect ONLY the z position. if i ran that command then it would effect x y and z. i want the current x and y to remain as they are, and only effect the z position. Please read my original post…
Does that make sense?

[Darby Edelen]

[Conor Grebel] “yes that much is clear to me. but I want to effect ONLY the z position. if i ran that command then it would effect x y and z. i want the current x and y to remain as they are, and only effect the z position. Please read my original post…
Does that make sense?”

Is this for a script? If you’re working on a script then I don’t have specific code to give you, but I’m much more familiar with expressions where you could handle this like so:


z = 50;
myLayer.position + [0,0,z];


I think similar code should work in a script. Take the current value and add a 3d vector to it. If you want to replace the z value (instead of altering it) then it might be more complicated but still doable. I’d look into javascript array object methods, maybe splice().

Darby Edelen

[Conor Grebel]

yeah i’m looking for script, not expressions. I’ll look into implementing that code but it doesnt work as is…
I’ll keep researching but..thanks anyways!

[Steve Blacker]

Could you separate the x, y and z position parameters on the layer and apply the expression to each? (Right click on the position parameter in the layer timeline)

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Conor Grebel]

Still looking for an answer on this…

[Steve Blacker]

You may have better luck at https://aescripts.com/

It’s only work if you’d rather be doing something else…

[Conor Grebel]

thank you!

[Gleb Rysanov]

Hello Conor,

As far as I understand your question, the goal is to change z position only, leaving x and y dimensions as they are? If so, solution is simple:

x = value;
y = value;
z = (whatever you want it to be);
[x,y,z]

or simpler yet:

[value,value,z]

[Conor Grebel]

Now I know that works or expressions, are you sure that works for JavaScript ? I believe I tried that method but it could not recognize “value”