Automatically center a layer

[Walter Soyka]

There are a few different ways to make a countdown. Which technique did you use?

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Mike Brassee]

I’ve used the following code:

rateOfSpeed=1;
clockStartTime = thisComp.layer("Timer Duration").effect("Slider Control")("Slider")*60;

clockTimeNumber = Math.floor(clockStartTime - rateOfSpeed*time);

function addZero(n) {
return (n < 10) ? "0" + n : n;
}

minutes = Math.floor(clockTimeNumber/60);
seconds = clockTimeNumber%60;

if (clockStartTime > 0 && time < clockStartTime) {
addZero(minutes) + ":" + addZero(seconds);
} else {
"00:00";
}

The problem however, is that my font doesn’t have the same with for all the characters.
Therefor the countdown goes off center when counting down.

[Walter Soyka]

Of course, you can use a mono-spaced font.

If that won’t work for your design, I’d suggest using Numbers effect. Set it to Timecode, untick the “Proportional spacing” option, time-reverse the layer it to make it count down instead of count up, and mask off what you don’t need.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Mike Brassee]

Hi Walter,

This worked great!
Thanks!