Center Position of Text Layer for MOGRT

[Dan Ebberts]

I’m guessing you just want to center the x direction, which you could do like this:

r = sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
myCenterX = anchorPoint[0] + r.left + r.width/2;
compCenterX = fromComp([thisComp.width,thisComp.height]/2)[0];
value + [compCenterX – myCenterX,0]

If you want to center x and y, it would be like this:

r = sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
myCenterX = anchorPoint[0] + r.left + r.width/2;
myCenterY = anchorPoint[1] + r.top + r.height/2;
compCenter = fromComp([thisComp.width,thisComp.height]/2);
value + compCenter – [myCenterX,myCenterY]

Dan

[Martin Gardiner]

that worked, thanks!!!

[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Dan’s method is indeed nice one!

On the other hand, specifically for text boxes most often you will want anchor point to be in a fixed place all the time. Consider adding similar sourceRectAtTime approach, just with a simplified array.

R = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime(time);
T = R.top;
L = R.left;
W = R.width;
H = R.height;
[L+W/2, T+H/2]

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.

[Martin Gardiner]

How do you center it on just the Y axis? I tried changing your X version to Y’s and 1’s instead of 0’s, but that didn’t work.

[Dan Ebberts]

Try this:

r = sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
myCenterY = anchorPoint[1] + r.top + r.height/2;
compCenterY = fromComp([thisComp.width,thisComp.height]/2)[1];
value + [0,compCenterY – myCenterY]

Dan

[Martin Gardiner]

Perfect, thank you so much!

[Martin Gardiner]

Changing the template a bit.

What would I write if I want the width of the text box to be full screen 1920px and I just want the height of the box to change with the amount of text.

I can write
var w = s.sourceRectAtTime().width+1000;

which would always have enough to cover both sides to the end of the screen. Is that the best approach?

var w = s.sourceRectAtTime().width+1000;