Change layer order with expressions

[Colin Braley]

Well you can’t make the layers become stacked in a different order via expressions, however scripting could sort the layers based on the y position at frame zero, or something like that. However, you could change the z-position of layers based on y position. You could create an expression to do something like place the layer with the largest y value at z = 0, the layer with the second largest y value at z = -100, the layer with the third largest y value at z = -200 etc. Just clarify what you are looking for a bit more and Im sure someone will be able to help you out.
~Colin

[Dan Ebberts]

Yeah, I’d make them all 3D and use an expression like this to sort them in Z space:

below = 0;
for (i = 1; i <= thisComp.numLayers; i++){ if (i == index) continue; if (thisComp.layer(i).position[1] < value[1]) below--; } [value[0],value[1],below] Dan

[Mattmariska]

Thanks! I’ll give this a try, and see if it works out.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over.

[Mark Mitchell]

Hi Dan I have 8 layers where I need to have only one layer at a time above all the others – like the apple dock. I am not familiar with expressions and hope you can explain which parameters I need to change to hopefully have this expression work for me.

Thanks.
Mark

Regards

Mark