Changing Shape Layers size (width) due to text width

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

For rectangle size:

margin = 25;
text_width = thisComp.layer("my_text").sourceRectAtTime().width;
text_height = thisComp.layer("my_text").sourceRectAtTime().height;
box_width = text_width + margin*2;
box_height = text_height + margin*2;
[box_width, box_height]

for rectangle position:

text_height = thisComp.layer("my_text").sourceRectAtTime().height;
[0, text_height/2]

It works with multiline as well.

[Bart Remmers]

Well, it might be a beginners mistake, but I can’t seem to figure this out…
I’ve done exactly as you said but I think I still did this thing wrong.
It gives me errors when adding the expressions to the scale/position of the rectangle.
One of these errors are displayed below. I think I named my layers right. I did name my text layer for this example ‘my_text’.

I’m sorry for messing up, haha, still a rookie.

[Bart Remmers]

Sorry, I attached the wrong picture. Here’s the right one. I can’t seem to edit my last post.

[Dan Ebberts]

I notice you’re using CC 2014. Is it the 13.2 update? I think that’s when sourceRectAtTime() was added.

Dan

[Bart Remmers]

Thank you for replying so fast!
Yeah, that’s it! I’ve been working on an older version (without knowing). I just updated to 13.2 instead of 13.0.2 and now it does work.
Only too bad still something goes wrong. The rectangle (which has an anchor point in the mid-centre of it) now positions itself with the anchor in the far upper right corner of the composition, and is far to wide. But the size DOES change the way I want it too, so I’m on the way to achieving what I’m looking for. Maybe I’m still doing something wrong. I’ve been trying other values aswel in the expression, but I still don’t get what I’m trying for.

Thanks again!

Bart

[Dan Ebberts]

Sizing and positioning a shape layer is tricky because, as with a text layer, you have to use sourceRectAtTime() to get its extents. Try this for the shape layer’s position:

t = thisComp.layer(“my_text”);
tRect = t.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
tUL = t.toComp([tRect.left,tRect.top]);
tLR = t.toComp([tRect.left+tRect.width,tRect.top+tRect.height]);
tCenter = (tUL + tLR)/2
myRect = sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
myUL = toComp([myRect.left,myRect.top]);
myLR = toComp([myRect.left+myRect.width,myRect.top+myRect.height]);
myCenter = (myUL + myLR)/2
delta = myCenter – tCenter;
value – delta

Try this for the shape’s scale (not the layer’s scale, the one in the Transform: Rectangle 1 section):

t = thisComp.layer(“my_text”);
tRect = t.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
tUL = t.toComp([tRect.left,tRect.top]);
tLR = t.toComp([tRect.left+tRect.width,tRect.top+tRect.height]);
myRect = sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
myUL = toComp([myRect.left,myRect.top]);
myLR = toComp([myRect.left+myRect.width,myRect.top+myRect.height]);
margin = 10;
[(tLR[0]-tUL[0] + 2*margin)/(myLR[0]-myUL[0]),(tLR[1]-tUL[1]+ 2*margin)/(myLR[1]-myUL[1])]*100

Dan

[Bart Remmers]

Dan, thank you very much for helping me out with this.

That code really looks like a massive math project. Phew! How do you do it?! Haha!

I’ve been struggling with this for a few days now. I’m trying to make my projects somewhat easier to edit for later, like working with a Mastercomp where the texts can be changed later on and some colors that are used in the animation, you never know. This way I can make my animations more variable.

Thanks again! I really appreciate this!

Bart

[Matthew Mammola]

This is awesome! Thanks y’all! At first, when using Dan’s latest script there, I was having an issue with the box not aligning properly to the center of the text, and then I set my Rectangle anchor point to 0,0 and all was perfect with the world.

Of course, my text and box are centered absolute in the comp, so that may not be helpful to other purposes.

Thanks for the awesome scripting!

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

My method expects the shape box to be drawn and placed in a similar fashion to how you want it to look, correctly placed and sized to the text.

Starting setup project:

10129_selfadjustingtextbox.aep.zip

[Tim Drage]

Incredible thanks 🙂

Could be better if the second expression, instead of changing the shape’s scale, controlled the rectangle path size, that way any round corners wouldn’t be distorted. I’ll try and figure it out myself but the last line of that expression is a bit much for me this morning 😀