CLAMP or LINEAR to limit scale?

[David Rodriguez]

I have it working with x,y together.

temp = thisComp.layer(“BOTTLE 2”).transform.position[1];
result = linear(temp, 150, 280, 75, 100);

[result,result]

I am so bad at this stuff, my apologies for being a dufus but how do I make this work for x and y separately?

[Filip Vandueren]

Hi David, position and scale are 2- (or 3-) dimensional properties. They have an x and a y component.
Motionscript uses an Array syntax or a list to assign those numbers.
For example: [100,50]
You can retrieve one component from a property by using it’s index: x=0, y=1 like this:

x = position[0];
y = position[1];

since the linear() method likes to work with numbers, not lists/arrays, we apply the linear to x and y separately, then put the result back in a 2-dimensional array (because scale will give an error if it only gets a number as a result of the expression):


x_temp = thisComp.layer("UPDOWN").transform.position[0];
y_temp = thisComp.layer("UPDOWN").transform.position[1];

x_result = linear(x_temp, 150, 280, 65, 100);
y_result = linear(y_temp, 150, 280, 75, 100);

[x_result, y_result] ;

I hope that makes sense. You’ll have to tweak the numbers in that linear expressions probably.

[David Rodriguez]

Thanks!

So if I wanted both X and Y scale to be affected differently by the vertical motion of another layer I could use

x = position[1];
y = position[1];

x_temp = thisComp.layer(“UPDOWN”).transform.position[1];
y_temp = thisComp.layer(“UPDOWN”).transform.position[1];

x_result = linear(x_temp, 150, 280, 65, 100);
y_result = linear(y_temp, 150, 280, 75, 100);

[x_result, y_result] ;

?

[Filip Vandueren]

yes, though you only need to “sample” the vertical motion once: you can/should use the same variable in two different formulas.
Also the first two lines have no use here: you’re defining x and y as the componenets of this layer’s position, then you don’t use it in the rest of the expression.
So your code works, but could be simplified like this:


y_temp = thisComp.layer("UPDOWN").transform.position[1];

x_result = linear(y_temp, 150, 280, 65, 100);
y_result = linear(y_temp, 150, 280, 75, 100);

[x_result, y_result] ;


notice I used y_temp in both formulae.

[David Rodriguez]

I understand. Thank you!
So I could use the following for an independent X,Y scale expression based on the X position of a layer called “UPDOWN”

wichita = thisComp.layer(“UPDOWN”).transform.position[0];

x_boogedy = linear(wichita, 150, 280, 65, 100);
y_boogedy = linear(wichita, 150, 280, 75, 100);

[x_boogedy, y_boogedy] ;

[Filip Vandueren]

Correct