Expression/Dropdown control of Text Animator Expression Selector – Based On

[Marcus Romero]

I need some help.

I’m building a type animation engine that is applied via saved preset. I’d like to be able to control the values of the Expression Selector “Based On” value by the way of an Expression Contol Effect – Dropdown that is unified with my other custom animation control parameters to avoid having to take a deep dive into the text animator to change between character, word, or line-based animation.

Can this be scripted?

[Filip Vandueren]

It can be scripted yes:

For example use

layer(1)(“Text”)(“Animators”)(1)(“Selectors”)(1)(“Advanced”)(“Based On”).setValue(3);

3 is the third option: “Words”

But – and I think that’s what you are asking ? – it cannot be changed with an expression since it cannot be keyframed.

If you want to do it with expressions, you’ll need 4 range selectors (for the 4 different options) and give their amount an expression so only one of the four is active.

But note that Shape is also not keyframeable (so not controllable via an expression) so if you want to control that too with your rig, then maybe it’s better to create a more complex expression selector that can mimic the Range Shapes you need