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Expression with user-defined comp
I have a layer in “comp A”, with many expressions that reference a layer in “comp B”. I would like to give the user a simple method for making those expressions reference a layer in “comp C”, “comp D”, etc… or even possibly a comp that they create. I’ve been racking my brain, but can’t think of any way to give them that option, without them editing each expression themselves. A simple “Comp Control”, similar to the “Layer Control” expression control would do the trick, but that doesn’t exist. And it appears that comps don’t have an index, so an expression that references a comp by index won’t work either. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Creation Effects – Creative tools for After Effects: https://CreationEffects.com
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4 Replies
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I would create a text layer with the name of the comp I want to refer to.
Then write the reference for the composition like this:comp(textLayer.text.sourceText.value)
And put some conditions maybe, so if the composition with the value of the layer doesn’t exist, some default values come in.Andrei
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In addition to what Andrei suggested – you could reference comps by naming them [comp-1], [comp-2], [comp-x], and then getting index by:
thisComp.name.split("-")[1]Find out more:
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Those are both creative solutions to my problem. I’d like to preserve the user’s capability to name their comps whatever they want, but I think your idea, Andrei, will work nicely. They can easily rename the text layer to whatever the name of their comp is. Well done! Thanks!
Creation Effects – Creative tools for After Effects: https://CreationEffects.com
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I hadn’t used the sourceText function before, and I realize now that it gets the text written with the Text tool, not the text from the name of the layer, which is fine – the user will edit the text with Text tool. For anyone who needs it, here is what I did to get a value from a comp and layer that the user specifies…
After creating two text layers, one named “Target Comp Name”, and one named “Target Layer Name”, reference them like this…
targetComp = thisComp.layer(“Target Comp Name”).text.sourceText.value;
targetLayer = thisComp.layer(“Target Layer Name”).text.sourceText.value;
x = comp(targetComp).layer(targetLayer).transform.opacityCreation Effects – Creative tools for After Effects: https://CreationEffects.com
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