Expression: X&Y coordinates

[Dan Ebberts]

Something like this:

p = thisComp.layer(“myLayer”).position;
“” + Math.round(p[0]*100)/100 + ” ” + Math.round(p[1]*100)/100

Dan

[Erin Patrick]

WOW! That was exactly what I needed! One day, I’ll get the hang of expressions, hopefully.
Thanks again.

[Ian Smith]

This code was very helpful and nearly exactly what I am looking to do as well. I have one slight modification, if anyone may be able to help me.

I am tracking the coordinates of both the x and y value as if it’s from the 0,0 point. I want to be able to track the change in position easier, so I am ‘zero-ing’ it out.

The way I have it configured is by using two Nulls.

Null 1 position is an exact copy of the position.

Null 1 – ZERO is a duplicate of Null 1, with all keyframes highlighted moved to the 0,0 location. Now I am able to see 0,0 change and see exactly how much. Can I use the code you provided to display this data?

Thanks so much!

Ian

thisComp.layer("5 - TIM").transform.position[0]
p = thisComp.layer("5 - TIM").position;
"" + Math.round(p[0]*100)/100 + " " + Math.round(p[1]*100)/100

Ian Smith

[Dan Ebberts]

I what you want to do is track how much a layer (“target”) has moved since some arbitrary time (I’m using 0 in this example). I think I’d do it like this:

p = thisComp.layer(“target”).transform.position;
d = p – p.valueAtTime(0);
“x = ” + d[0].toFixed(2) + “, y = ” + d[1].toFixed(2)

Dan

[Ian Smith]

Dan,

This was extremely helpful and exactly what I was looking to display. The only adjustment I made was removing the “x =” and “y =”. Your code works perfectly.

Would you mind explaining this code a little for me? Usually I am able to understand what is happening in a code, though I’m far less capable of writing my own. I’m very curious how this is working.

Thanks again!

Ian Smith

[Dan Ebberts]

The expression subtracts the target layer’s position at time 0 from it’s current position to calculate how far it has moved. It then converts each component of that distance (x & y) to text using toFixed(2) to limit each number to two decimal places.

Dan