Expressions don’t update previews when they are changed

[Dan Ebberts]

I don’t see anything in there that would cause the behavior you’re describing, so I’m baffled. I guess I’d recommend you replace all the checkboxes with a pseudo effect dropdown list and use a switch() statement instead of those cascading if/else constructs.

One small thing (I’m sure it doesn’t have any bearing on your problem) is that where you specify the colors like this:

([0,83,154,1]/255)

I’d do it like this:

[0,83,154,255]/255

Dan

[Christian Simpson]

Hey Dan thanks a lot for taking a look. May I ask what is a switch() statement on how would that apply in this case or what would be an example of it pertaining to my situation?

[Dan Ebberts]

Simple example (with 3 teams):


ctrl = // link to your dropdown control
switch(ctrl){
case 1:
str = "Falcons";
break;
case 2:
str = "Zips";
break;
case 3:
str = "Crimson Tide"
break;
default: // just in case
str = "xxxx";
break;
}
str


Dan

[Christian Simpson]

I ended up using the code below to control my source text with a popup in a psuedo effect and it seems to work. However I am not familiar with all the different things I can modify and the correct way to type them out. For example how would I use this method but change the color value? I am also curious what is being modified in your example? Or what layer and property is your example meant to be applied to? Also how would I apply this to specific team logos being shown? Would it simply be a matter of affecting the opacity layer or is there a better way?

var num = comp("!Scores-Lower-Third").layer("Null 1").effect("Home Team")
("Home Team").value;
var theText = "";
switch(num) {
case 1:
theText = "Air Force";
break;
case 2:
theText = "Akron";
break;
case 3:
theText = "Alabama"
break;
default:
theText = "Team Name"
}
theText

[Christian Simpson]

So I got my pseudo effect installed with a popup but for only 3 teams to test it out first. For this test I only had 2 text layers and the color property of a solid layer that were going to be linked to the pseudo effect popup. And much to my extreme frustration and cursing the same exact behavior occurred again. It works perfectly until I render it out but after the render it doesn’t update correctly based on my selection in the pop-up. Upon preview it randomly flashes the entire set of options contained in the pop-up. I am completely stumped. I suppose this is simply a bug?

[Christian Simpson]

Here is the project file if you’d like to take a look at it. When you first open it up just go to the effects controls for the null and select an option from the pop-up. Render this out and then after the render try and select a new option. Doesn’t work every time. This is a real head scratcher.

11716_testproject.zip

[Dan Ebberts]

That’s very strange. It certainly looks like a bug to me.

Dan

[Christian Simpson]

It must be a bug. However a friend of mine suggested I export via media encoder and not after effects itself and amazingly everything works just fine. My guess is whatever process that re-reads the expressions after a render is where the corruption happens but I guess by taking it directly to media encoder it bypasses that problem. I was able to get stable results several times in a row so I guess for now the workaround is simply exporting from media encoder.
Thanks for all your time and effort in helping Dan, you’re doing lots of good out here!