Expressions in “source text”

[Dan Ebberts]

This should do it:

“” + thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Blue_bit”)(“Angle”) + “%”

Dan

[Hannes Paulsson]

Thanks Dan, works like a charm!

[Michael Josefik]

This thread was very helpful in a similar issue that I had, however I was wondering if you could expand on it. What if, using this example, you wanted the number to be orange, and you wanted the %-symbol to be black? Can you achieve color change within one line of text using expressions?

[Dan Ebberts]

You could add a Fill Color animator, set the Fill Color to orange, add an Expression Selector, delete the Range Selector, and set the Expression Selector Amount parameter expression to this:

str = text.sourceText;
if (str[textIndex-1] == “%”)100 else 0

Dan

[Michael Josefik]

Awesome, thank you so much.

[Michael Josefik]

Hello again,
I am trying to implement this expression again, but this time I want to have a “$” in front of numbers that are generated by a slider. I have written the expression below using what I learned in the first round.

v = (thisComp.layer(“Adjustment Layer 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”));
“” + “$” + v

This however does not work. If I move the $ to the end…

v = (thisComp.layer(“Adjustment Layer 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”));
“” + v + “$”

It works perfectly. What gives?

Thanks

[Dan Ebberts]

There’s an obscure behavior for expression controls where sometimes the expression engine will implicitly grab the value and sometimes it won’t (it thinks you’re referring to the slider object, no its value, for example). In those cases, you have to explicitly tell it to retrieve the value with “.value”. This will work:

v = thisComp.layer(“Adjustment Layer 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”).value;
“$” + v

Dan

[Michael Josefik]

That did the trick. Thanks again for saving a project!