ExtendScript for After Effects

Posted by Anthony Honciano on October 17, 2022 at 4:29 pm

So I’m trying to learn and teach myself ExtendScript for After Effects, and I learned how to kinda reverse engineer a layer and dial down its properties to get the property name and its Adobe Match Name. I was able to create a for loop to do this, but it only does the first “column” of properties.

What I want: I want to be able to create a script that will display the entire hierarchy of the selected layer showing the property and its sub-properties (see image).

Below is the code I have that just gives me the first level of property names:

var project = app.project;
var comp = project.activeItem;
var lName = "test" ;
var theLayer = comp.layer(lName)


/*--I set a ridiculous number in the for loop so I can figure out how many properties there are. 
Unfortunately ExtendScript (to my knowledge) won't count the length of the property group. 
The TRY CATCH method will stop the loop.--*/

for (var i=1; i<1000; i++){
    try{
        var theLayer2 = theLayer.property(i).name;
        $.writeln(i+" Name: "+theLayer.property(i).name+'\<wbr>n'+
        i+" MatchName: "+theLayer.matchName+'\n \n');
        
    } catch (e){
        break;
    }
    
    
}

This is the output I get for the selected shape layer using the above script.

1 Name: Marker
1 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

2 Name: Contents
2 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer

3 Name: Masks
3 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

4 Name: Effects
4 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

5 Name: Transform
5 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

6 Name: Layer Styles
6 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

7 Name: Geometry Options
7 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

8 Name: Material Options
8 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

9 Name: Audio
9 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer
 

10 Name: Sets
10 MatchName: ADBE Vector Layer

Anthony Honciano replied 3 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies

4 Replies

Dan Ebberts
October 17, 2022 at 4:40 pm

For each property that has sub properties, you can use numPrperties to loop through those. I think what you’ll need is a recursive function that call you whenever you encounter a property that has sub properties (PropertyType.INDEXED_GROUP or PropteryType.NAMED_GROUP) and that should let you traverse through the entire hierarchy.
Anthony Honciano
October 17, 2022 at 8:13 pm

Thank you for this! Much helpful.
Filip Vandueren
October 18, 2022 at 6:53 am
Hi Anthony, it sounds like you are re-inventing the wheel:

these scripts are extremely useful for inspecting properties of layers:
The original Website is down, but you can find it here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200810005131/http://www.redefinery.com/ae/rd_scripts/
Anthony Honciano
October 27, 2022 at 9:07 am

Oh wow! Thank you! Ya I figured that there are tools out there that already do what I’m doing lol.

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