fade-in/out color based on input values

[Dan Ebberts]

You need to structure your if tests so that they’re in chronological order, otherwise, (in this case) you’ll never get past this one:

else if (cti > tlo)

I haven’t tested this, but you should be able to replace all your if/else stuff with something close to this:

if (cti < tl0)
  ease(time, st, st - fadeTime, gray, blue)
else if (cti < tlo + fadeTime)
  ease(time, et, et + fadeTime, blue, gray)
else if (cti < tl02)
  ease(time, st2 - fadeTime, st2, gray, blue)
else{
  ease(time, et2, et2 + fadeTime, blue, gray);

[Marshall Eide]

Hi Dan!
Thanks for your help here and on the many posts you’ve answered! I’ve learned a lot from you already. However, this doesn’t seem to work either. I think I didn’t explain the end goal of the expression so well. The blue fade comes on, holds, and fades out, then based on another separate set of values comes on again, holds and fades out.

I took your advice in putting things in chronological order and it’s helped me with other expressions, but this one I’m starting to think can’t work because the ‘cti’ (frame number) is being tested by four different variables. They both work when split apart. I was thinking if “st” (start time) and “et” (end time) variables could be switched in the

ease(time, var, var +/- fadeTime, color, color)

array it might reduce the if statements. I’m not that advanced yet, but I’m keen to learn.

[Dan Ebberts]

There were a few typos in there, but I think this does what you descibe:

var cti = timeToFrames();
var tli = thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("TarLight 1 on")("Slider")
var tlo = thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("TarLight 1 off")("Slider")
var tli2 = thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("TarLight 2 on")("Slider")
var tlo2 = thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("TarLight 2 off")("Slider")
var frames = 1 / thisComp.frameDuration;
var fadeFrames = thisComp.layer(1).effect("Fade Time")("Slider");
var fadeTime =fadeFrames / frames;
var st = tli / frames;
var et = tlo / frames;
var st2 = tli2 /frames;
var et2 = tlo2 /frames;
gray = [99, 102, 106, 255]/255
blue = [3, 169, 244, 255]/255
if (cti < tlo)
  ease(time, st, st - fadeTime, gray, blue)
else if (cti < tlo + fadeFrames)
  ease(time, et, et + fadeTime, blue, gray)
else if (cti < tlo2)
  ease(time, st2 - fadeTime, st2, gray, blue)
else
  ease(time, et2, et2 + fadeTime, blue, gray);

[Marshall Eide]

Thank you Dan! This seems to work flawlessly. This makes everything so clear! I think my big mistake was relying on the if statements to determine the time things should turn on. When it’s already dictated in the ‘ease()’. All the ‘if’ needs to do is return a true statement chronologically.