How to get a Blinking Effect using expressions?

[Jack Cloud]

Oops here’s the link:

https://gallery.me.com/jackcloud#100155/blink_timeline

thisComp.layer(thisComp.layer(“Blink”),4).inPoint
time < blink.inPoint || time > blink.outPoint ? 100 : 0

I got an error at the end on line one. Didn’t like the .inPoint after the ,4)
Without the .inPoint it works but only on 1 instance.

Still trying though

cheers

[Dan Ebberts]

This should target the 3rd instance:

myInstance = 3;
blink = thisComp.layer(thisComp.layer(“Blink”),myInstance-1);
time < blink.inPoint || time > blink.outPoint ? 100 : 0

Dan

[Jack Cloud]

Hi Dan, thanks so much for your timely replies. This is useful knowledge as well.
I may have been unclear though. I would like the eyelash to respond to ALL instances of the Blink
and so far I’ve only been able to get it to one instance (occurrence). I did notice that I can change the number and it would see the Blink above or below BUT reference ALL has not been successful yet.

I could use index I suppose but then it would reference the other layers that are NOT Blink as well eh?

cheers

[Dan Ebberts]

Try this:


numInstances = 5;
idx = thisComp.layer("Blink").index;
gotBlink = false;
for (i = 0; i < numInstances; i++){
L = thisComp.layer(idx+i);
if (time >= L.inPoint && time < L.outPoint) gotBlink = true;
}
gotBlink ? 0 : 100


Dan

[Jack Cloud]

THAT DID IT!!! Your a rockstar in my book Dan!
I only wish I understood more clearly this code you’ve written
I get the 1st 3 variables
but can I learn about the for statement on motionscripts
Also the i statement. I don’t see a variable defining it?
Whatever you did works and works well. All I have to do is change the expression if I add more instances.
I could probably connect that to a slider and just count out the number of instances, then I can leave the expression alone.
YOU ROCK did I already say that?!

This code is quite useful for grabbing a specific number of layers in a comp and doing something with them.

numInstances = 5;
idx = thisComp.layer(“Blink”).index;
gotBlink = false;
for (i = 0; i < numInstances; i++){
L = thisComp.layer(idx+i);
if (time >= L.inPoint && time < L.outPoint) gotBlink = true;
}
gotBlink ? 0 : 100

cheers

[Dan Ebberts]

The for statement is basic core JavaScript. The i variable is defined in the for statement. In fact in a script I would write it more formally, like this:


for (var i = 0; i < numInstances; i++){


This version should automatically count the instances for you:


blinkName = "Blink";
idx = thisComp.layer(blinkName).index;
gotBlink = false;
while (idx <= thisComp.numLayers){
L = thisComp.layer(idx);
if (L.name != blinkName) break;
if (time >= L.inPoint && time < L.outPoint){
gotBlink = true;
break;
}
idx++;
}
gotBlink ? 0 : 100


Dan