How to use “sourceRectAtTime” expression with accents

[Dan Ebberts]

If you’re using corner pin, I’d do something like this:

//upper left:

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r.left,r.top]))

// upper right:

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r.left+r.width,r.top]))

// lower left:

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r.left,r.top+r.height]))

// lower right:

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r.left+r.width,r.top+r.height]))

Dan

[Sébastien Parrinello]

Wow, it looks so simple…
It works like a charm thank you so much Dan ! It greatly simplyfies the expressions too.
I’m going to need some time to break down how you did this but that’s great.

I have another question though. What if I’d like my lower thirds to have the exact same height wether their texts have accents or not.
I’ll try to explain.
In our videos, we usually use a fade transition between sequences. It would be great to have the lower thirds all at the same height, accents or not.
That would of course mean that in the case of a title with no accents, the background animation would be larger in y and the text would be centered.
This is what I mean:

creativecow2.jpg

The thing is I still want to be able to add lines. Not sure it’s possible.

Anyway, that’s a really good solution you’ve helped me a lot !

[Dan Ebberts]

Here’s a hack you can try. Pick a string that has the greatest y extents you might need (“Ég” in this example). Then add a source text expression like this to your text layer:

if (time < 0) “Ég” else value

Then modify your corner pin expressions like this:

// upper left

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r1 = L.sourceRectAtTime(-1,false);
r2 = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r2.left,r1.top]))

// upper right

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r1 = L.sourceRectAtTime(-1,false);
r2 = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r2.left + r2.width,r1.top]))

// lower left

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r1 = L.sourceRectAtTime(-1,false);
r2 = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);
fromComp(L.toComp([r2.left,r1.top + r1.height]))

// lower right

L = thisComp.layer(“text”);
r1 = L.sourceRectAtTime(-1,false);
r2 = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);

The expressions should pick up the max y dimensions by getting the sourceRect from a negative time, where the string is “Ég” (or whatever you set it to), but use the actual sourceRect to calculate the width.

Dan

[Sébastien Parrinello]

The hack works really well in one text line and that’s awesome but for some unknown reason (at least unknown to me) it doesn’t work when I write on multiple lines.

EDIT: Problem solved, just need to remove r1 from lower left and lower right

I’m breaking down your expressions and learning more about toComp(), fromComp() and sourceRectAtTime() functions.
There is something I still don’t understand.

I’ve seen that you used “r.left” and “r.top” to get the extreme left and top positions of the text bounding box. To get the right and bottom values, you used “r.left + r.width” instead of “r.right” (which seems not to exist). That’s my question: why is it impossible to get the extreme right and bottom values of the bounding box directly by using “r.right” or “r.bottom” ?

Of course, “r.left+r.width” does the job but I’m curious to know why such function doesn’t exist.

Again, Dan, thank you so much !

[Dan Ebberts]

>That’s my question: why is it impossible to get the extreme right and bottom values of the bounding box directly by using “r.right” or “r.bottom” ?

I’m not sure why they did it that way originally, but the expressions implementation matches the way they did it with scripting (which came first).

Dan

[Sébastien Parrinello]

Ok, I’ve been playing with these expressions for hours and it works great but in certain conditions.

Maybe I’ve started things the wrong way. The problem is the corner pin effect I think. When I want to add round corners to my shape layer in my precomposition, the corner pin effect will of course stretch it all and it looks pretty bad especially when I write long titles.

I managed to do the scripting again on a shape layer, directly in my main composition. I’m using a rectangle shape.

Here is a screenshot

0_creativecow3.jpg

It works but only on 1 line. And that’s because unlike the corner pin effect, I can’t have the coordinates of my shape layer points and lock the top points while the bottom points could still move vertically.

I do not wish to take any more of your time but do you think there is a solution for this ?

//Text layer/sourceText

if (time &lt; -1) "E" else
if (time &lt; 0) "É" else value

//Shape layer/Content/Rectangle 1/Rectangle Path/Size

L = thisComp.layer(1);
r1 = L.sourceRectAtTime(-1,false);
r2 = L.sourceRectAtTime(time,false);

[r2.width,r1.height]

//Shape layer/Content/Rectangle 1/Rectangle Path/Position

content("Rectangle 1").content("Tracé rectangulaire 1").size/2;


[Dan Ebberts]

Based on what you’re trying to do, rather than craft a convoluted expression, I think I’d recommend doing it with a script to size and position your background that you would run after you populate your comps. There’s a learning curve, but I think it would give you a more flexible and robust solution.

Dan

[Steve Miller]

Sebastian,

I’ve been trying to do the same as you and with help from several sources I finally found a set of expressions that do exactly what I want for centered text, left and right justified text, and with multiple lines:

Try it out!

*steve

{Shape Layer that follows the size of the text input}
ON SHAPE LAYER THAT’S Parented to the text layer:

Rectangle path size expression:

s=thisComp.layer("Text");
paddingx=35;
paddingy=25;
x=s.sourceRectAtTime(time-s.inPoint,true).width;
y=s.sourceRectAtTime(time-s.inPoint,true).height;
[x+paddingx,y+paddingy]

Rectangle Path position expression:

s=thisComp.layer("Text");
rect = thisComp.layer("Try to the me asdasdasd").sourceRectAtTime(time-s.inPoint,true);
[rect.left + 0.5*rect.width, rect.top+0.5*rect.height];


[Steve Miller]

Oops, this part: “Try to the me asdasdasd” should be “Text” or whatever else your text layer is called.

[Adam Goddard]

Hi I am trying to get this to work but the text seems to be sitting half out side the bottom of the shape layer, please see this image