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“Illegal” variable names in expressions?
Hi guys. So this expression for Anchor Point works as expected when applied to a text layer, keeping the Anchor Point on the center right:
a = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime(4);
H = a.height;
W = a.width;
T = a.top;
L = a.left;
[L+W,T+H/2]However, this expression does NOT work for some reason.
a = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime(4);
height = a.height;
width = a.width;
top = a.top;
left = a.left;
[left+width,top+height/2]I suspect the problem is that certain words (“height” “width” “top” and “left” for instance) can’t be used as variables, but that’s just a guess. Anybody know what’s going on here? Thanks.
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2 Replies
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You are correct.
For example height gets interpreted as thisLayer.height and you can’t assign a value to that.
So it’s best to avoid variable names that are property and method names of thisComp, thisLayer, thisProperty
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Thanks a lot. I was actually led astray by this School of Motion guide:
https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/anchor-point-expressions-in-after-effects
It explains the expressions very well except the variables they use simply won’t work right. Hard to believe they missed that, but just changing the variables to simple letters corrects it.
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