Parenting Layer to Null & Adding Expression to Layer

[Wim Bruyninckx]

Hi,

valueAtTime is something that may be useful for you

i don’t think it’s necessary to use a parent null layer..
i would just keyframe the position from one layer from point A to B, and then for each of the other layers: add an expression for the position:

thisComp.layer(“animated_layer”).transform.position.valueAtTime(time-2);

where thisComp.layer(“animated_layer”).transform.position is the pick-whipped position value of the keyframed layer

valueAtTime(time-2) where 2 is the time offset … you can change this value of course…

hope it helps

Wim

thisComp.layer("animated_layer").transform.position.valueAtTime(time-2);

[Jay Munoz]

Sweet! I’ll try that now.. thanks so much!

But just to clear it up.. the reason I don’t want to keyframe each layer is because I’m setting it up as a template to use again. I may have to move the position of the text layers here and there for future versions. Any ideas?

[Dan Fredley]

Unparent the null place it at the top then paste this expression on the position of all layers underneath–must be in order in the timeline since this expression uses the relative (index-1)–in other words it pulls info from layer above). This one only reads the y value if that’s all you want to affect:

[value[0],thisComp.layer(index-1).transform.position.valueAtTime(time-2)[1]]

Or if you want to have control over both values:

[value[0],value[1] + thisComp.layer(index-1).transform.position.valueAtTime(time-2)[1]]

[Darby Edelen]

Here’s a way to leave the layers parented, just apply this to the position property of the child layers:


offset = 3;
p = toWorld(anchorPoint, time - offset);
parent.fromWorld(p);


You even maintain the ability to keyframe the position of the child layers independently. The offset value is in seconds. If you want it in frames you could add a framesToTime(); function.

Darby Edelen