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position expression for a text range selector
Let me start off by saying that I am a total neophyte when it comes to expressions and coming from a designers perspective, I have a hard time wrapping my brain around expressions. That said, would I would like to do should be fairly easy to accomplish.
I have some text with the typewriter effect applied to it, and on another layer I have a cursor graphic. I am trying to link the position of the cursor so that its position is always one character in front of the text as it types on. I want the Y position of the cursor to be the same as the Y of the text. So the X position is the only part of the position that changes.
I know the range selector returns a value of 0-100, how do I convert that value to a value that translates to the X position? I know this is probably really basic, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks,RainMan in Seattle
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5 Replies
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I don’t think the range selector percentage gives you an accurate enough position unless maybe if your font is monospaced. The sampleImage() hack should work OK though. Try this:
L = thisComp.layer(“Your Text Layer”);
for (i = thisComp.width; i >= 0; i–){
temp = L.sampleImage([i,thisComp.height/2],[0.5,thisComp.height/2],true,time);
if (temp[3] > 0) break;
}
[i + width/2,L.transform.position[1]]Dan
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This works better when the text isn’t visible yet:
L = thisComp.layer("Your Text Layer");
gotIt = false;
for (i = thisComp.width; i >= 0; i--){
temp = L.sampleImage([i,thisComp.height/2],[0.5,thisComp.height/2],true,time);
if (temp[3] > 0){
gotIt = true;
break;
}
}
if (gotIt)
[i + width/2,L.transform.position[1]]
else
L.transform.position + [width/2,0]Dan
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Thanks Dan,
that works great. I had to subtract some pixels on the (gotit) and else L.transform.position lines to get the cursor to start and end in the right spots, but after that it works like a charm! Thank you, thank you! that will save me a ton of time not having to keyframe the other four words I need. You my friend are awesome.Sincerely,
Randy D.L = thisComp.layer("auto repair shop");
gotIt = false;
for (i = thisComp.width; i >= 0; i--){
temp = L.sampleImage([i,thisComp.height/2],[0.5,thisComp.height/2],true,time);
if (temp[3] > 0){
gotIt = true;
break;
}
}
if (gotIt)
[i + width/2,L.transform.position[1]]-635;
else
L.transform.position + [width/2,0]-660; -
Hello, i’m afraid i’m pretty green with expressions apart from good old loopOut(“cycle”) 😀
Might anyone know how I could link the position of a layer to the first line of a text range selector in another layer?
I did look at Dan’s response to this thread… but i’m afraid i’m not clever enough to adapt it to suit…
Many Thanks, Dobbo.
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Hi! I know that I’m a decade late to replying, but I just discovered that .sourceRectAtTime() works for text layers with a range selector if the range selector is changing the scale to 0%.
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