Renaming Solid Layer (Expression or Script)

[Scott Mcgee]

After a few hours of research this script is essentially what I want

str1 = “Metallic”;
str2 = “Regent”;
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i <= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1)
comp.layer(i).name = str2 + comp.layer(i).name.substr(str1.length);
}

Is there anyway to adapt this to do this,

str1 = “Bar”;
str2 = “Bar”;
k = [1,2,3,4]
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i <= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1)
comp.layer(i).name = str2 + k;
}

[Dan Ebberts]

Probably

comp.layer(i).name = str2 + k[i-1];

or just

comp.layer(i).name = str2 + i;

or probably better

comp.layer(i).name = str2 + ” ” + i;

Dan

[Scott Mcgee]

Hey Dan,

I’ve combined two of them together, this is nearly what I want.

comp.layer(i).name = str2 +” “+ k[i-1]

str1 = “Bar”;
str2 = “Bar”;
k = [1,2,3,4]
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i <= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1)
comp.layer(i).name = str2 +” “+ k[i-1];
}

I want it to work from the ground up. In my example

1: Bar 5
2: Bar 4
3: Bar 3
4: Bar 2
5: Bar 1

This would work fine, if it is 5 layers, and my array is set [5,4,3,2,1]. I know this works, but if I have 10 layers. It comes up as undefined from layer 6 onwards, which is obvious as to why this happens, as it is looking at the first layer (i = 1) and because I have only 5 numbers in my array it stops after layer 5, how do I get it to work from the ground up?

So if I had 20 layers, it knows to start from layer 20.

Then the cherry on top. You wrote me an expression where if a break happens it moves to the next layer not taking the break into account

val = null;
for ( i = index+1; i <= thisComp.numLayers; i++){
try{
val = thisComp.layer(i).effect(“bar_index”)(“Slider”).value +1;
break;
}catch(err){
}

I’m happy to write out an array [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15….], because nobody is going to want more than 15. But if you put a text layer in between them I get this.

1: Bar 1
2: Bar 2
3: Text 1
4: Bar 4
5: Bar 5
6: Bar undefined

I tried adding a break, I tried index +1, but I’m having no success.

Is it something so simple, i can’t see the forest for the trees.

[Scott Mcgee]

I’ve managed to shorten the script as I don’t need str2 as it’s not changing it from bar to something else. it’s just adding a number after

str1 = “Bar”;
k = [1,2,3,4,5]
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i <= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1)
comp.layer(i).name = str1 +” “+ k[i-1];
}

But i still haven’t got it to start from layer 6 and work it’s way back to layer 1 skipping anything that doesn’t have Bar in it’s title so that the next one in the chain should end up like this.

1: Bar 5
2: Bar 4
3: Text 1
3: Bar 3
4: Bar 2
5: Bar 1

[Scott Mcgee]

I cracked it.

It’s a dirty way to do it, so if anyone has a tidier way feel free to add.

So Dan helped me with an expression that looked for a specific slider to +1, but if something went between two layers that didn’t have it. It would break and not work, or the expression would include that layer and add +2 which left me with a gap.

This expression below, would look passed a layer that didn’t contain the slider and ignore it

val = null;
for ( i = index+1; i <= thisComp.numLayers; i++){
try{
val = thisComp.layer(i).effect(“bar_index”)(“Slider”).value +1;
break;
}catch(err){
}

So my .value in my slider would be like this

1:Bar 5 (5)
2:Bar 4 (4)
3: Text 1 (Ignore)
4: Bar 3 (3)
5: Bar 2 (2)
6: Bar 1 (1)

Now if I delete a layer in the middle and and duplicate I get this, but my expression keeps the value of the slider the same like below.

1:Bar 7 (5)
2:Bar 4 (4)
3: Text 1 (Ignore)
4: Bar 6 (3)
5: Bar 2 (2)
6: Bar 1 (1)

The problem now is that I need my layers to be sequential for my script to work. Otherwise it’s going to skip my editText box referencing Bar 2 and Bar 5

So with the help of Dan and mucking I thought to get it to read the slider value to add the number next to it. So below.

str1 = “Bar”;
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i <= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1){
comp.layer(i).name = str1 +” “+ comp.layer(i).effect(“bar_index”)(“Slider”).value;
}
}

Once fired replaces it all back to

1:Bar 5 (5)
2:Bar 4 (4)
3: Text 1 (Ignore)
4: Bar 3 (3)
5: Bar 2 (2)
6: Bar 1 (1)

For anyone who is thinking…What on earth would you use this for….A bar graph my dear friend. A bar graph that if someone who doesn’t know after effects can open up my template. Fire up my UI panel and tell it what Bar 1 – 5 values are, it will animate to the correct percentage. Too some of you this is child’s play. For me this was my personal mount everest to get this to work and eventually hand this over to the news team to quickly make a bar graph without needing any after effects knowledge…Woohoo.

<b>str1 = "Bar";
var comp = app.project.activeItem;
for (var i = 1; i &lt;= comp.numLayers; i++){
if (comp.layer(i).name.substr(0,str1.length) == str1){
comp.layer(i).name = str1 +" "+ comp.layer(i).effect("bar_index")("Slider").value;
}
}</b>

[Tomas Bumbulevičius]

Hey Scott, nicely done! Just thought to give you heads up on this breakdown, as it seems you like to have hit a head into a wall for a while, until solution was found. Which, is much appreciated attitude, You, mountaineer! :)))

Find out more:
After Effects Tutorials: motion design, expressions, scripting.
Boxer – Dynamic Text Boxes Template with a Live Preview

[Scott Mcgee]

Cheers Tomas,

That expression and script saved me weeks of work, and even more so when I had to I had 24 hours to rebrand it all.

[Aris Melachroinos]

Hi Scott,

I am not sure if I fully understood your whole project (I am not sure if/why you need a slider) but if you want to just rename the layers that start with ‘Bar’ from bottom to top, this is a very simple script. You don’t need any slider/expressions to do something like this, but maybe I misunderstood something.

var comp = app.project.activeItem;
var str1 = 'Bar';
var numCounter = 1;
//making a regular expression that starts with str1
var regex = new RegExp("^" + str1);
//looping through all layers from last to first
for (var i = comp.numLayers; i >=1; i--){
    var currentLayer = comp.layer(i);
    var currentName = currentLayer.name;
    if(currentName.match(regex)==str1){
        //this layer name starts with str1
        currentLayer.name = str1 + " " + numCounter;
        numCounter++;
    }
}

[Scott Mcgee]

Hi Aris,

Thank you for this. Thought I’d at least reply late on haha.

I wasn’t as experienced back in 2017 with scripting.

I was working for a central station providing graphics to all the individual stations. They had to create quick graphics. So i built templates that allowed them to do this. They were also gits who didn’t know how to use after and would massively destroy my projects and complain that they couldn’t use them (Not all. Just one or two). So I used to build plugins where it stored simple templates like this one for bar graphs that they used in a few of their shows. Again complaining that it only had 1-4 graphs and sometimes they would want 15, or 2. They were also lazy, so if I built 15 templates, with 1-15 bar graphs. Again they’d complain.

So I built a plugin so if they duplicated the Bar layer, it would resize and equally space itself.

But, the expressions if you moved them around or stuck in a text layer inbetween them. The expression would break.

So the script went through all the layers checking for the slider that animated them. Incase they renamed the layers, or did anything that I knew they would. It would find that and then change the layers name to Bar 1,2,3 etc.

I don’t work there any more, but looking at your expression would have done the trick hahaha.