scripting question…

Adobe After Effects Expressions

scripting question…

Posted by Danny Princz on September 25, 2006 at 7:22 pm

i have a comp that im wokring with that id like to script the following.

i have many layers lets call them, layer1, layer1_active, layer2, layer2_active, layer3, layer3_active, etc.

im trying to write a script that when i select a layer, lets say layer1, i can run the script that for this example would apply some opacity keyframes, say, 100% 5 frames b4 the current time, 50% at the current time, 50% 5 frames later, etc.
i understand the setValuesAtTimes, i just dont know how to get the current time to be a variable.

how do i get the current comp time in the script?

and then second.

say the selected layer is layer1, then apply keyframes in a similayer manner to the layer1_active, ie the another layer that has the selecteds name plus a suffix?

any ideas?

Danny Princz replied 19 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

Dan Ebberts
September 25, 2006 at 8:16 pm

I think you get the layer time like this:

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers[0];
var myCurrTime = myLayer.time;

and do this to get the layer with the suffix:

var suffix = “_active”;
var myNewLayer = myComp.layer(myLayer.name + suffix);

Not tested, but should be close.

Dan
Danny Princz
September 25, 2006 at 8:38 pm

thanks dan

i was trying something like that for the time but couldnt get it to work.

ill give it another go
Danny Princz
September 25, 2006 at 8:45 pm

it must be somthing else i am doing wrong as that is pretty much what i had

i am an error that the value is not a float

heres a test script

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers[0];
var myCurrTime = myLayer.Time;
keyTimes = new Array (1,2,myCurrTime);
keyValues = new Array(10,20,30);
myLayer.opacity.setValuesAtTimes(keyTimes,keyValues);
Dan Ebberts
September 25, 2006 at 11:30 pm

You just need to change:

myLayer.Time;

to:

myLayer.time;

Dan
Danny Princz
September 26, 2006 at 2:38 pm

ugh

thanks so much

i couldnt figure out why it wasnt working…

i also have a layer expression effect that i would like to use to choose the layer that the script targets but i cant get that to work either.

if i have an effect on myLayer named chooser

var myTarget = myLayer.effect(“chooser)(“Layer”)

so

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers[0];
var myCurrTime = myLayer.time;
keyTimes = new Array (1,2,myCurrTime);
keyValues = new Array(10,20,30);
var myTarget = myLayer.effect(“chooser”)(“Layer”);

myTarget.opacity.setValuesAtTimes(keyTimes,keyValues);

what am i doing wrong here?

thanks again
Dan Ebberts
September 26, 2006 at 3:13 pm

This seems to work:

var myComp = app.project.activeItem;
var myLayer = myComp.selectedLayers[0];
var myCurrTime = myLayer.time;
keyTimes = new Array (1,2,myCurrTime);
keyValues = new Array(10,20,30);
var myTarget = myComp.layer(myLayer.effect(“chooser”)(“Layer”).value);
myTarget.opacity.setValuesAtTimes(keyTimes,keyValues);

Dan
Danny Princz
September 26, 2006 at 3:39 pm

.value

awesome

thanks so much

you are the man!

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