simple if then statement based on character length

[Adam Greenberg]

Hi everyone, I am sure the problem is only with the way I wrote this. I have done and modified countless expressions over the years, but this one isn’t working.

I want my if then statement to change position by 100 pixels based on character length in a text, so here is my expression in the position property of a different layer.

a=thisComp.layer(“text”).text.sourceText.length

if (a>32),[960,540] else [960, 640]

thanks so much for any help.

To further explain the reasoning, I plan on making my text a paragraph text with a limited length horizontally, so that once the text starts appearing on the second line, the expression will move the other layer down, basically keeping this layer a certain amount of pixels lower than the text. I think there might even be better way to create this expression based on sourcerectattime for the height, but Im not sure how.

Thank you

[Kevin Camp]

I would do it with using sourceRectAtTime().

Parent the layer to the text layer and try this:

rect = parent.sourceRectAtTime() ;

y = rect.top + rect.height ;

value + [ 0, y ]

[Trent Armstrong]

Adam,

I’m curious if it’s not doing what you want or if it’s breaking. I realized after much gnashing of teeth that the new expression engine asks for more coding language like:

if (a>32) {[960,540]} else {[960, 640]}

Kevin may have gotten you to the right place, but I wanted to make sure you’re not experiencing a “gotcha”.

Trent

[Adam Greenberg]

Trent, it was showing an error the way I wrote it. But I have no way of knowing the exact problem. your expression works perfectly. Thanks so much

[Adam Greenberg]

Thanks Kevin, yes this looks amazing. I’m going to try this.

Thanks so much

[Adam Greenberg]

Kevin, what if I don’t want to parent it. I may have other things that the text layer is doing that I don’t want the null to follow. I figured out how to modify the beginning by writing the following;

rect = thisComp.layer(“titre”).sourceRectAtTime() ;

y = rect.top + rect.height ;

value + [ 0, y-160 ]

but the problem is the null moves exponentially away from the text, as the text goes into more and more lines. I’m sure it’s an easy fix but I cant figure out the logic on this one, especially rect.top

Thanks again for any help

[Trent Armstrong]

Adam,

That is good info. I think the problem, at least for the syntax, was the braces for the if/then statement.

if (something) {this} else {that}

— or —

if (something) {

this

} else {

that

}

I’m not sure about your exponential movement issue, but you might need to multiply the height * .5.

We’re all pulling for you!