subcomped expression not working when animated

Adobe After Effects Expressions

subcomped expression not working when animated

Posted by Nils Pokel on March 17, 2009 at 4:41 am
```
x=transform.position[0];
y= linear(comp("02_max_Animation").layer("scale_SC").effect("Slider Control")("Slider"),0,100,130,1024);
[x,y]
```
hi guys,
i have this weird problem: i wrote a simple expression to animate the position value for an element in a subcomposition. the animation is driven by a slider in the main comp so i don’t always have to jump into the subcomp & to keep things tidy.

Now, the expression works fine as long as i dont animate the slider value. as soon as i switch the stopwatch on, no change of the slider value (which i CAN animate) is reflected in the subcomp!
Do you have any idea what the problem is?! i am puzzled…

thanks!
Filip Vandueren replied 17 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

Dan Ebberts
March 17, 2009 at 5:09 am

It works for me. The subcomp doesn’t update until I let go of the slider, but it previews fine.

Dan
Filip Vandueren
March 17, 2009 at 3:05 pm

Are there multiple instances of the subcomp in your comp ?
Is the startPoint and timing of the subcomp the same as the main Comp ?

Also try adding a .value or to the Slider:

y= linear(comp(“02_max_Animation”).layer(“scale_SC”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”).value,0,100,130,1024);
Nils Pokel
March 17, 2009 at 9:55 pm

thank you for your replies – i tried using .value and made sure all comps have unique names. both didnt work 🙁

Dan: previewing works fine for me as well (same as with you. as soon as i start animating the slider though nothing works anymore. can u reproduce this? thx!
Dan Ebberts
March 17, 2009 at 10:08 pm

By “animating” you mean setting keyframes at different times, correct? If so, no, it seems to preview correctly no matter what keyframes I set. It just doesn’t update the comp view while I’m dragging the slider.

Dan
Nils Pokel
March 17, 2009 at 10:45 pm

yep, i mean setting keyframes. the funny thing is that once i hit the stopwatch and have more than 1 keyframe even the preview is not working anymore, even though the slider values change when i scrub in the timeline.
i am using AE CS3 8.0.2.27 by the way.

maybe i have to start fresh in a new project..? weird though!
Nils Pokel
March 18, 2009 at 5:05 am

SOLVED. the layer i had my slider control on was shifted in the timeline (i.e. not starting at 0). so my animations were actually happening but at a later point in time. i dont know why this would be problem in the first place since i was not using the time as a parameter at all, but hey, it’s all good now. thank you for your help!
Filip Vandueren
March 19, 2009 at 5:16 am

If an expression pulls in values from another parameter, it’s always at it’s current time, unless you use .valueAtTime().With precomps that don’t have the same timing, that can get confusing.

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