• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Trying to script for the first time

  Posted by Sam Catt on May 13, 2018 at 10:20 am

  Hello,

  Though I’ve been using after effects for 5 years + and also been using expressions for just as long… I never delivered into scripting until recently, and this is where it’s thrown me.

  I’ve been trying to create a script to simply reproduce what I would normally take 10 minutes to do, to a single click. But, so far I’m stuck.

  here’s what I’m trying to do via a script on say 3 layers but could be more:

  step 1: on the active comp
  step 2: with selected layers ( first layer to the last layer )
  step 3: create a null at the anchor point of the first layer selected called “Driver”
  step 4: add 4 slider controls to the first selected layer ( layer 1 ): “Slider 1” “Slider 2” “Slider 3” “slider 4”
  Step 5: Add an expression control to layer 1

  Layer control

  step 6: chain parent the selected layers together ignoring the null object

  Driver – no parent
  Layer 1 – no parent
  Layer 2 – parented to layer 1
  Layer 3 – parented to layer 2

  step 7: Add an expression to layer 1’s rotation parameter

  Slider 1 = this comps null object slider 1
  Slider 2 = this comps null object slider 2
  Slider 3 = this comps null object slider 3
  Slider 4 = this comps null object slider 4
  – rest of expression here –

  step 8: add an expression to layer 2++ until the end of selected items
  – expression here –

  If you need the expressions to help with this, then please let me know! I will happily provide the expressions. I kind of understand how to lay this thing out… but I have no idea when it comes to javascript and how to code the working of this. And, after searching for hours on end trying to find any sort of relevant information it’s left me stumped…

  Sam Catt replied 8 years ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
• 0 Replies

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