[Al Edwards]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The invisible all caps layer sourceRectAtTime workaround is what I went with, but I had to change the horizontal scale on the all caps text to 80% to get the lines to break in the same place. The diff constant code didn’t adjust the anchor point based on the number of lines in the text box; it kept the layer in the same place rather than shifting it vertically like I wanted. Perhaps I didn’t understand it thoroughly enough–my knowledge of expressions is self-taught with the aid of helpful forums like this one!

[Al Edwards]

Solved!

I made two adjustments that fixed the expression:

1) When I pick-whipped the menu effect, I had to add .value to the end.
2) Apparently the index of the first menu item is 1, not 0. So I needed to put v==1, not v==0 to reference that first menu item.

I will paste the working code below in case it’s helpful to anyone.

Thanks for the help!

v = thisComp.layer("Control Layer").effect("Dropdown Menu Control")("Menu").value;
r = thisComp.layer("Layer 1").transform.rotation;

output = 0;
if (v == 1) {
if (r < 45) {
output = 100;
}
} else if (v == 2) {
output = 100;
}
output;

//This way of writing it works too:

if (v == 1 && r < 45) {
100;
} else if (v == 2) {
100;
} else {
0;
}

[Al Edwards]

Hi Filip,

When I pasted your code into AE, I didn’t get any errors. However, for v==0, the opacity stays at 100 all the time, even when r>45. Also, for v==1, I’m getting 0 when it should be 100. (v==2 is 0 too, but that’s correct).

It did the same thing with the code I used in my second attempt. No errors, but still not the expected outcome. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

My JavaScript knowledge is a little hazy when it comes to debugging the more complicated stuff like this!

[Al Edwards]

Oh duh, I just figured it out… I messed up the order-of-operations on the width calculation.

Here’s the corrected code in case it helps someone else!

-Al

t = thisComp.layer("Text").sourceRectAtTime();
t2 = thisComp.layer("Text 2").sourceRectAtTime();
logo = thisComp.layer("Logo").sourceRectAtTime();
w = Math.max(t.width, t2.width) / 2 + logo.width;
h = t2.height / 2;
l = t2.left;
top = t2.top;

[w + l + logo.width, h + top]; // Keeps rectangle aligned left

[Al Edwards]

Wonderful! It works as advertised. Thanks for your quick reply, Dan.

Al