[Chris Scalzo]

I figured out what was wrong with my property index syntax. I am still looking for a solution to my text.split problem. will reword in a new post.

[Chris Scalzo]

I just noticed this didn’t have any replies, so I’ll give it a go. I personally do not know of any way with an expression, to change values of a keyframe. However, if you have 2 fixed values you are transitioning between, then you want to transition to a third value off a slider you can do that with an expression like the linear() or smooth() functions. Hope this helps.

[Chris Scalzo]

As far as I know, you can not read any app data without running a script. As far as an expression, you could use generate a random number in the range of background you have, and you can seed that random with your composition.

If you are making new compositions with each project with unique names, you would generate new random. If those backgrounds were still images or video files, I would toggle their opacity if their number was called. If you want to replace the background layer in your project, you can also write a script to do that every time you run the script.

bgcount=10; \\assuming you had 10 backgrounds
seedRandom(thisComp.name, timeless = true);
Random(1,bgcount)

[Chris Scalzo]

could also do this if camera changes or if using in multiple comps with different camera names.

cam = this_comp.active_camera;
value + [ 0, 0, cam.position[2] / 2 ]

[Chris Scalzo]

I assumed the rounding error would increase the likelihood that you wouldn’t hit that exact time ever.

eg. if you set keyframe at 10s the value of “time” wouldn’t be exactly 10.

try creating a text layer and in the text source at the expressions”time”. go to 10 seconds and you will see what I mean. Plus your expression wouldn’t add that value permanently to the value. just when it hit that time exactly and would change back. if you count the markers with some type of nummarkers expression you could add the to the value when greater than nearest marker your amount you wanted to add times the number of markers you passed.

If I am incorrect, someone please correct me.

[Chris Scalzo]

I forgot to round both numbers off.. try this.

if ( time.value.toFixed(3) == thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).time.toFixed(3) ) {
value+=[0,40];}

[Chris Scalzo]

Maybe something like this would work for you. (sorry working on 3 others things and no time to test.

if ( time.value.toFixed(3) == thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).time ) {
value+=[0,40];}

[Chris Scalzo]

did you want it to move if it is greater than that time or exactly at that time? (note, it might not be exactly at that time on any frame)

[Chris Scalzo]

Ps. This the the pixel dimsions of the text itself. The bounding box the text is inside is not measureable.

[Chris Scalzo]

What you are probably looking for is SourceRecAtTime. Many youtube videos and forum posts explaining it.

var mytext = thisComp.layer(“text”);
;text width = mytext.sourceRectAtTime().width;
;text height = mytext.sourceRectAtTime().height