[Dan Ebberts]

Try this:

A = thisComp.layer(“A”);
A.toComp(A.anchorPoint)

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Try this:

A = thisComp.layer(“A”);
A.toComp(A.anchorPoint)

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

I think you can cut the masks (Edit > Cut), enlarge the layer, then paste the masks back in.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

>What books/websites would you suggest to really get a good grasp on the principle/theory and rationale behind scripting.

I guess that depends. Have you done any programming before? If so, probably all you need is a good JavaScript book and the After Effects scripting guide. Create a simple project for yourself. Look at the sample scripts to see if there’s something similar that you can use. Ask questions if you get stuck. Keep at it.

If you haven’t done much programming, I’d still get the JavaScript book, but I’d tackle expressions first. Use expressions to learn JavaScript (looping, conditional code, arrays, string manipulation, etc.) After you’ve got your JavaScript chops down you’ll be better equipped to tackle scripts. Again, ask for help if you get stuck.

>Also, it seems to me a person could prepare entire animation before even opening After Effects, then popping up the program and running a script. Is this possible?

Absolutely. AE 6.5 comes with a sample script I wrote called “shapeTimeInsanity”. Just open the application and run the script and see what happens.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

>What books/websites would you suggest to really get a good grasp on the principle/theory and rationale behind scripting.

I guess that depends. Have you done any programming before? If so, probably all you need is a good JavaScript book and the After Effects scripting guide. Create a simple project for yourself. Look at the sample scripts to see if there’s something similar that you can use. Ask questions if you get stuck. Keep at it.

If you haven’t done much programming, I’d still get the JavaScript book, but I’d tackle expressions first. Use expressions to learn JavaScript (looping, conditional code, arrays, string manipulation, etc.) After you’ve got your JavaScript chops down you’ll be better equipped to tackle scripts. Again, ask for help if you get stuck.

>Also, it seems to me a person could prepare entire animation before even opening After Effects, then popping up the program and running a script. Is this possible?

Absolutely. AE 6.5 comes with a sample script I wrote called “shapeTimeInsanity”. Just open the application and run the script and see what happens.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Oh yeah, one more thing – you have to keyframe the movement of the car before the wheels will turn.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

I’m assuming the name of your car layer is “car”, and that you’ve made it the parent of the wheel layers, and the wheel diameter is the same as the wheel’s layer width. Then you just need something like this for the wheel’s rotation:

car = thisComp.layer(“car”);
diam = width;
dist = length(car.position,car.position.valueAtTime(0));
value + dist*360/diam*Math.PI;

So all the wheels don’t look the same, you can set their initial rotation to different values.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Any good JavaScript reference will do, you just have to ignore the stuff that’s specific to web pages. I like “JavaScript the Definitive Guide” by David Flanagan.

Unfortunately you can’t control kerning or font selection from an expression. You can control tracking, line spacing, scale, and fill & stroke color though.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Any good JavaScript reference will do, you just have to ignore the stuff that’s specific to web pages. I like “JavaScript the Definitive Guide” by David Flanagan.

Unfortunately you can’t control kerning or font selection from an expression. You can control tracking, line spacing, scale, and fill & stroke color though.

Dan

[Dan Ebberts]

Yup, split is what you want. Assuming your words are separated by carriage returns, you could use something like this to pick out the word “cat” from your example:

s = thisComp.layer(“layer 2”).text.sourceText.split(String.fromCharCode(13));
s[1]

Dan