[Dan Ebberts]

I think this is what you mean. Just adjust tStart to where you want playback to begin:

aud = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
threshold = 5;
tStart = 1;
val = tStart;
if (aud.value > threshold){
  t = time - thisComp.frameDuration;
  while (t > 0){
    if (aud.valueAtTime(t) < threshold) break;
    t -= thisComp.frameDuration;
  }
  val += time - t;
}
val

[Dan Ebberts]

Hard to guess what you’re after exactly, but maybe something like this:

freq = 2;
amp = 100;
period = 1/freq;
t = time%period;
tt = ease(t,0,period,0,period);
amp*Math.sin(freq*tt*Math.PI*2)

[Dan Ebberts]

Something like this might work. Adjust the threshold value to what works best for you:

aud = thisComp.layer("Audio Amplitude").effect("Both Channels")("Slider");
threshold = 5;
val = 0;
if (aud.value > threshold){
  t = time - thisComp.frameDuration;
  while (t > 0){
    if (aud.valueAtTime(t) < threshold) break;
    t -= thisComp.frameDuration;
  }
  val = time - t;
}
val

[Dan Ebberts]

It’s easier to do now that scripting has access to comp markers. Something like this should work:

var theComp = app.project.activeItem;
var theLayers = theComp.selectedLayers;
var theMarker = new MarkerValue("");
for (var i = 0; i < theLayers.length; i++){
	theMarker.comment = theLayers[i].name;
	theComp.markerProperty.setValueAtTime(theLayers[i].inPoint,theMarker);
}

[Dan Ebberts]

Something like this should handle the upper/lower case part (but not the bold):

txt = thisComp.layer("Alex Dinnin (GBR)").text.sourceText.value;
splt = txt.split(" ");
str = splt[0][0].toUpperCase() + splt[0].substr(1).toLowerCase();
str += txt.substr(splt[0].length).toUpperCase()

[Dan Ebberts]

>Made it work with this:…

A single-line if/else like that will only work with the Legacy ExtendScript engine (or an old version of AE).

>What if I want to go more advanced…

Try this:

cb = thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 4").effect("Checkbox Control")("Checkbox");
if (numKeys > 3){
  if (cb.numKeys > 0){
    n = cb.nearestKey(time).index;
    if (time < cb.key(n).time) n--;
    if (n > 0){
      t = time - cb.key(n).time;
      if (cb.value){
        t1 = key(1).time;
        t2 = key(2).time;
      }else{
        t1 = key(3).time;
        t2 = key(4).time;
      }
      tt = linear(t,0,t2-t1,t1,t2);
    }else{
      tt =  (cb.value) ? key(1).time : key(3).time;
    }
  }else{
    tt =  (cb.value) ? key(1).time : key(3).time;
  }
  valueAtTime(tt);
}else{
  cb.value ? value : 0;
}

[Dan Ebberts]

Try it like this:

thisComp.layer("Adjustment Layer 4").effect("Checkbox Control")("Checkbox")==1 ? value else 0

[Dan Ebberts]

Has the left-most text layer been scaled?

[Dan Ebberts]

With a csv file you could have your expression get the data index from the comp name, which would be pretty simple if your comps were named like “Comp 1”, “Comp 2”, etc.

Then, assuming your imported data file (named data.csv for this example) looks like this:

Names

Mike Jones

Rob Smith

Cindy Anderson

you get the appropriate name like this:

idx = parseInt(thisComp.name.split(" ")[1],10) - 1;
footage(data.csv").dataValue([0,idx])   // result = Rob Smith for Comp 2

[Dan Ebberts]

As far as I know, expressions don’t have access to the comments. So what’s actually in your text file, and what do your comp names look like?

Dan