Thanks for the workaround, Philippe.
Ten years later and Adobe still hasn’t fixed this. Unbelievable.

Dan the man to the rescue, as usual. Thanks a lot.

thanks but unfortunately no dice. it returned this error: “invalid or unexpected token”.

Can anyone help me make this expression work for two dimensional properties? Currently it only works for one dimension stuff, like rotation, I’d like to use it on position or scale but it’s returning the following error:

“couldn’t turn result into numeric value”

w = wiggle(3,.02);
d = w - value;
value + Math.abs(d)

Thanks in advance.

This is brilliant man, thank you so much, I very much appreciate the time you took to make these.

Thank you very much Kouraib, I’m Having a bit of a hard time trying to understand how it was on different coordinates given that it’s a symmetry object. I remember that yes, one side was not matching perfectly with the other when I created the symmetry but i was puzzled by it, I just move one of the points to make it match.

But thank you very much…

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Thanks so much, I just sent it.

Sure, thanks! Is it ok if I send it to you privately via email?

Hey Kouraib, thanks for this. Yes, I kept a hole at the end of the object but when adding the symmetry it had a hard edge which i was only able to remove with the connect object, but at the expense of the lens texture.

I seem to have found a solution following your advice on the comment below, but instead of removing welding or lowering the…

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I’m building a pair of sunglasses, just for practicing modeling and also to test the new flakes node in Redshift.

I built half of it and I’m using a symmetry object to complete the other half, as you can see in the first pic the reflections on the lens look fine but the nose bridge looks broken, with a noticeable edge in the center. In the 2nd…

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Figured as much, it was worth asking someone more knowledgeable.

Thanks Dan.

Can I access the mask mode (none, add, subtract, etc) with an expression so depending on which one is selected another property?
I have an very basic expression but I have no idea what to write after the word mask, I don’t know the name of the property:

l=thisComp.layer("bg").mask("Mask 1").mask.____________

if
	(l==0)
{100}
else
	0

Thanks in advance.

Hey Kouraib, thank you for the video, but yes, Tom is right, it needs to be animated, so I think it will use a boolean with a 2nd sweep that should build it fine.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply!

Sorry for the ambiguous title, I’m not really sure how to describe this. I have this ribbon built with a sweep (needs to “write on”). I modified the scale profile across it to match the shape of the original file provided in illustrator (the red outline) but I can’t make the tips match. I’m trying using bulge deformers but that’s not working…

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Awesome, thank you so much. I sent it to you a minute ago by email.

I dont have anything out of the ordinary, I’m running 2023.6.0 and I’m using JavaScript for the expressions engine.

If it’s a possibility, I’d be happy (and very grateful) to share a project for you to look at.

Hey Dan, thanks for your help.

The expression error went away but it still does not work, it just not showing an error anymore. The value is stuck at 0%.

Thanks,

I need to link a linear expression to the 3rd and 4th keyframes of a property on a different comp. the layer where the linear will be applied is nested in the comp that has the layer with the keyframes.

I have successfully done this in the past, but this now it’s not working, returning an error that says that ctrl.valueAtTime is not a function.…

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If anyone is looking for the answer, go to the material advanced settings and uncheck visible to camera.

Anyone knows if I can set up an object in Element 3D so that only its reflection is visible but not the object? Can’t find an option anywhere. If I turn off the object being reflected the reflection goes away too.

I used an AI to write a script that I use all the time. It works 95% as expected. I humbly ask if anyone here could help me fix what’s wrong with it.

The script copies the values of the last keyframe(s) on any given property or properties on a single layer or multiple layers at once, then deletes the keyframes and pastes the copied values on the…

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Is there a way to use the split function to cover more than one element in the array?

For example, I have a series of headlines that I need to break in two lines, in some cases the first two words go on the top and the third word goes on the bottom but other times is the other way around. I’ve been using the following…

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Anyone can explain how do I force an xRef to see a motion clip in the source project? I looped an a character animation using a motion clip for all the rigged parts and in the original project I can see it fine but when I bring that project on the bigger one as an xRef and then offset the animation so it starts later, when the object is visible…

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I was playing with Chat GPT earlier and got a script that grabs the value of the last keyframe, assigns it to the previous keyframe and then deletes the last. It works great when you have to align things early on your timeline but the camera hasn’t arrived to the final POV yet, with this you can adjust the final position of your object and then…

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Hi Andrei, thanks for looking into this.

I got a similar error but on a different property:

secondToLastKeyframe is undefined

It’s happening at line 24. It’s very confusing because I see that the variable is clearly defined above, on line 16.

Wondering if anyone can help me understand what is wrong with this script?

var activeComp = app.project.activeItem;
if (activeComp == null || !(activeComp instanceof CompItem)) {
    alert("Please select a composition first.");
} else {
    var selectedLayer = activeComp.selectedLayers[0];
    if (selectedLayer == null) {
        alert("Please select a…

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I learned something new today. Thanks!

but why the = sign? wouldn’t it work just by typing s-l.startTime?

Hey Da, any chance you can explain this line a little more in detail?

s -= l.startTime;

looks like part of a conditional statement but is not quite, I’m not clear on what is doing or how

This works great, as always thanks a lot!

I have a main comp (“footage strip”) with 4 nested comps named set1, set2, set3, and set4; each has a marker at different times.

Inside each “Set” comp there is a few layers, one of which needs to fade in when the markers in the outer comp layers are passed, for that I added this expression to the opacity:

c=comp(“footage strip”);

l=…

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Yes, this works perfectly as usual. Thanks a lot Dan.

I’m trying to write an expression that fades in and out based on the markers in the layer,

but falling short of it, any help would be greatly appreciated.

fadeDur = .5;

n = 0;

if (marker.key > 0){

n = marker.key(time).index;

if (marker.key(n).time > time) n–;

}

if (n=1){

ease(time,n,n+fadeDur,0,value);

}else

if (n=2){

…

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Thanks Dan, the marker/keyframe mixup is definitely unintended, I only want to use keyframes for this.

Basically a linear animation between keyframes 1 and 2 and then 0 after that.

I’m trying to use the keyframes for position to drive other parameters, rotation in this case, but only for part of the position animation.
The first part, from kf1 to kf2 works fine, but when the object moves to kf3 it is also rotating, which I do not want.

I added a part of the condition that states that if the kf is bigger than 2 then the value…

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perfect, let me try it now.

Thanks a lot Dan.

Pretty much, what the title says, I’m trying to use one or the other via a conditional statement but I’m getting the following error:

Undefined value used in expression (could be an out of range array subscript?)

This is for time remapping a video, so add some head and tails to it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

n = 0;

if (marker.numKeys > 0){

n =…

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Looks like I have some catch-up reading to do then.

Thanks!

that did the trick. thanks a lot.

is the last part before the linear expression a new format for using an if/else statement?

I’m trying to use it on a different comp with different properties, writing this:

f=thisComp.layer(“cam ctrl”).transform.position[2];

k1=f.key(2).value[2];

k2=f.key(3).value[2];

time < f.key(2).time ? 0 : linear(f,k1,k2,0,58);

Hey Dan, sorry to be a pest but I think I jumped the gun too fast, the expression is not working and instead is returning the error f.key is not a function.

I tried making f different properties, such as position or rotation but nothing worked.

I was looking at a different expression when I said this one worked. My bad.

Works great, thanks a lot Dan.

I use this expression structure a lot:

r=transform.yPosition;
k1=transform.yPosition.key(1).value;

k2=transform.yPosition.key(2).value;

ease(r,k1,k2,0,22)

Today I’m trying to to the same but instead of using keyframes 1 and 2 y need to use the 4th and 5th, so I wrote this…

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Hey guys, sorry to revive an almost 15-year-old thread but I wanted to gather opinions on finishing sessions in After Effects after virtually all the initial conditions in the original post have changed, Flame is no longer the crazy expensive tool it used to be and After Effects is far more powerful today than ever, machines are also a lot more…

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I’m not sure if this is allowed but wanted to ask if any of the coding heavyweights in the forum would be willing to tweak the code of VideoCopilot’s amazing free plug-in Sure Target. As it is right now it only works if you change the expressions engine to Legacy ExtendScript, which obviously breaks several other expressions that only work with…

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This is my first foray into Thinking Particles, I’m following Noseman’s tutorial on how to make fire and some with TP.

I’m unable to make it past the 2.20 mark, where he adds a PmatterWaves node to start emitting because when I do the same nothing gets emitted. My object…

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oh may gaaaaaaaaaad! That was it, thank you so much Dan the man!

Try this one, it will repeat whatever keyframed animation you have at the beginning of the layer each time a marker is passed, if you need it to offset the animation rather than just repeating it then someone will have to tweak it a little bit.

n = 0;

if (marker.numKeys > 0){

n = marker.nearestKey(time).index;

if (marker.key(n).time > time) n–;

}

if…

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Anyone can help to update this expression to work with the newer expression engine? It works fine with legacy but then some other expressions in different parts of my project stop working.

Thanks in advance.

Btw, this expression is to create a counter that goes into the thousands and automatically adds a comma and places it in the correct…

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Thanks Walter,

None of that is happening on my comp. And on the AE 2021 Draft 3D is off by default. If I turn it on then everything looks all wonky.