[Emre Anil]

Why don’t you just copy the variables to a text layer and use that layer’s sourceText for your expression?

[Emre Anil]

Sounds like a Pixel Aspect Ratio problem.
And make sure you toggle the pixel aspect ratio on viewport:

[Emre Anil]

If you’re using the mask feather tool and not the feather property of the mask then I don’t think there is an easy way to add the feather to all the keyframes..

[Emre Anil]

You can add multiple text animators for position and move each letter separately.
You need to change range unit to index and modify the start/end values to the letter you want to change (1 and 2 for the first character) and animate the position.

For animating the pieces of each letter (is it Japanese?) animating with masks is the only way I think..

[Emre Anil]

Create 2 Null objects and a Shape layer
Add an ellipse or rectangle for the dotted line
Connect the Shape Layer’s position to the first Null Object’s position
Add a Slider Effect to the Shape layer for amount of dot’s you need and add the following expression to the Slider value:


Math.round(effect("Slider Control")("Slider"))


Add a Repeater to the Shape Layer and add the following expression to the Repeater’s position property:


(thisComp.layer("Null 2").transform.position - thisComp.layer("Null 1").transform.position) / (content("Repeater 1").copies - 1)


Adjust the slider for the amount of dot’s you need..

[Emre Anil]

Search for “motion track tutorials”. After you get your camera movement in After Effects just align your 3D shape layer with the section.

[Emre Anil]

If you just need the center point of 2 Null Objects:


n1 = thisComp.layer("Null 1").transform.position;
n2 = thisComp.layer("Null 2").transform.position;
pX = (n1[0] + n2[0]) / 2;
pY = (n1[1] + n2[1]) / 2;
[pX, pY]


[Emre Anil]

If you’re trying to assign the distance in Z-axis only, add “[2]” to your camera position too.

You might need to control the Min/Max values for the thickness tough.

p1 = thisLayer.parent.position[2];
p2 = thisComp.activeCamera.position[2];

[Emre Anil]

If you have particular it’s kinda easy but not perfect

Assuming you have P1, P2 layers as starting and end points
Make a new layer on top of Particle layer and apply Circle effect. Make this layer continuously rasterize so the circle can go out of layer bounds. And select Circle layer as the particle layer’s track matte. Finally add the following expressions:

Circle – Center:

thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position;


Circle – Radius:

p1 = thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position;
p2 = thisComp.layer("P2").transform.position;
length(p1,p2);


Because you’re using the circle layer as alpha matte, the particles at the end will be cut out..

Particular setup:
Adjust Particles/sec, velocity etc. as you like. Particle Life should be enough to travel from P1 to P2 so set that based on the distance between points and particle velocity.

Direction: Directional
Direction Spread [%]: 0
X Rotation: 90;

Position XY:

temp = thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position;
[temp[0], temp[1]]


Y Rotation:

p1 = thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position;
p2 = thisComp.layer("P2").transform.position;
angle = p1-p2;
radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(angle[1],angle[0])) - 90;


[Emre Anil]

Setup:

P3 layer has Slider Control renamed to “weight” and adjusted value to 0 to 1

Expressions for copy-paste:

Weight Text – Source Text:

w = Math.round(thisComp.layer("P3").effect("weight")("Slider") * 100) / 100;
"w=" + w;


Weight Text – Position (used anchor point for positioning):

thisComp.layer("P3").transform.position


P3 (3rd Point) – Position:

w = effect("weight")("Slider");
p1 = thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position;
p2 = thisComp.layer("P2").transform.position;
x = ((1 - w) * p1[0]) + (w * p2[0]);
y = ((1 - w) * p1[1]) + (w * p2[1]);
[x, y];


Beam Effect – Starting Point:

thisComp.layer("P1").transform.position


Beam Effect – End Point:

thisComp.layer("P2").transform.position