[Jeff Hinkle]

Happy to. Let me clean it up a little and I’ll post it up.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Added weirdness: I just put a placeholder value at array[0] since it will never get called (there will always be at least 1 visible layer) and the expression broke if array[0] was not a number. Doesn’t matter that value is not being used, After Effects isn’t having it. Using the same code in Source Text on a text layer is fine, but anything non-numeric simply existing in the array causes a fail in any other property.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Messing around with it more, and have found everything works as expected and the math is all fine UNTIL I use it to call the value from the array. I checked and nothing is less than 0, I get the expected values at every step, but as soon as I subtract 1 (this value is confirmed to be not less than 0) and pass that to the array call, After Effects flips out. Stranger still, if I ADD 1, it works.

So if X=2 and I add 1 and pass that to the array I get, as expected, the value in the array[3]. And passing X unmodified to the array call gives me array[2]. But if X=2 and I subtract 1, I do not get the value in array[1] but the error “Undefined value used in expression.” However setting a variable to X-1 and just using that as my final value does indeed give me 1.

No idea what hidden magic is causing this to fail, but I’m just going to adjust my array values to match the returned value without doing any math to it.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Appreciate the answer but that’s not what I’m after. I’m adding the five alpha values to get Total, then I just want to subtract 1 from Total and After Effects freaks out. “Add five numbers then subtract one from that sum” seems simple enough, but AE refuses. Are sampleImage() alpha values strings and not numerical values? Can’t imagine why they would be but I can’t think of another reason why this should fail.

[Jeff Hinkle]

I suppose I could just alter the array values to work with the returned value, but I want to understand why this isn’t working. Sure seems like it should. Pretty basic math, I thought.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Amazing! After reading your explanation and examples, I can now consistently put Layer b pretty much where I want on Layer a. More importantly, I think I now understand the syntax enough to make it work on more complex future projects (and probably sort out fromComp and toWorld). Thank you so much for finally sinking this into my brain!

If you ever publish an After effects book, I’ll preorder 3 copies and hand out the extras to coworkers.

[Jeff Hinkle]

Once I changed the tracking type to Before, that worked like a charm. Still don’t fully get how textIndex works but this helps it make a bit more sense. Thank you so much!

[Jeff Hinkle]

As always, your knowledge and help are amazing. Many thanks!

One more question, if I may: when duplicating the Animator to adjust the Tracking after the “A,” it seems to only work on the last “A” in the line and the caution arrow icon/alert message keeps blipping on and off like it’s thinking about failing. I’m sure it’s something to do with my changes to the code, although I only changed the – to a + in this line:

b=a[textIndex+2]; //check letter after the A

But the Before works like a charm! Really appreciate the help!

[Jeff Hinkle]

I don’t have Elements, but this should work in there as well.

Select your Marquee tool (M) and in the top info bar set Style to Fixed Size. Set Width to 1280px and Height to 720px.

Click once in your image and you’ll get a marquee selection that size. Position your cursor inside the selection and drag it so it surrounds the area you want to keep.

Then select Image>Crop. Photoshop will trim away everything outside your selection.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.

[Jeff Hinkle]

With your text tool, be sure to click outside the confines of the circle shape. Clicking inside will give you text-in-a-shape (your text cursor will display a small circle around the I-bar before you click), and clicking on the edge of the shape will give you text-on-a-path (I-bar with little squiggle behind it). If you don’t want to worry about where you click, lock the Shape layer first.

—
It is easier to destroy than to create.
More fun, too.