[Kevin Camp]

[Willie Frazier] “so I realized what I needed to do there which is essentially enter higher values by a factor of 50 for each ‘spacing’ value in the expression on every layer to which it is applied, so that’s working”

oops… that would be needed since i had taken out the look-at-the-layer-above-it portion… sorry for over looking that (and for the syntax issue earlier)

as far as getting the checkboxes to control the lines, yes you should be able to link that together too.

from how you described it, i think you’ll need expressions for both the ‘copies’ and ‘repeater>position’ properties.

for copies try this:
Line5 = thisComp.layer("Content Control").effect("Stat 5 On/Off")("Checkbox");
Line6 = thisComp.layer("Content Control").effect("Stat 6 On/Off")("Checkbox");

if (Line6 == false && Line5 == false) 4;
else if (Line6 == false && Line5 == true) 5;
else 6;

for the transform: repeater>position property try this:
Line5 = thisComp.layer("Content Control").effect("Stat 5 On/Off")("Checkbox");
Line6 = thisComp.layer("Content Control").effect("Stat 6 On/Off")("Checkbox");

SixLnSpacing = 0;
FiveLnSpacing = 50;
FourLnSpacing = 100;

if (Line6 == false && Line5 == false) y = FourLnSpacing;
else if (Line6 == false && Line5 == true) y = FiveLnSpacing;
else y = SixLnSpacing;

value + [0,y]
Just modify the spacing values as needed.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i’m not sure why it says it has an error on line 1… but since the last line was expecting a 2-dimensional array (x,y), but you are separating dimensions, it should be changed to this:

value + y

try that and see if the error goes away. the rest of the syntax looks ok.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

ok… so you have 3 checkbox controls that control the opacity of 3 groups of layers.

you could use those checkboxes to control the position property of the Ani nulls too (assuming the y animation doesn’t need to change, just be offset by a certain number of pixels). And the expression could be similar to the previous expression, but instead of looking at active layers, it would look at the check boxes.

I’m going to assume that you have built the 6 line variation and that the y animation of the Ani nulls are set, and all you want to do is shift the Ani nulls down if you have fewer lines.

Try something like this on the ‘Ani’ nulls’ position property (except the Ani nulll for line 1). Obviously change the Line5 and Line6 variables to point at your checkbox controls:

Line5 = thisComp.layer("Control").effect("Checkbox Control 1").("Checkbox");
Line6 = thisComp.layer("Control").effect("Checkbox Control 2").("Checkbox");

SixLnSpacing = 0;
FiveLnSpacing = 100;
FourLnSpacing = 200;

if (Line6 == false && Line5 == false) y = FourLnSpacing;
else if (Line6 == false && Line5 == true) y = FiveLnSpacing;
else y = SixLnSpacing;

value + [0,y]

it should shift the existing positions of the Ani nulls (and the layers grouped to them) but maintain the current animations.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if all the + signs are separated, you could import the psd as a comp and then use an expression on the opacity of each + to make them twinkle… something like this might get you started in the right direction: wiggle(1,100) the first digit is the frequency in samples-per-second, so 1 is once per second, the second digit is the amount, you could set that lower if needed.

if the + signs happen to be a single text block in photoshop, after importing the psd as a comp, you could select that layer and choose layer>convert to editable text. then you could apply a text animator for opacity (if you twirl down the text properties, there is a little ‘animate’ menu to the right of ‘text’, select opacity). set the opacity animator to 0 (or the minimum value you desire). then, roomette menu to the right of ‘animator 1’ select selector>wiggly. at that point they should start to twinkle, just tweak the wiggly properties as needed.

if it is a flattened file, or the pluses are merged as a single, un-editable layer, then I’d try creating a new solid, add fractal noise and then mosaic. set the mosaic block size as needed to match the grid of pluses. then animate the fractal noise evolutions and tweak the brightness/contrast to get a twinkling grid of squares.

use that solid as a track matte for the pluses, or for another green solid over the top of the pluses.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

[Willie Frazier] “My only concern here would be maintaining consistent spacing between values.”

i’m not entirely sure what you mean, but if you are talking about space between values as space between feet and inches, the expression isn’t adding any space it is just taking the two values, adding ‘ and ” where appropriate, then putting it into a single text layer. different values could look like this if the text is left justified:

6’1″
5’10.5″

let me know if you are looking for something different.

—— edit —–

never mind, we were both typing at the same time….

glad it worked

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you could scale it out with else if statements. something like this would give you 4-6 lines (and you’d need to paste the expression into lines 2-6):

Line4 = thisComp.layer("Line 4");
Line5 = thisComp.layer("Line 5");
Line6 = thisComp.layer("Line 6");

SixLnSpacing = 150;
FiveLnSpacing = 200;
FourLnSpacing = 250;

if (Line6.active == false && Line5.active == false) y = FourLnSpacing;
else if (Line6.active == false && Line5.active == true) y = FiveLnSpacing;
else y = SixLnSpacing;

thisComp.layer(index-1).position + [0,y]

the expression does look at the position of the layer above it.

as for animating the text on, if you wanted to animate the position, I would try using a text animator for position rather than key framing the position properties, but it could be possible to work in the current position value of the layer into the equation.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

this would do what you are looking for:

Line6 = thisComp.layer("Line 6");
Yspacing1 = 150;
Yspacing2 = 200;

if (Line6.active == true) y = Yspacing1 else y = Yspacing2;

thisComp.layer(index-1).position + [0,y]

it just looks at line 6 to see if it is active or not and changes the y spacing value accordingly.

— edit—-

i should have added that you’ll need to paste that into the position property of lines 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you could have separate sliders for feet and inches and then use an expression like this in the source text property of the text layer to put them together:

feet = thisComp.layer("Control Layer").effect("Feet Slider")("Slider").value;
inches = thisComp.layer("Control Layer").effect("Inches Slider")("Slider").value;
feet + "'" + inches + '"'

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

also you can nudge keyframes by holding option (mac) or alt (pc) and using the right/left arrow keys to move them up/down the timeline. hold shift-option or shift-alt moves them in 10 frame increments.

you can nudge a layer in the timeline by holding option or alt and using the page up/page down keys. again, holding shift too will nudge them in 10 frame increments.

you still have to do it in two separate steps, but it’s pretty simple to use this technique if you are nudging less than a few seconds.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can also do it using two transform effects around the snowfall effect…

add the the transform effect and set the rotation to 180. then duplicate that effect on the same adjustment layer.

then add the cc snowfall effect on the same layer and drag it to be between the two adjustments layers. the snow should now rise.

you can use this to create other angles as well, just make the second transform rotation value the inverse of the first, so if the first rotation is 45, the second would be -45.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW