It’s like Filip has found a solution 🙂

😳🤯

Thanks Eric and Walter for chiming in.
I agree, seems like a custom script will be the way to go *sigh*

Bunpity bump for good measure

We’re running into archival issues, where our storage requires the non-use compliance of non-standard characters…this is often counter to how AE saves and structures collected files.
While we have external scripts that run checks, it isn’t always foolproof, and we feel it would be best managed “at the source”.

Is there a way that anyone has used…

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Hah. You know I’ll totally be looking at that. Thanks Filip

As always, really appreciate the knowledge share Filip! Thankyou

As I’d anticipated. Thanks Dan

Is it possible to create a null via an expression or effect?
Cheers in advance

You’re not wrong about this comment Filip…

There’s a lot of different moving parts and little expressions that don’ make a lot of sense on their own to control text-animators, so posting the code will be just confusing, but here’s the projectfile:

If you’re so inclined, would you be able to loosely explain what’s happening in the
– Character Value…

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Hi Yoan, yeah sorry I’m referring to bezier paths, not ‘standard’ shapes.
And…within that, trying to reference the size of particular ‘sub-shapes/-groups’

Is there an equivalent for getting the dimensions of a shape/group within a layer (i.e, not the entire layer)? or am I just getting the syntax wrong?

Amazing. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom.

In wanting to extend my knowledge, if you’re open to it I’d love to ask you a couple of questions regarding the set up. Things like, is the Point Controller used as an easier way ‘toComp’ the values?
Yell out if you’re open to it, and whether we do so here, or an an IM platform.

Thanks again Filip. So great.

That is mind blowing. You are mind blowing. Thanks Filip.

I’ll have a proper look, but may borrow this structure and implement it with the null being an invisible shape layer. It is a rather complex build already with the base cursor variations being all contained as shape layer.

Thanks again

Yup! You nailed the usage…BUT…it’d need to be animated (with keyframes) ‘to’ the beginning point of text, and then ‘from’ then end point of the text. It would be amazing if it could cover multiple lines…but a single line would be extremely useful.

Thanks for your input and idea bouncing 🙂
hope the above makes sense.

Well that’s news to me too!
Yeah cool…that might work, except the text often changes at the last minute, so might cause more headaches than I was trying to solve.

Thanks again Dan, as always, your knowledge and input is above and beyond

This is a new phase…really only just started digging…though it sounds pretty straightforward (hopefully)

Thanks Dan

Thanks for chiming in Andre. Did you resolve your issue?

In our instance, it was easy enough to change how we accessed and applied the precomps, which meant, realistically (with the new approach) we can just apply the shadow to the placed precomp. Not going to work in every situation, but saved us a headache.

Have recently discovered this world of excellence…
Wondering though how pseudo effects translate to other machines…does every machine that the file will be used on need the adjustments to the PresetEffects file/s etc?

Development: managed to get this kinda working a bit better, using indexes and rounding to ensure full numbers…however it isn’t perfect for all character width. That said, it’s progress.

I’m now wondering if there’s a way to set a key for the position of the precomp. Currently, because it is being repositioned by an expression, the values aren’t…

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I’m wanting to position a precomp at a specific location…at the end of a text layer, as the text layer types on.

I’ve managed to get the core functionality working…but I’d like the movement of the precomp to be effectively keyframes, not smoothly animating from one end to the other. The text types on with an opacity animator

<i style=””>Question…

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Haha. That’s concerning (for me!)
I was attempting to say if the value (scale) of the layer was at the appropriate reduced amount (calculated with a value set by a slider), then animate.

And as expected, your approach works beautifully and makes much more sense.

Thankyou!

Here’s where I got to if you’re interested in working out the…

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Failing Dan. Help appreciated.

This is resulting in the scale down occuring…then nothing, despite the arguments appearing to return as they would need to, to get scaler in the ‘else’ statement happening

clickPoint= thisLayer.marker.nearestKey(time).time;
keyLabel = thisLayer.marker.nearestKey(time).comment;
clickDur = 0.15;
t = time;
defaultscale =…

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Thanks so much (as always) Dan.

I must be on the right track, but not doing the right thing in my code…as that’s the approach I’d got to.
Will have another tinker and post the code back here if I fail again.

Hi…is it possible to ‘line up interpolated expressions, so…

expression one — Eases the scale of the layer to 150%

expression two (which only happens when expression one is finished) — then scales to 80%, or perhaps also changes position?

<font face=”inherit”>hope this makes sense. I’m aware I can do so with keyframes…there is method to my mad…

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I’m scratching my head again with assets that would ideally be contained in a single, reusable precomp…and running into problems with Drop Shadow (effect), when the placed precomp is scaled (and Collapse Transforms is on) the shadow settings remain as the original setting and don’t scale accordingly. Make sense?

Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Hi Filip, thanks.
Unfortunately, as this would be a widely used ‘toolkit’ there wouldn’t necessarily be the option to have precomps existing in a.mainComp to be swapped.

Howdy Brainstrust,

I’m wondering where and how I can get an existing preComp, placed in the mainComp, to scale if a marker is set on the preComp Layer (in the mainComp).

The context for this is hoping to be able to create a functional version of this that a team can use…i.e, not requiring expressions to be added each time the preComp is placed.

Is…

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Worked a treat. Thanks again…though I will say it was more functional in this instance to Time-reverse the layer…rather than the keyframes.

Cheers!

You make this sound amazingly simple Walter.

Diving in now.

Thankyou!

Bit of a weird one, but I need to reverse an entire comp and all keys on all layers.

Other than doing so manually with a bunch of things breaking…is this possible?

It’s a little of both. Ideally, as there is potential to translate into (up to) 100 languages, it would be a largely automated process. That said, we do have access to staffing resource whereby we can identify specific words to be used across the translations. So to this end, the variables and set up is absolutely something we have the capacity to…

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For those who are interested, it seems Templater (by Dataclay) holds the functionality…obviously, as above a deal of planning and structure is needed to roll this out across a significant project.

Yes. Thanks Tomas. The groundwork (and the simplified framework you suggest) is absolutely something we’re planning. I just want to push ahead and know that it’s ultimately possible. We do have the ability to access/resource a developer for the build. But also curious to see if existing solutions may have existed.

Thanks for chiming in though.…

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Yep cool. See…dreaming. 🙂

Thanks again Filip, I guess I was overthinking it

Actually. testing that now…it works…however keyframes aren’t getting set. i.e, if the Point Controller is used it will key it there, but not on the shape layer and vice versa. Or have I misinterpreted your explanation?

HAHAHA. Gold. Thanks Filip.
Here I was using all sorts of wild if() statements.

Thanks mate.

That’s the conundrum though isn’t it…they’d both be right…because they’d both be the same value. Just how they are set might vary. i.e, a user might set some keys with the Point Controller, but then decide to adjust those keys in the Comp window (directly and visually).

Make sense?

(In the same way we could position a layer in a comp with value…

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Waaaaay too complicated for this implementation. thanks again for your super knowledge.

Is it possible to control values (i.e, position) from two locations?

As an example, I have a shape layer with a position controlled by a Point Controller, BUT it would be very useful for someone to manually grab the shape layer directly and drag it in the comp window.

Dreaming? 🙂

Excellent addition and resource for others coming along Julian. Thanks for chiming in.

Yeah. Damnit. As I expected. Thanks Dan.

I theory could a script resolve this? Seems I probably need to dive into scripts (or at least understand how they work a bit better)

Hi all, I’m hoping to fire up a discussion around possibilities of translation options for motion projects (i.e, replacing words in the comps with languages fed via a CSV, spreadsheet or similar.)

From everything I’ve learnt on my short journey with expressions etc, I’m guessing this is more suitably in the realm of ‘scripts’…or an existing…

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Is there any way to reference a Comp in the Project window specifically?

For some context…I’ve generated a flexible and responsive comp structure that resizes and repositions everything based on the base comp size.

It’s all working great…BUT, not if someone wanted to have two of the same responsive comps in the same project/working file.

My…

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oooooooofffff, and I’m learning again…never noticed the ability to apply an expressions elector for an Animator.

Thanks again.

I get “textIndex is not defined”.
I noticed this in a tutorial I was following along with and figured it was some additional code reference they wasn’t relevant to my install.

What have I missed?

Nice. Thank you @Filip.

Will investigate further. Seems I was massively overcomplicating it.

Cheers again

Hi all, I’m trying to

I’m guessing regex is useful here and have been experimenting and trying to “cobble” a solution together.

Wondering if anyone can get me started and or well on the way to an implementable solution.

In the broader paragraph I’m searching for text that begins with an @ symbol and them the following letters, until the next…

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Hi all, I’ve got a nested comp the transparency of which is being controlled by a checkbox on the top-level timeline (via Essential Graphics)…with a designer being able to click through to edit the content of the nested comp. The issue though, is that changes made WITHIN the nested comp aren’t displaying in the main comp UNTIL a cache clear is…

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