[Pete Burges]

Here’s a head scratcher:

Is it possible to parent a layer to a layer in another comp which is itself a child of another layer?

I know how to ‘parent’ position by referencing the anchor point with this expression (below),

but that doesn’t affect rotation or scale. Does anybody know a way of doing that…?

Thanks,

Pete

target = thisComp.layer("target");
target.toComp(target.anchorPoint);

[Pete Burges]

Brilliant. Thank you, Dan!

[Pete Burges]

Hi Dan

Forgive my greenness, but what do each of the numbers in the final line correspond to…?

ease(Math.abs(d), 10,36, 100,0);

I’m guessing the 100 and 0 are the opacity, but I could be wrong…10 and 36, are they a radial value…?

I grabbed this expression to make lights go on and off around a ‘wheel of fortune’ as it spins, so they keep time with the wheel as it slows down. The wheel has 56 distinct points (odd number, I know, but that’s what’s in the artwork I’m obliged to follow) where I’m placing the lights, making for an annoying spacing of every 6.4 degrees (rounded down). Adjusting the a value makes them go off when the wheel hits the correct angle, I’ve figured that much out. I’d like to narrow the angle range so they go on and off faster, and I it seems to me adjusting these numbers would do it. Would you mind explaining it to me?

Thanks

Pete Burges

[Pete Burges]

Hi All

I’ve been using this expression a lot when I have multiple animating layers and I simply want to trigger the animations on or off rather than key every single one, so thanks for that!
However, I was wondering…is it possible to stop and start a looping animation where it holds at the current frame when you stop and then continues from there when you start again? Like toggling ‘pause’ on a video player.
I am not great with scripting so I can’t seem to figure this out by myself…I tried throwing in a frameAtTime but I just broke it.
I know I can do it with time remapping, and keying a pause in by hand- but over 50 layers with different pause times… I hope someone might have a more elegant solution. 🙂

[Pete Burges]

D’oh! I assumed that as it copied layers above it would be referring below. Thanks for bothering with such a rookie mistake, Dan.

[Pete Burges]

Hi guys,

Please forgive the rank noob wading in out of his depth. I am working through Dan’s tutorials in an attempt to learn how to make my own expressions. I have the same setup as Aaron is describing, but I tried using your transform expressions on the scale and it gives me an error:

Bad argument: Layer index 0 out of range.

Both your expressions give me the same error- yet the index function works fine in other expressions I’m using. Does this have something to do with the fact I’m using After Effects 7? I’ve tried looking through the FAQ but can’t find an answer.

thisComp.layer(index-1).transform.scale - [10,10];