[Scott Mcgee]

There’s probably a better way.

You can clamp your scale to not go above 100 for example.

s = clamp(c,0,100);

[s,s]

[Scott Mcgee]

Thank you that’s what I was looking for.

Doing basic test outside of my plug in I seem to be able to use it quite easily.

You don’t happen to know anywhere that dumbs this down a bit more. Or any locations where’s best to start.

I’m amazed I’ve gotten so far, but I’m at that last hurdle and I’m running on steam now hahahaha. With every success another hurdle appears.

So I can run a node in my terminal and access that localhost:port with success, so connecting that to google will be easy enough.

It’s then getting it to communicate with my CEP, going through the instructions are a little complicated for my level.

So any help to examples or tutorials that are a bit easier would be appreciated.

[Scott Mcgee]

Unless anyone else has anything to offer.

CEP HTML 5 is what you need to research. This will allow to show previews. Unsure about drag and drop, but there are multiple ways of inputting it.

But the only way to show previews is using a format that will handle h.264.mp4 I build mine in CEP HTML 5

Here’s a link to get you started

https://victorianece.com/2015/12/getting-started-with-html5-cep-panels-for-after-effects/

[Scott Mcgee]

I’ve just recreated what you’ve done in your second video example by doing this.

anchorPoint
r = sourceRectAtTime();
[r.left + r.width/2, r.top + r.height/2];

Position
x = thisComp.width/2;
ya = 0 – thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime().height – 50;
yb = 0 + thisComp.layer(“Shape Layer 1”).sourceRectAtTime().height + thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime().height/2 + 30;

ease (time, inPoint + 0, inPoint + 1.5,[x, ya], [x, yb]);

The position looks at the height of the shape layer + the height of your text/2 + a little padding. This proportions itself accordingly.

It might need tweaking, but it looks the same as your 2nd video example.

[Scott Mcgee]

If you don’t want to follow the solid this is how you do it.

x = thisComp.width/2;
ya = 0 – thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime().height – 50;
yb = thisComp.height/2;

ease (time, inPoint + 0, inPoint + 1.5,[x, ya], [x, yb]);

if you want to follow the solid. Just pick whip the position to the solids position and it will copy the movement.

But for both you need to centralise the anchor.

r = sourceRectAtTime();
[r.left + r.height/2, r.top + r.height/2];

[Scott Mcgee]

It is bizarre why you have to do it that way, it used to annoy me. But I noticed the anchor point never moved. So I did that and it fixed it. Glad it worked, hopefully they’ll fix that minor issue in an upgrade. Or we are both doing something wrong hahaha

[Scott Mcgee]

That’s a cool project you have set up. I’m not even gonna pretend that I completely understand your expression for line breaking. I get the gist, but that is some serious expressioning haha.

[Scott Mcgee]

As far as I’m aware the answer is no.

There’s a bit of a cheat around this.

You need a master text layer that’ll be hidden. This is where you will type your text.

Then you’ll have 2 text layers. Line 1 and Line 2. You then link the text to your master text layer and split them.

So
Line 1
text.sourceText.split(‘\r’)[0];

Line 2
text.sourceText.split(‘\r’)[1];

Then create two shape layers to fit around these two text layers.

[Scott Mcgee]

Have you fixed your anchor point to the left hand side.

It looks like that might be your issue.

I normally fix my anchor point using this

r = sourceRectAtTime();
[r.left,r.top + r.height/2]

[Scott Mcgee]

Just realised as I typed mine, Dan already sent you something.

What he’s put is a cleaner version of what I pinched of his. So if you can benefit from it for something else in the future, great, but Dan’s looks the part for the job.

🙂