[Steve Sierra]

Hi,

I’m not sure this is a good idea, but you could preComp your intro and outro animations as well as your non animated version.
That way, you end up with three layers and can play on the opacity to show/hide the animations ?

Cheers !

[Steve Sierra]

Here goes :

Let’s say you have 4 mouth shapes.
You create a shape or a solid which will be your rig. name it “RIG”
Create 4 text layers, each one with a mouth shape.
Distribute them along the x axis of your comp.
Now we divide your comp in the number of mouth shapes you have (4 in our case so if your comp width is 1920px, than each mouth shape “zone” will be of 480px).
In each mouth shape opacity prop, you have to put an expression like this :

for 1st mouth shape :

var rigXPos = thisComp.layer(“RIG”).transform.position[0];
if(rigXPos >= 0 && rigXPos < 480){100}else{0};

for the second :

var rigXPos = thisComp.layer(“RIG”).transform.position[0];
if(rigXPos >= 480 && rigXPos < 960){100}else{0};

for the third :

var rigXPos = thisComp.layer(“RIG”).transform.position[0];
if(rigXPos >= 960 && rigXPos < 1440){100}else{0};

and the last :

var rigXPos = thisComp.layer(“RIG”).transform.position[0];
if(rigXPos >= 1440 && rigXPos < 1920){100}else{0};

Make sure your keys are set on hold and you should be good to go !

Cheers 😉

[Steve Sierra]

Hi,
I see what you mean now…
In that case, I would recommend using a visual rig.
By moving a layer to a specific zone, you trigger a specific opacity.
That way, you just move your layer to get the mouth shape !

Do you need help on building that ?
Cheers 😉

[Steve Sierra]

Hi again,

Sorry to insist, but I don’t see how changing one text layer is more complicated than changing several mouth shape opacity props ?

I’m not sure you understood that you only need one text layer for all the mouth shapes ?

Best regards

[Steve Sierra]

Hi again Albert,

What do you want to animate ?
With my solution, you don’t have to animate the opacity properties any more, you just have to keyframe the text layer as you said.

Best regards
😉

[Steve Sierra]

Hi,

Expanding on Andrei’s technique, you could add a hidden text layer where you change the source text to your mouth shape letter (“a”, “o”, etc…)
Then, in your mouth shape opacity expressions, add a variable that is the shape’s letter.
Then, replace the slider variable in Andrei’s expression by the text layer’s source text… I can’t try it out now, but it should look like this :

var letter = “a”;
var text = thisComp.layer(“TextLayer”).text.sourceText;
if (letter == text) 100 else 0

This way is index free as well !
Hope it helps 😉

[Steve Sierra]

Hi,

You’re right, it does still work…

On the other hand, if you write :
“var Controller = transform.opacity”, then you need to write “Controller” after it or it won’t work, illustrating Marcus Geduld’s point.

I guess Ae expressions were created to do that, not sur it works in a script ?

Hope this helps a bit…

Cheers !

[Steve Sierra]

Hi,

I tried to mess around with the echo effect and particular… I couldn’t get what you want.
The only way I see how to do this is to create many spiraled shape layers, or 3D stroke on solids, put them in 3D and rotate them around the same anchor point in order to achieve your spherical effect.

Hope this helps,

Good luck !

[Steve Sierra]

Hi,

This should work for you :

if (time<2){200}else{200+((time-2) * 1000)};

Cheers !;)

[Steve Sierra]

Hi again,

What you can do, is make a master layer with the expression on it, hide it if you want.
Then, you put this expression on the other layers position property :

a = 3;
thisComp.layer(“Main”).transform.position.valueAtTime(time-thisLayer.index * a);

by changing “a”, you change the delay ????

Hope this helps,

Cheers !