[Wouter Dijkstra]

Hi Walter,

I was as a matter of fact experimenting with ValueAtTime, but still it only gives me the ‘exact’ value (1 frame) and I am not able to make an animation between the values controlled by one Slider. This specific Slider I have called “control”.

I pasted the following code in each of the 6 sliders:

x = thisComp.layer(“control”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”)

if ((x>=1) && (x<2)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(0))];} else
if ((x>=2) && (x<3)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(3))];} else
if ((x>=3) && (x<4)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(6))];} else
if ((x>=4) && (x<5)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(9))];} else
if ((x>=5) && (x<6)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(12))];} else
if ((x>=6) && (x<7)) {[valueAtTime(framesToTime(15))];} else 0

I attached the RIG in this post.

13327_mouthrig.zip

[Wouter Dijkstra]

As it seems to me Joysticks and Sliders always gives for each ‘frame’ one slider. So it will give me 6 sliders again.

[Wouter Dijkstra]

The way I did it now (if, else), there is no animation between the keyframes…. And I want to have a morph between the shapes. Not just “different images”.

[Wouter Dijkstra]

Great to hear the actual explanation! ☺ Thanks for teaching me. I think I fully understand now. This whole situation kept me in the dark today, but I know how it works and what to do now. Thanks Walter!

[Wouter Dijkstra]

Point Control! That’s what I need. I was maybe doing something that wasn’t even possible. If I understand correctly: When there is a lot of layers parented to other layers, using the “absolute-expression” will always make the layer shift? Is that correct?

Thanks a lot for explaining so clearly and pushing me in the right direction!

[Wouter Dijkstra]

For example: When I attach a “NULL” object to the camera I want to use this NULL to track the camera-lens center. But the values are relative. How can I make sure I get the absolute values for this null, but keep it in the same position?

[Wouter Dijkstra]

Hi Walter! Thanks a lot for making the mock-up. It helps a lot to see where you put the expressions.
It’s clear what you did. But maybe I was understanding the “absolute position” wrong. Now all the time when I enter the expression the layer “shifts” position. I was hoping that you could enter an expression to Parented layers which would keep everything exactly the same, but would show the absolute values.

Also when I turn of the expression in your example you can see this shift. Was I hoping for a function that’s not possible?

[Wouter Dijkstra]

It sort of similair to motion tracking that I want to do. So I want to follow the tip of the bridge layer (let’s say a sort of NULL object is positioned there as an anchorpoint). So I need the position-data of this NULL object attached to the tip of the bridge.

Than in the other composition (containing) the bridge I want the camera/whole comp to follow this tracked NULL.

[Wouter Dijkstra]

I want to parent another layer in another composition to this layer.

But when I make an expression from this layer to the layer in the other composition it doesn’t work (I think because it is using relative data and thinks “nothing is moving”). Because it does work when I parent to another test-layer which doesn’t have any parenting.

Hopefully this makes it clearer. So let’s say:

I have a bridge and I parented the bridge layer (bridge.layer) to a NULL rotating. Than from another composition I want to make the “whole” composition of the bridge move with this bridge.layer.

I want to have the absolute position of this bridge layer so the other composition has “real coordinates” to refer to.

[Wouter Dijkstra]

I did search for videos online. But they al handle more difficult set ups. Like 3D. Maybe I am missing something.