Layer Properties¶. When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel. There are too many of these properties to list here, so use the pick whip to learn the syntax for referring to them in your expressions.
Expressions are the best tool to enhance your animations
Hey there! Today I’d like to share with you my favorites Adobe After Effects expressions. Your expressions add value to your work. It automates the way you animate your assets, it makes calculation and solves algorithms for you.
- After Effects: Linear Expression - going from value 1 to another value and then back to value 1. After effects position expression issue.
- Introduction 1 Introduction 3 2 Changelog 5 2.1 After Effects 17.7 (Feb 2021).5.
- Linear expression helps to connect different properties to ease your workflow. Check this tutorial out to know how to work with the linear expression in Afte.
- Apr 26, 2021 After Effects interpolates the values between two adjacent keyframes as directly as possible without accounting for the values of other keyframes. If you apply Linear interpolation to all keyframes of a temporal layer property, change begins instantly at the first keyframe and continues to the next keyframe at a constant speed.
How do I integrate an expression ?
Simply go to the property you want to animate and Alt+Click the clock! A text area appears, here is your expression editor area!
Math.round
When you need to round an expression, exemple : a slider effect on an animated text (I did a tutorial on this function, go check it out!).
Bounce effect
When you need to round an expression, exemple : a slider effect on an animated text (I did a tutorial on this function, go check it out!).
Loop effect on a composition
http://www.nabscripts.com/expressions/controle_1.html
First, enable the timeline remapping in Time > Enable timeline remapping, extend the composition far enough, then apply the expression (Alt/click on the property clock in question).
Wiggle
You can apply this expression to a lot of different property, for example: position, scale, opacity, rotation and others…
This expression will be wiggling from “a” to “b”. You’ve got to replace those two values by numbers. For example “0” and “100” on the opacity property if you wanna make a random effect from 0 to 100%.
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Apply the following expression to a property to start wiggling it at time 2 seconds and stop wiggling it at time 4 seconds:
How to make wiggle expression looping ?
Interesting thing to know if you wanna make the wiggle expression looping ! Read this article from motionscript.com. Thanks to Florian for the contribution :-).
Here is a pretty good set of expressions, very usefull, by Emanuelecolombo.it!
Inertia – Position & Rotation & Scale (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Bounce – Position (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Elastic – Position (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Back – Position (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Squash & Strech – Scale (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Undulation (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Jumpy Wiggle (by emanuelecolombo.it)
Grid (by emanuelecolombo.it)
After Effects Expression Linear Position Formula
Description
When you add masks, effects, paint, or text to a layer, After Effects adds new properties to the Timeline panel. There are too many of these properties to list here, so use the pick whip to learn the syntax for referring to them in your expressions.
Layer.anchorPoint¶
Description
Returns the anchor point value of the layer in the coordinate system of the layer (layer space).
Type
Array of Numbers (2- or 3-dimensional)
After Effects Expression Linear Position
Layer.position¶
Description
Returns the position value of the layer, in world space if the layer has no parent. If the layer has a parent, it returns the position value of the layer in the coordinate system of the parent layer (in the layer space of the parent layer).
Type
Array of Numbers (2- or 3-dimensional)
Layer.scale¶
Description
Returns the scale value of the layer, expressed as a percentage.
Type
Array of Numbers (2- or 3-dimensional)
Layer.rotation¶
Description
Returns the rotation value of the layer in degrees. For a 3D layer, it returns the z rotation value in degrees.
Type
Number
Layer.opacity¶
Description
Returns the opacity value for the layer, expressed as a percentage.
Type
Number
Layer.audioLevels¶
Description
Returns the value of the Audio Levels property of the layer, in decibels. This value is a 2D value; the first value represents the left audio channel, and the second value represents the right. The value is not the amplitude of the audio track of the source material. Instead, it is the value of the Audio Levels property, which may be affected by keyframes.
Type
After Effects Expression Tutorial
Array of Numbers (2-dimensional)
Layer.timeRemap¶
Description
Returns the value of the Time Remap property, in seconds, if Time Remap is enabled.
Type
Number
Layer.marker.key(index)¶
Description
Returns the MarkerKey object of the layer marker with the specified index.
Parameters
index | Number |
Type
MarkerKey
Layer.marker.key(name)¶
Description
Returns the MarkerKey object of the layer marker with the specified name. The name value is the name of the marker, as typed in the comment field in the marker dialog box, for example, marker.key('ch1'). If more than one marker on the layer has the same name, this method returns the marker that occurs first in time (in layer time). The value for a marker key is a String, not a Number.
This expression on a property ramps the value of the property from 0 to 100 between two markers identified by name:
Parameters
name | String |
Type
MarkerKey
Layer.marker.nearestKey(t)¶
Description
Returns the layer marker that is nearest in time to t.
For example, this expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the time of 1 second:
This expression returns the time of the marker on the layer nearest to the current time:
Parameters
t | Number |
After Effects Expression Linear Position Example
Type
MarkerKey
Layer.marker.numKeys¶
Description
Returns the total number of markers on the layer.
Type
Number
After Effects Expression Linear Position Chart
Layer.name¶
Description
Returns the name of the layer.
Type
String