The Expressions Thread

dorde said
Ben, may I suggest you an idea for a new script?

Go for it!

Just sent you an email.

Brilliant thread! I was looking for ways to expand my skills in after effects, and expressions is definitely the right path to go. Thanks!

Anyone know of a sweet expression for a simple countdown with four digits (Year only) that allows me to delay it at a certain point then it counts to the next date? Using it in an upcoming project and would love something that I could attach to a secondary layer and being able to enter the dates there in an easy manner.

Been struggling with this for awhile so I would appreciate the help!

Did a little experimenting and managed to get something super simple and easy to use.

I simply attached the source text layer to a null with a slider control and now it’s as easy as entering your desired year!

Yes… a text layer has a Source Text property and you can link it to anything.

A text layer is actually a really good way to debug your expressions too. If there’s something not working in an expression, you can paste it into a text layer’s Source Text property one line at a time and see exactly where the problem is. The text layer will show you the results of the expression up to that point.

Is there any way to control particles’ collision in Particular? Or simply to avoid it, so that they not fly through each other but stop before a collision to let another particle pass through?

vovkacg said
Is there any way to control particles’ collision in Particular? Or simply to avoid it, so that they not fly through each other but stop before a collision to let another particle pass through?

Simple 3D Depth Cueing

Simple depth cue. Use on opacity of a 3D layer. There must be an active camera present. Otherwise, the manually set Opacity value will be used.

//fadeInOutDepth - Array of distances to the cam plane [near0, near100, far100, far0]
var fadeInOutDepth = [50, 500, 4000, 7000]; 

try {
    var C = thisComp.activeCamera;
    var F = fadeInOutDepth;
    var P = thisLayer.toWorld(thisLayer.anchorPoint);
    var D = C.fromWorld( P )[2];
    var In = linear(D, F[0], F[1], 0,1);
    var Out = linear(D, F[2], F[3], 1, 0);
    var Op = Math.min(In, Out);
    value*Op;

} catch (e) {
    value;
}

Is there any possibility to create any bar chart in AE?
the chart should change when we change some text layer.
The text layer string should affect scale value of other layer. Is it possible??