The greatest references around : 1/Dan Ebberts' : http://www.motionscript.com/ A very good introduction with a lot of sample expressions, clearly explained and commented 2/JJ Gifford's : http://www.jjgifford.com/expressions/ A slightly more advanced intro, and also a lot of examples Good javascript ...

This expression was created by Dan Ebberts NOTE : It will only work in AE 6.5 Here's a fun example. Create a 200 x 200 layer and draw a generally vertical stroke (start at the bottom and draw up) that extends about half the height of the comp. Set "Paint on Transparent" to on. Apply this ...

Instead of using any timecode effect, you can very easily do this with expressions : timeToCurrentFormat(); Apply this expression to a text layer's "source text" parameter. Steps : 1/Create a text layer (type dummy text) 2/Twirl down to "Source Text" 3/Activate the expression fie...

Problem : you want to use the speed/velocity of a layer's movement in space to drive, say, an effect Solution : If you want to take the speed for a layer's postionnal value, you can use the following expression position.speed/3 -50 This expression has the advantage of using the speed information co...

This script will turn off numbered layers in selected comps. To make it work for you, select the comps in the Project Window, adapt the script below to turn off the layers you want (in this example layers 6 and 7 will be turned off), and then run the script. This is obviously interesting only if you...

This script will go through your project, find any item that is a solid, make sure it isn't used, and delete it. It doesn't affect footage items. { // Go backwards through all the items in the project // Go backwards because we'll be deleting items from the list. for (i = app.project.numItems; i >= ...

A couple of things to know about this section of the forum : 1/As always, and this is extremely important, all people who contribute these scripts must be credited for their work. If you use these scripts or pass them on to other people, make sure the right credit is given 2/Let's not clog this part...

A few things you need to know before you use this forum : 1/All expressions here were created by people who deserve the credit for their work, so please make sure it stays that way (in other words, nobody should use these expressions for any other purpose than his own work) 2/The way things are orga...

Problem : Is anyone able to give me an expression that I can add to the Transform effect's "scale" and "opacity" parameters (so that it can be saved as a favorite effect). The expression needs to fade in the layer (Transform effect's opacity parameter) from 0 to 100 percent in o...

Problem : when you tracked a layer and created a corner pin effect that is applied to the layer you are applying to track to, it is usually hard to scale or change the corner pin's size without manually moving all the points (pain in the *!#). Here is the solution (Offered by Donat van Bellinghen) ...

Problem : How to simulate a "scrubbing" effect, as if you were randomly dragging the time needle around a timeline Solution : Posted by Dan Ebberts on AE List Aug 27 2003 tmin = .125; //minimum segment duration(can't be zero) tmax = .25; //maximum segment duration = 0; initialSeed = 11; e...

Posted by Dan Ebberts on AE List Aug 26 2003

Apply this expression to the Time Remap property of a layer

Math.floor(random(this_comp.duration))

Posted by Dan Ebberts on AE List June 18 2003 A falling leaf can be a pretty complicated simulation - sometimes they just fall gently, sometimes they do barrel-rolls, sometimes glide back and forth, or any combination. These expression roughly simulate the glide back and forth variation. I tried th...

Problem : How to move a layer through a comp, ease the movement, and make it start at a given time? Solution (posted by Dan Ebberts on November 10 2002) Say you wanted your layer to move from the upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner of a 640x480 comp. You want this motion to start ...

Solution 1 : Posted by Ken Broomfield on AE List Oct 27 2002) minTracking = 0; maxTracking = 100; maxSize = effect("Basic Text").param("Size").value_at_time(0); minSize = effect("Basic Text").param("Size").value_at_time(10000); (maxSize - effect("Basic T...