Unlock the power of automation and precision in your motion graphics with After Effects Expressions! This section is your guide to mastering the scripting language that allows you to create dynamic animations, link properties, and build complex effects without manual keyframing. Whether you’re looking to synchronize animations, create interactive controls, or add randomness to your designs, these tutorials will take you from the basics to advanced techniques. Elevate your workflow and unleash creative possibilities with Expressions in After Effects!
Water Filling Expression for After Effects
Creating Realistic Water Fill Effects in After Effects with Expressions Introduction Creating realistic liquid animations can be challenging, especially when you need dynamic, adjustable water filling effects. While there are plugins available for this purpose, you can actually achieve a professional-looking water fill effect using expressions directly in After Effects. In this tutorial, I’ll share…
Auto Resizing Text Box After Effects Expressions
Creating Dynamic Auto-Resizing Text Boxes in After Effects The Problem: Static Text Boxes Are Limiting If you’ve worked with text in After Effects, you’ve likely encountered this common challenge: you create a beautiful text box with a background shape, but when you update the text content, your carefully positioned background shape no longer fits. This…
Anchor Point Corner Alignment AE Expression
Mastering Anchor Points in After Effects with Expression Controls Adobe After Effects is a powerful tool for motion graphics and visual effects. One of its many strengths is the ability to control layer properties with expressions. In this post, we’ll explore an anchor point expression that leverages a Dropdown Menu Expression Control to dynamically set…
Exploring the Property Tree in Adobe After Effects Using ExtendScript
When working with Adobe After Effects, you may need to identify property names for specific elements within a layer. This can be a crucial step in scripting and automation. The following script provides a way to recursively walk through the property chain of selected layer(s) and outputs the match names and display names directly to…
Fade Opacity of a 3D Layer Based on Distance from Camera
Place a shape or an image on your composition. Convert it into 3D Layer. Click T to open its opacity property. Alt-Click on Stop-Watch icon to enable expressions. Delete and paste the following expression in this field. Now add two Expression Controls: Both should be Slider Control. You can add Expression Controls from: Effect –…
Creating Animating Organic Lines with Expressions
Create a New Shape Layer Add a Path to the Shape Layer Add Expression Controls for Custom ParametersYou’ll need to create several controls to tweak the organic line’s behavior with noise. Change the “Length” to increase or decrease the overall size of your line.Modify “Points” to add more or fewer vertices, which will affect how…
Parametric Ellipses or Ovals using Expressions
Step 1: Create a New Shape Layer Open your After Effects composition.Create a new Shape Layer by navigating to:Layer > New > Shape Layer. Step 2: Add a Path to the Shape Layer With your Shape Layer selected, click the “Add” button (next to Contents in the Timeline) and choose “Path”.This adds a default path…
Parametric Curves using Expressions
Step 1: Create a New Shape Layer In your After Effects composition, create a new shape layer (Layer > New > Shape Layer).In the shape layer, add a “Path” property (for example, by adding a “Shape” → “Path” under Contents). Step 2: Add Slider ControlsTo control the spiral, add the following slider effects to your…
Parametric Spiral Usign Expressions
Create a shape layer. Expand the contents under layer. Delete current shape (i.e.: Ellipse). Now create a path by clicking Right Arrow Icon (Next to Contents – Add) and add Path. Now expand path and alt-click stop watch icon to add an expression. Delete the current expression and copy-paste the following expression. Now we need…
Expression Driven Parametric Circles
Create any shape layer. Go to contents and expand. Delete the current shape (Ellipse and etc.) Click on the little right arrow icon next to Add. Click Path. Now expand path by clicking down arrow icon. Alt-Click on time-watch icon to create an expression. Copy and Paste the following code. Now we need to add…