Hacking expressions
!WARNING! VERY BORING ENTRY !WARNING!
This is going to be very interesting if you have any programming experience. Any programming language will do: C++, PHP, Ruby, Visual Basic, Java, or even ActionScript. If you don’t, you probably already got bored.
AE Expressions are based on JavaScript, so they are not only object oriented. You can also use any JavaScritp syntax and build-in functions that are not listed anywhere in AE itself. Unfortunately some things will not work as expected, and sometimes you might even get an error message, when everything is ok. When that happens simply turn off the expression and turn it back on again, or select all, cut it out, press Enter, and then paste it again making sure that you don’t have any white spaces in the beginning or end of the expression. That helps sometimes.
My name is Jerzy Drozda Jr (aka Maltaannon) and I hate keyframes, but I do love expressions. Even though sometimes I find using them very frustrating. Theres no way to declare global variables, create your own functions, or extend the build-in functionality. But there actually is a nice way to deal with that that you might not be aware of.
Sounds interesting? Read the whole article.
Category: Maltaannon, Expressions, After Effects