Cookbook

Posted 2021, Updated on 10 Apr 2021

🔴 Why is my expression not working?

Biggest culprit: You are using ExtendScript for the Expression Engine, when it is supposed to be Javascript. Fix: Go to File> Project Settings > Expressions > change to Javascript. (This option is available on AE 2019 and later.)

Other reasons

  1. You made a typo or used the wrong case when writing the variable or function names

  2. You listed a single value into a parameters that takes an array

    • eg. myScale =5 will yield an error because the scale property is an array that takes 2 values.

    • The fix is

      • myScale = [5,5];

      • or myScale = 5; s = [myScale, myScale]

  3. You forgot to put semicolons at the end of each line

  4. You listed a variable as a string value

    • This is a string: "mytext"

    • This is a variable: var str = "mytext";

    • eg. in Apeel & Vucko tutorial, people alway list the variable as a string ('myVariable') when it should be just myVariable;

When to ask for help?

If you tried everything above, and nothing still works. There are two things you can do:

  1. You can download the project files that I usually provide for free, and use my code I have there. As I am just a student, and do this on my own freewill. I do not have a lot of time and bandwidth to help people troubleshoot expressions. Hence, it's up to you to figure it on your own as much as possible.

  2. If you have to ask me for help, what I appreciate is having more context and description of your problem. For example:

  • Which lines does the error occurred?

  • What does the error(s) say?

  • What have you tried?

  • Have you consulted this guide and tried the solutions I mentioned?

  • What AE version are you running, and what OS.

Sample format for requesting troubleshooting

Hello, I having problem with line number. The error says errorMessage . I have tried solution but I still cannot fix the issue.

What does not help me

  1. Saying that "I wrote the code exactly" or I followed your tutorial. If you did, it would have worked. Clearly, the issue is something else and usually it's simply just a typo mistake.Hence, please give me more information about what the problem is so I can help you as quickly as possible.

More readings

Phyllotaxis

//theta
var myIndex = index - thisComp.layer("controls").index;
var a = 137.508
var theta = degreesToRadians(myIndex * a);

theta

//position
var myIndex = index - thisComp.layer("controls").index;
var s = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Spacing")("Slider");
var theta = effect("theta")("Slider");

x = s * Math.sqrt(myIndex) * Math.cos(theta);
y = s * Math.sqrt(myIndex) * Math.sin(theta);

[x, y] + [thisComp.width, thisComp.height] / 2

// Circle Size
var theta = effect("theta")("Slider");
var minSize = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Min Size")("Slider");
var maxSize = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Max Size")("Slider");
var maxRange = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Distance Range")("Slider");

var sizeFactor = linear(theta, 0, maxRange, minSize, maxSize) / 100;
var s = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Size")("Slider");
[s, s] * sizeFactor;

// Fill Color
var theta = effect("theta")("Slider");
var interval = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("Color Interval")("Slider");
var numColor = thisComp.layer("colors")("Effects").numProperties;

var colorIndex = Math.ceil(theta / interval) % numColor + 1;
thisComp.layer("colors").effect(colorIndex)("Color")

Best Motion Trails in After Effects

Wavey sine wave motion

// apply to X position after separating dimensions
var vel = effect("waveSpeed")("Slider")*Math.PI*2;
var amp = effect("waveHeight")("Slider");
var offset =Math.PI*2*degreesToRadians(effect("phase")("Angle"));

// main 
var v = amp* Math.sin(time*vel+offset);
v + value;

createPath Motion Trails

//setup 
var l = effect("Layer Control")("Layer");
var dur = effect("trailLength")("Slider");
var pts = [];

// calculate the trail length in frame numbers 
var currentFrame = timeToFrames(time);
var trailLength = currentFrame - dur;

// main: generate the points from the current time 

for (i = currentFrame; i > trailLength; i--) {
    t = framesToTime(i)
    ap = l.toWorld(l.transform.anchorPoint, t);
    ap -= [thisComp.width, thisComp.height] / 2;
    pts.push(ap);
}

// create the path using the points
createPath(pts, [], [], 0)

Scaling Radial Grid

ps = parent.transform.scale.value;
s = value[0]*100/ps[0];
[s,s]

Aim Constraint

target = thisComp.layer("controls"); // set this to the layer to aim at
p = thisLayer.toWorld(anchorPoint) - target.position;
radiansToDegrees(Math.atan2(p[1], p[0])) - 90

Cyberpunk tech lines

// user variables 
var pts = 50;
var pos = [0, 100];
var seed = 50;

// declaration 
var x, y; // coordinates
var c, mul; // direction changer
var vertices = [[0, 0]]; // create first point 

// vertices array 
for (i = 1; i <= pts; i++) {
  seedRandom(i + seed, true);
  c = random(); // create random num between 0 to 1 
  c > 0.5 ? mul = 1 : mul = -1; // change direction 
  oldEle = vertices[i - 1]; // get previous vertice

  y = random(pos[0], pos[1]);
  x = y * mul;

  // conditional: if even, go diagonal. If odd, go straight
  if (i % 2 == 0) {
    vertices[i] = oldEle + [x, y];
  } else {
    vertices[i] = oldEle + [0, y];
  }
}

createPath(vertices, [], [], 0);

Radial Delay Rig

tgt = thisComp.layer("control");
// d = length(L.transform.position, transform.position);
d = length(thisLayer.toWorld(transform.anchorPoint), tgt.toWorld(tgt.transform.anchorPoint));

delay = thisComp.layer("control").effect("maxDelay")("Slider");
offset = linear(d,0,2000,0,delay);
time-offset;

Buck Apeel Circle Ripple

Ensure you have the following

  1. ring shape layer Slider Controls : size,copies, radius (anchorpoint-Y), myIndex

  2. null layer named "controls" with Slider Controls : circle_size, circle_spacing, ring_base_size, ring_spacing, dur

  3. null layer named "colors" with Color Controls x 3

Auto-copies

cir = 2*Math.PI *effect("radius")("Slider"); // circumference of circle
n = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("circle_spacing")("Slider"); // max size of a circle
Math.floor(cir/n) // round down the results

Get myIndex

myIndex = index-thisComp.layer("controls").index-1;

Auto-scaling radius

myIndex = effect("myIndex")("Slider"); 
c = thisComp.layer("controls");
int = c.effect("ring_spacing")("Slider");
base = c.effect("ring_base_size")("Slider");

s = myIndex*int;s+ base;

Auto-alternate color

myIndex = effect("myIndex")("Slider"); 
num = myIndex %3+1;
thisComp.layer("color").effect(num)("Color")

Stagger-animation - balls

myIndex = effect("myIndex")("Slider"); 
s = thisComp.layer("controls").effect("circle_size")("Slider");
dur = framesToTime(thisComp.layer("controls").effect("dur")("Slider"));
offset = myIndex*dur;
s.valueAtTime(time-offset)

Matrix Binary Rain Code

seed = 10; // connect to slider
n = 50; // connect to slider

m = b = ''

for(i=0;i<n;i++){
	seedRandom(seed+i,true);
	b = Math.round(random());
	m += b;
}

Vucko — From Nothing to Something

Random flickering

// apply this to your Time Remap property of your Sprite render 
seed = 20; // option:connect to a slider 
segMin = .5; //minimum segment duration
segMax = .8; //maximum segment duration
flickerDurMin = 1;
flickerDurMax = 5;

end = 0;
j = 0;

while ( time >= end){
  j += 1;
  seedRandom(j,true);
  start = end;
  end += random(segMin,segMax);
}
flickerDur = random(flickerDurMin,flickerDurMax);
if (time > end - flickerDur){
  seedRandom(j+69+seed,true);
  random(outPoint);
}else{
   seedRandom(j+seed,true);
  random(outPoint);
}

// original expression from Dan Ebbert

Falling leaves [1][2]

//position
yVelocity = 200; //pixels per second
oscFreq = 1.5; //oscillations per second
oscDepth = 35; //oscillation depth (pixels)
drift = 25; // drift (wind?) (pixels per second: - = left, + = right)

value + [oscDepth*Math.sin(oscFreq*Math.PI*2*time) + drift *time, yVelocity*time,0]

//Z ROTATION:

seedRandom(index,true);
random(360);

//Y ROTATION:
oscFreq = 1.5;
maxTilt = 15; //degrees

maxTilt*Math.cos(oscFreq*Math.PI*2*time)

Techniques

Radial arrangement

Pixilation

  • Dot-Pixilation: CC Ball Actions

  • Square-Pixilation: Mosaic

  • Plugins: tv pixels,

Multi-image spriting / instancing

// Create a marker and use that to control the length of the comp you want instance

seedRandom(0,true);
m = thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).time
random(0, m)

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