Hi all,
So I've done quite a bit of research on this new expression "control" and it has tons of possibilities, but I can't get it to work exactly as I want it to and I'm hoping someone here has some insight.
I'm looking at it to control the background shape around text that's input through the newish After Effects editable text for text boxes/lower thirds, etc in Premiere.
Evan Abrams is from whom I initially received the info from in his tutorial: SourceRectAtTime() Expression- Adobe After Effects tutorial - YouTube
Here is his expression work:
This is the expression we wrote on the size:
s=thisComp.layer("Hello people");
x=s.sourceRectAtTime(time-s.inPoint,true).width;
y=s.sourceRectAtTime(time-s.inPoint,true).height;
[x,y]
This is the expression we wrote on the position:
content("Rectangle 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").size/2
Works kinda well, but generally only with left justified text for both x and y dimensions AND he failed to point out that the anchor point of the shape layer needs to go to the top left point of the shape layer.
Someone responded to his video about trying it for right justified text and figured out that if the expression for the position is changed from:
content("Rectangle 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").size/2
to:
content("Rectangle 1").content("Rectangle Path 1").size/2*-1
Unfortunately, this doesn't work with multiple lines of text.
Also, the respondent point out that if the position expression is deleted, one can use the center justified text and have it work... but only for a single line of text.
Dan Ebberts pointed out an alternative solution here using solids:
//scale
t = thisComp.layer("text");
margin = 20;
r = t.sourceRectAtTime(time,true);
w = r.width*t.scale[0]/100 + margin;
h = r.height*t.scale[1]/100 + margin;
[w/width,h/height]*100
// position
t = thisComp.layer("text");
r = t.sourceRectAtTime(time,true);
s = t.scale;
ap = t.anchorPoint;
p = t.position;
x = p[0] + (r.left + r.width/2 - ap[0])*s[0]/100;
y = p[1] + (r.top + r.height/2 - ap[1])*s[1]/100;
[x,y]
Unfortunately, when one does the import of the comp from AE to Premiere, the text justification is correct initially, but when the text is changed in premiere the whole thing breaks and it defaults to a left justification for the text and that requires moving the box and text in Premiere to make it how it appeared in AE (although the center justification is lost) and I don't want to have to modify the position property in Premiere.
I found this expression control on Reddit:
[–]dfreynoldsMoGraph/VFX 10+ years1 point 8 months ago*
But as with the other examples, it cannot handle changes in the text justification or multiple lines of text correctly unless everything is left justified in AE.
I need to have an expression control on the text and background shape layer that I can modify for left, center and right justified text that can allow for multiple lines of text to be input in Premiere and it keeps it's original location as it's tested in after effects.
Any ideas?
Thanks for any help you might have!
