Quick Tip – Using A Delay Expression
basix

Quick Tip – Using A Delay Expression

on Apr 19th 2012 with 19 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Requirements: Just After Effects... enjoy!
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Run Time: 8:54 min

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Download Source Files

This quick tutorial shows how to animate multiple layers by using expressions. It allows you to use less key frames and improve your workflow.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 44.2 MB

Tags: Basix
 
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Hello! My name is Matas and I am an animation student & creative artist. Besides that I am working as a Senior Animator at the design studio based in Derby (UK) as well as run my own freelancers cooperative team 'Zazu-Studio'.  

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  • Chris

    Your explanation was so confusing about typing the expressions in. Why go back and forth instead of starting from the beginning?

    • http://www.zazu-studio.com Matas
      Author

      Thanks for an advice, Chris. I think one can find many ways to apply the same effect/expression. I am just used to do this in this way :)

    • Greg

      This site is decent but this is probably the worst part about it. The tutorials can be confusing and you can tell the people who put them together aren’t exactly “teachers.” Lynda’s tutorials are very clear and to the point. AE tuts has a ton of free content though so I’m not really complaining.

  • jj

    Cool tip, thanks! Also here is a quicker tip: Edit>Copy Expression Only. This way you don’t have to open each layer’s parameters, Alt-click then Paste – very helpful especially if you have more than a few layers.

  • http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/workflow/quick-tip-using-a-delay-expression/ muslim

    hi man!
    thanks , good work

  • http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/workflow/quick-tip-using-a-delay-expression/comment-page-1/#comment-77762 muslim

    But if you made anything In the background Will be the most beautiful,
    And it seems about you new in this area,
    In any case, thank you for the beautiful lesson
    I hope you a happy life
    goodbye

  • http://WWW.facebook.com/RaahulFilmmaker Hindu

    that is something i always wanted….

    SOOOO GOOD!!!
    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

    you made my day buddy..

    and abt the name i make here.. just for fun..since i saw 2 names above me CHRIS and MUSLIM…so i say why not HINDU

    hi hi hi ih!!!

  • Adam

    Hey, good tutorial.

    All I would say is that the once you’ve created the variable, which would be ‘rot=slider control;’, you wouldn’t have to pickwhip it to replace the ‘x’ in the expression, but simply type the name of the variable you created instead, which would make the expression shorter and easier to navigate should you want to make any changes.

    • http://www.hey-ant.com Anthony

      Much simpler!!! Thank you.

  • oscand

    Nice Tut thanks,

    But why you create variable in your expression and don’t use it like so??

    “rot=thisComp.layer(“CONTROL”).effect(“rot”)(“Slider”);
    thisComp.layer(index+1).transform.xRotation.valueAtTime (time-rot)”

    “opc=thisComp.layer(“CONTROL”).effect(“opc”)(“Slider”);
    thisComp.layer (index+1).transform.opacity.valueAtTime(time-opc)”

    • Kuni

      I was also a bit confused about that :/

    • TENOCH

      Thks OSCAND, now it works great ;)

  • http://www.hey-ant.com Ant

    Great tutorial!

  • http://www.aeronstudios.com aaron john milloren

    the video is awesome..makes high-quality animated videos affordably and quickly.
    We create attractive business explainer videos,educational and instructional videos,
    and screencasts that bring your concepts to life in a simple way.the animation looks great! Is this made from after effects?check out mine made from after effects: http://www.aeronstudios.com
    I also make quality but affordable explanation videos.

  • http://www.zebravideo.ca video production toronto

    Always was doing it with hands- manyally shifting the keys.Thank you for such as handy way of doing it

  • Danie

    As soon as I apply this expression my value (animation) just dissapears. So my opacity key frames just don’t work anymore. What am I doing wrong??

    • D

      Never mind, I figured it out – You can’t use a adjustment layer to hold the sliders, you have to do it on the layer, makes sense due to the index of next layer being used right?

  • d

    This is a great idea, but this tutorial should be redone… because it’s confusing. Also, it’d be good to point out there are 2 scripts that can really help in the prep for this idea. One is RepositionAnchorPoints and the other is SplitImage (rd_Slicer won’t work because it makes the new slices comp sized, therefore making the RepositionAnchorPoints script unable to do what it should be doing for this tutorial).

  • http://mateopustiu.wordpress.com MateoPustiu

    i love youre ae intro from this tutorial, can you a make a short tips, of how did you make it…. plase…