Animate With a Control Layer - Adobe After Effects tutorial

[@audust]

The elements in the "sampleImage" expression should be the other way around. It should be point first, and then size. That's why it's not in sync with the control layer. This is the syntax: sampleImage(point, radius = [.5, .5], postEffect=true,t=time) Thanks for the tutorial!

[@Juicefoozle]

just found this out as well. gave me headaches for quite a while. you should get far more thumbs up. If someone else stumbles upon this and wonders why it's working anyways: It's working in the example above since it's essentially a moving gradient in the controller, so it doesn't matter that much that the sample size is bigger and the sample point is fixed at 1/1 px, but if you want some specific results it will mess everything up. For example if you like to make a radial instead of a linear swipe. Thanks for the, besides that, awesome tutorial ECAbrams.

[@twotwoasjjuh1025]

oh my god i've been trying to get a radial gradient to work on this for days now...comment section always so valuable.

[@jmarkgtz3392]

Thank you so much for this comment

[@Rishav520]

can y ou post the entire expression with the correction so we can just copy it

[@somerlorenzo]

Awesome tutorial, thanks! One thing to take note though, I tried this and found out that while the code appears to work, the order of the input for sampleImage is wrong. It should be: colour = sourceLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,sampleSize); samplePoint should come before sampleSize, or else AE will not parse the sampleSize we defined, resulting in it defaulting to an unknown set of large values. In this video the control layer animation is simple, so the error does not affect the result, but for those who wish to use this with more complex animations, the error will result in shape layers behaving wrongly. That said, this code is really useful, thanks again!

[@NotMuchOfANickName]

+somerlorenzo thank you! I tried to do it with a circle stroke as reference layer and it got chaotic, this change in code was the trick!

[@RailandOak]

+somerlorenzo Goodness thank you! I could not figure out what I was doing wrong! My results were unpredictable at best with anything other than a simple gradient. Your fix solved everything, it works exactly as expected now. Thanks!

[@Virus-td9nc]

That really helps, thanks a lot!!!

[@VXDRG]

Dude these last two videos you made are fucking fantastic, need more of this expression type videos, I wanna learn what ever you know in the most creepy way possible

[@ECAbrams]

Before you go out to de club cook and eat a lot of bacon. You will smell like bacon long into the next day, and every finds bacon irresistible.

[@Mattressezzz]

This was especially helpful in creating an animation similar to Apple's dock where items grow and retract when scrolling along. I setup the background control layer to be white in the middle and then 50-60% gray on the sides. Then I could simply layout a row of graphics and as I move them along, they would grow/scale in size according to the gradient. Huge timesaver! Thanks Evan!

[@hvghtcqlzns3891]

i have no idea why, but hearing your voice just makes feel soothed.

[@LongLiveMikey]

Great video Evan, I love tricky expressions. I'll have to fool around with this technique.

[@777Mikos]

That's a one old tutorial out here, but it saved my ass! Many thanks! Btw for those who might need it - to make it work for 3D layers - use this line samplePoint = [transform.position[0],transform.position[1]]; Or this one for separate dimensions samplePoint = [transform.xPosition,transform.yPosition]; Cheers

[@alicebackham7426]

+777Mikos Thank you so much!!

[@melcyworkchannel827]

Thanks!!!!! :D

[@moeinvideo]

Thank you! and change [x,x] to [x,x,x] to make it change scale on all 3 dimensions

[@tomlangfield1257]

Evan's got my back every time. Hero.

[@annahaz4699]

"except for that one time when you touched them way too much and it got really awkward, but anyway" that made me giggle way too much. I love After Effects and I love you work.

[@peterdickinson8597]

This is great, I would like to apply this to rotation on a 3d layer...so the layers cascade by rotating...How do I amend the Expression to do this?

[@crystalnichols7224]

This ended up working really well for some dinosaur footprints, walking across the screen. I watched this video yesterday, not sure what I might use it for. Then, today, I needed some dino prints for a project and suddenly remembered this. Thanks!

[@jherem]

Thanks Evan! with your videos I have learned much! good channel! amazing tutorials!

[@danielfernandohurtadoduque3139]

Hola, tienes un tutorial explicando esto en español?

[@rr.studios]

@@danielfernandohurtadoduque3139 Learn English with Duolingo or other websites or apps so you'll have access to even more tutorials.

[@lianian9747]

I know Im asking the wrong place but does anybody know a tool to get back into an instagram account? I was dumb lost the account password. I love any tricks you can offer me!

[@codynico90]

@Lian Ian instablaster :)

[@lianian9747]

@Cody Nico I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and im trying it out now. Takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@hellodude82]

How would I do this to rotate an object instead of scaling it?

[@MSeanMcManus]

I don't remember if you pointed this out specifically-- but it's important for that Control Layer to always be opaque. I started the first transition over a transparancy and the expression wasn't working. It would skip right from 0% to 100% when the transition was happening instead of creating that smooth animation. Once I dropped a solid in to start the precomp control layer, perfecto. Thanks for the great tutorial.

[@JessicaBern]

you saved me with this

[@schobel]

you are a King, Sire !

[@logansgraphicd]

Your tutorials are on point and I enjoy your humor! Keep up the great work!

[@futureyoungrich5711]

you're a great teacher, love the simplicity, with details! subbed!

[@atym5325]

I could listen to Nice tutorialm talk for hours man what a passionate dude ❤️

[@VisionaryFire]

Awesome, didn't know about this technique. Have though about it plenty of time in the past but never knew you could do this!!!

[@chewchinwai]

I've been looking at your tutorials and it is really amazing! It helps me a lot and thank you!

[@NealStrydom]

Hey @ECAbrams Thank yo for this tutorial, I used it with great success about five years ago, but today, I had to use it again for a brief and I am getting a syntax error for the first line of the expression sourceLayer = thisComp.layer("Transition Control 2"); sampleSize = [1,1]; Do you perhaps know if there has been an update to how expressions are treated in After Effects 2022?

[@constatinevais9596]

Ok, Evan, this was truly cool!!! I've been following your tutorials and learned many things about expressions. I hope you make more videos about coding in Ae! Respect!

[@RobertoVivancos]

can you animate the opacity the same way ?

[@umarfarooqumarumarfarooqumar]

Even though it was a lot, its exactly what i was looking for with such great brief explanations. Thanks bruv

[@alieskabuchting9279]

Thankx for breaking it down.. great tutorial for beginners

[@NinjaNye]

Evan, wicked powerful technique you're a magician. I ran into the following error while writing the exact same expression: Bad argument: argument 2 to sampleImage() must be 2 numbers. (Error occurred at line 7) It could be a super simple solution that I don't realize. You are one of the few instructors who actually responds to us ignorant newbies, and for that I thank you.

[@ECAbrams]

Well the sampleImage() expects certain things from its arguments or parts. Typically it looks like this: sampleImage(point, radius = [.5, .5], postEffect=true, t=time) So argument 2, the radius, needs to be an array of type 2 [something,something]. Likely you are sending it something of type 1 [something]. It's also telling you your problem is on line 7.

[@NinjaNye]

ECAbrams Aha, Silly me. I believe it's because my layers are 3D. Is this possible if I also make the control layer 3D? How would I add the z-dimension? Is it even worth trying

[@ECAbrams]

Alex Nye well that's a thing of type 3 [x,y,z] so take what you know and add one more part to it I suppose. But I think sampleImage can only sample in the x,y as related to the frame so... consider that in your calculations. What it outputs to however can be anything your heart desires.

[@HunterReynolds]

Thank you once again! Luckily I have this video saved to my 'tutorials' playlist. Just used this on a client project, but instead used the position of the objects to control the scale and transparency based on a static alpha image. Seriously, thank you so much!

[@Curlyhair_shawty]

Thank you for your video!! I am a student learning this for the first time and it was very detailed, concise and easy to follow.

[@xrysaxoumeti9113]

thank you a lot for sharing your knowledge and your work with others

[@bluezaton]

That opening intro was gold. LOL

[@MidnightOilProductions]

This looks promising. How would you translate this to Z-space? I have an image of a tile mosaic and I'd like to have the tiles move closer to and further from the camera in waves. Driving this by a gradient layer seems like a great option.

[@joachimseisay66]

Brilliant! Thanks again Evan for another funny and informative tutorial, my man.

[@TheGrrson]

Very helpful. I'm about to use this for something at work. Thanks!

[@aaronvue3280]

Thank you for sharing this tutorial

[@bananabike279]

This is super handy!! I'm going to experiment with this a lot! I did get an error saying it disabled the expression, but when I copy pasted the expression from the description it worked fine again. Weird. Anyway thanks for the tutorial, your way of explaining is clear yet quirky!!

[@jamesc7827]

Hi Evan, Saw that you mentioned that this this script would only work in Cs6 or later and just want to let you know that with some tinkering and digging around I managed to get it to work for Cs5. sampleSize = [1,1]; target = thisComp.layer("Control Scale Layer"); rgba = target.sampleImage(transform.position,sampleSize, true, time); hsla = rgbToHsl(rgba); x = hsla[2]*200; [x,x] Also I just wanted to say your videos are great and very helpful. Instead of using large shape layers I decided on using a blurred stroke and trim paths to get the look I wanted. Keep up the awesome work.

[@ECAbrams]

Did I say it's only for cs6? I try to warn people that other version may not work correctly but I'm sure the SampleImage thing works for any version with that expression language in it without issue. What part did cs5 not have available from the way it's presented originally?

[@jamesc7827]

ECAbrams The SampleImage seemed to work but i was getting some strange animation when using rgb channels. Someone suggested I may try converting and using the luminance to drive the scale. Which seems to work just like your example I just wanted to put it out there if anyone ran into a similar problem.

[@jordygaatjeniksaan2666]

at 4:53 at the scale you see a round thing but on the left you see a arrow pointing benead i did not get that how did you do that to get the scale is press s but how do you get that arrow

[@dejavu2027]

This helped me ALOT and saved me some time. Great tutorial.

[@mdshibli1009]

Brilliant tutorial

[@guering]

Really cool. I have this background which looks like a pattern (lots of objects following the same pattern) and I want to animate them from the center to the edges of the screen (like a radial wipe, if we use your method). The thing is, I already have the animation made and pre composed on each of these objects (which are essentially multiple copies of the same object duplicated to fill the whole background). I just need to play them in this radial fashion. Is there a way to use a similar expression that would use the radial wipe gradient as a control to play my precomposed animation? To use your tutorial as comparsion, I just need to play the Comp once when the radial wipe goes from black to white. In short, instead of controlling the scale property, I need to just play the composition. Not sure If I explained it well, my english very limited.

[@adamlamprecht-morphew6310]

Awesome videos man, love all the content you put out there for people to learn! Revisiting this video 2 year later to ask... How could I add rotation to this expression as well?

[@j-santos599]

thank you straight to the point

[@sekimichy]

Absolutely love it!

[@allenleitch1783]

Nice delivery sir!

[@hanysbaba8069]

Worked , thanks a lot!

[@anishamm685]

Very interesting. Very complex but certainly useful. Thanks

[@ashouashley6231]

J'aime bien tes travaux, tu es vraiment créatifs

[@hernantombadipraing2983]

decided to try it out.

[@刘铁男-z2z]

very helpful to me, thank you bro!

[@Physics_Dude]

Brilliant. This is a game changer.

[@8704Media]

Thanks for sharing this! I took a hot second to figure out what I was doing wrong but it was definitely worth it!

[@MotiveFuel001]

great thanks for that! Very clear and articulate!

[@MyFilmSweetOfficial]

Thank you for this excellent tutorial!

[@lucyfaire1980]

Excellent tutorial. I was looking for a way to make custom transitions with an array of shape layers(hexagons) and i was looking for a fast way to animate them all. Thanks

[@computerman4321]

Interesting expression, What language does after effects use? I'm looking to script some stuff for a project...

[@ECAbrams]

it uses the after effects "Expression Language". it's javascript with some additions. An object based language. So if you're interested in learning it more in depth head to the adobe help file and check out their dictionary.

[@mattroberts6324]

Just started learning after effects this week. Already addicted. Enjoyed this tutorial. You're fucking hilarious. Thank you. Lol

[@ShiftMaster2000]

Thanks! Dude always been wondering how to do this. This is pretty awesome stuff!! I can do crazy things now! Thanks :)

[@juangerardo1310]

Thanks for the tut, but how can we modify this for other properties?

[@ECAbrams]

Well, you would need to format the output to make sense for that property. So where we have [x,x] you might need that to be just x. And you may need to change the numbers to suit your specific ranges of interest. Does that make sense?

[@MattLockhart]

Very clever. Good stuff!

[@schobel]

Great....just needed this !

[@chuckdenver]

Thanks, really helped

[@soldado8791]

It's just awesome

[@ggenlot]

Hello Evan, Thank you for the tutorial! I have applied this technique with text and it appears to work well. I removed the feather of the wipe and set the sample to 0.01,0.01, yet the text still has an "ease" when it scales up despite a fast/sharp color change under the anchor point. Regardless of what I do, I can't gain control over this "ease" and can't find anything in the graph editor. Am I missing something simple? Thank you! ~~G

[@jakemp42]

I've read through these comments and am still struggling getting the desire results when applying this to the opacity. I don't have any errors and the basic idea is working, but not the way I want. I'm trying to animate a lot of squares on using the gradient and want the squares to reveal only when there is white or almost all white in the control gradient ramp, but for some reason, even when there is pure black, it's still fading the squares on. Basically, they're coming on too soon. Almost as soon as my white starts entering the frame on the left, the shapes are already all fading on. I really need them to come on only as the white moves across. Thoughts? I'm hoping to not have to figure out a way to do this in cinema 4d. Most of my results in after effects have not been much different than a gradient wipe. The weird thing is that when the gradient animates off, it doesn't do the same thing on the left side of the frame. They animate off fine, but when animating on, they all start fading in too soon no matter feather I have my transition feathered or not.

[@CharlesLuppi]

Your so detailed ! SUBBED

[@frodizle21]

Heya Evan, Great tutorial and I've used this numerous times and its been a lifesaver. However, I was wondering if there was a method I could use to simplify the expression count. For example I have a grid I made up of 1000 circles using shape layers in AE. because I duplicated the base shape with the expression they all work as expected! This is great, but due to the count of objects it seems like my computer cannot handle and the render time is now much greater.

[@djangelicasanchezcondjvoca6615]

how do you add a sample in that you have on your mac already

[@KrishnaKaipa]

Cool tutorial...Thanks...

[@Build_N_Bite]

Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick appreciate it man

[@marianonegri6902]

fr stay on the grind

[@travishoff2307]

Just ran across your tutorial. very handy. How would one go about control and increase the scale?

[@ECAbrams]

+Varxtis Foh aren't we using this thing on the scale?

[@travishoff2307]

+ECAbrams Yes. And ass far as I can tell, the gradient controls it appearance in relation to time, not it's size/scale. But when I look over the expression, everything seems to be a matter of i/o, yes/no. I don't understand how the size is controlled.

[@ECAbrams]

+Varxtis Foh Well... the expression is taking inputs and making an output. That expression is on the scale property so the output is the scale property. Does that make sense? If you put an expression on the size of a thing then the expression would govern the size.

[@travishoff2307]

+ECAbrams ya, I do understand that the expression controls the scale/size since it's applied to scale. just like it would control how a layer turns if it was applied to rotate. but I guess the problem I'm having is "how" it controls it. the layer appear as 0%, then 100%, then 80%, which seems synonymous with the gradient. what I need to do is make it 0%, 150%, then 100%.

[@ECAbrams]

+Varxtis Foh you should look at the expression line by line and try to follow the logic of the expression. You may want to check the expression reference guide at adobe.com for more info. Essentially the expression is looking at a layer, taking in the colour value, and converting that value to another number before making it something the scale can understand. So you would need to change... the conversion step?

[@VanoidGaming]

I am having trouble make the transition out after the transition in. How did you do it?

[@davidp158]

Evan - Thanks, as always, for your tutorials. I need to make more use of expressions, and this is a great example of their power. What defines the coordinate location of the "samplePoint"? I presume that defines what tonal range of the control layer the expression "reads" to drive the scale of the animated graphic. Does the "transform.position" read tonal value at the center coordinates of the control layer?

[@davidp158]

DOH! I get it, now. Moving the star's location determines what tonal area of the control layer effects the scale. Thus, the center of the star (transform.position) appears to be define where the tonal values are sampled from (samplePoint). Correct? Expressions make my head hurt...but the masochist in me says I should learn them.

[@Luixxxd1]

Nice tutorial! But i have a question: If for example i want to animate the position, i guess i put the expression on the position property, but, what if i only want to affect one axis?

[@gabevf]

to affect one axis, you need to define the x and y values separately. in his expression, the final statement of "[x,x]" basically says that both values are going the be "x", which is "colour[0]*100;" to animate the each axis separately, you're going to need to have something that ends with "[x,y]" Try something like this to animate only the x value: sourceLayer = thisComp.layer(“grayscale transition"); sampleSize = [1,1]; samplePoint = transform.position; color= sourceLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,sampleSize); x=colour[0]*100; y=transform.position[1]; [x,y] just a few things to note: 1) you'll need to change "greyscale transition" to the name of the appropriate layer. 2) the *100 will only give you results from zero to 100. You might need to change that multiplier to something waaaaay bigger. 3)"transform.position[1]" will let you input whatever value you'd like for Y :)

[@gabevf]

and if you'd like to change the x value only: sourceLayer = thisComp.layer(“grayscale transition"); sampleSize = [1,1]; samplePoint = transform.position; color= sourceLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,sampleSize); x=transform.position[0]; y=colour[0]*100; [x,y]

[@Xianglunka]

Thanks a lot man!

[@1234radio]

Thanks for another classic! Linked the control layer to a bunch of jpegs and waves them like sugar. I wanted to alter only their horizontal (x) value so I did x=colour[0]*100; y=[100]; [x,y] Now I want them to wave a bit their height (y) as well but proportionally, let's say by a 1:4 ratio. I am very fresh to AE math logic so any suggestion would be welcome. Thanks again!

[@jessicalawheed6735]

I'm trying to use this but it seems this expression is not working in the 2017 version. Do you have a workaround? I have literally followed every single step.

[@Sonic7979]

Hey 👋 How to make them increase on black and become small on white?

[@Macrofi318]

Evan. This is a great method. How would you modify This: sourceLayer = thisComp.layer("Transition Control 2"); sampleSize = [1,1]; samplePoint = transform.position; colour= sourceLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,samp­leSize); x=colour[0]*100; [x,x] to transform the opacity and not the scale. I have created a the control layer to use the linear wipe as well as some noise on a loop for variation. I tired to make a luma matt originally but there are so many affected layers the noise splits some and looks crappy. I figured this would make a better solution, I just need to have it affect the opacity and not the scale. The error I get is : expression must be of dimension 1, not 2. Im assuming that has to do with this section: [x,x] But what should it Be? Love your banter... Thanks,

[@Macrofi318]

+Marco Rodriguez Never mind. I figured it out. This works: sourceLayer = thisComp.layer("transitionMatt"); sampleSize = [1,1]; samplePoint = transform.position; color= sourceLayer.sampleImage(sampleSize,samplePoint); x=color[0]*100; [x]

[@annabusch8772]

haha, man, I love the way you talk! :D This is soo much better than the average, boring tutorials :)

[@izzuddin12345]

love all your tutorial..:)

[@MSeanMcManus]

Been messing with this technique a bit more and came up with a question. How would you apply this to a paragraph of text?

[@electron2601]

Great tutorial! Thanks for showing us this very powerful expression and effect. I think this will add some punch to future videos which will really help visual motion. One thing I notice when you paste the code in is that a hypen gets placed in the word "sampleSize" in the brackets and I had to delete that. I thought I'd bring that to everyone's attention just in case.

[@ECAbrams]

that happens in the tutorial?

[@Anreas13]

In the playlist, I want to take a part of two tracks and put it in the setuper, but I don't know how...I want to setup each track piece by piece,

[@thomascheca]

Great tutorial, thanks a lot. I was wondering, what if instead of having an impact on the scale, the gradient had an impact on the percentage of a radial wipe of a circle for example? How the expression should be tweaked to get that ? Thanks !

[@ECAbrams]

Thomas Checa well, there is a linear expression in there that remaps value ranges to other value ranges. Make sure the output ranges are appropriate and that the final output is in a format that the new property will understand.

[@VjRafa]

great tutorial! thanks!

[@tazhpro]

This is not working when I want things to expand from the center. Half screen from center to top. And half screen from center to bottom. I created 2 wipes from the center, one going upwards and 1 going downwards. Then the top elements work properly, but bottom ones aren't.

[@davidklingerman2646]

You are awesome. Thank you!

[@cis84muz]

Adding feather changes anything? I ask because I made something similar and didn't notice a difference ;)

[@maryrees5996]

How do you find out how to do these cool things? Love your channel!

[@ECAbrams]

+Mary Rees usually I discover new things when I'm trying to solve a specific problem.

[@emanuelcastro7483]

Dumb question (i don`t really know if you teached this before); how do you create the six sided polygon that you show in the intro?

[@topfiverappers8122]

great tutorial. I have one issue. I want the same animation applied to a bunch of circles of various sizes. The issue is that when I apply the expression/control layer it makes a circle of different proportion the same size as the first shape that used the control layer. completely lost on how to fix this. I even tried to make a second control layer but it seems when i plug in the expression it still converts to the same size.

[@PickDish]

Yep, looking for answers too. Same problem

[@kurnikoff]

I found a solution, in case someone else needs it. You need to add clamp expression to it with initial value enabled. Here is the code: sourceLayer = thisComp.layer("yourGradientLayer"); sampleSize = [1,1]; samplePoint = transform.position; colour= sourceLayer.sampleImage(samplePoint,sampleSize); x=colour[0]*100; newX = clamp(x,0,value[0]); newY = clamp(x,0,value[1]); [newX,newY]; ------------------------- What this code does it takes the x value calculated from the colour change, then limits its min/max input. I used it on scale property, so the lowest I want is 0 and max is initial setting e.g. 23%. clamp(x,0,value[0]); will animate the layer and made sure it stops at your initial scale. This lets you set custom scale sizes on objects and animate them with gradient. Hope it makes sense :)

[@emmonskr]

What did you use to record this? I like how you have the click explosion

[@ECAbrams]

i use ishowuHD, it's cheap but good and for mac

[@koozin69]

great tutorial man! :) is there any way to do the same with repeaters?

[@koozin69]

+Thiago Tera nevermind, did it without problems through repeater scale.. tks again

[@anthonyantwhite2280]

Fascinating!!!

[@babi_fernandes]

UOUW!!! thats Awesome!!!! Thanks =D

[@Who_Is_Nash]

Excellent tutorial! Thank you very much :)

[@ihaveamac27]

Hey Evan, thank you for sharing this great technique! I am just wondering why the scaling begins, while the color is still black? I'm trying to animate some objects on with a fractal noise, but all of the elements have almost the same scale, while some areas are still black which should be a scaling of 0%. I hope somebody can help me.

[@ECAbrams]

So things to know about colour. 1. Just because it look black it might not be black. Your eyes, monitor calibration, and so on can make even shades of grey look black. 2. The info window can tell you the exact colour value and 3. If the expression is giving you too fast of a scale then you can use math to alter and 4. If you prefer to not use expression changes just work with a control layer in a darker and less contrasting register.

[@adityapuranik]

Can I use this for Rotation instead of Scale?

[@ECAbrams]

you can use it on any property so long as you format the output correctly. We have it going to scale as [x,x] but if the property you are using it on is only one part, then the output would be x.

[@adityapuranik]

@@ECAbrams It worked! Thanks a lot...You are amazing! :)

[@weused1]

Could you use a controller with CC Bend it to make a field of foliage flow with the wind

[@ECAbrams]

One of the great things about expressions is any property can be linked to any other property. So, absolutely.

[@weused1]

@@ECAbrams I found a way to do it, thanks to some of the tricks I learned from your videos. Thanks for always providing great info and thanks for replying!!

[@0Budgetprod]

Hey, thank a lot for this amazing tutorial !!! One question: do you think this is possible to apply on a repeater/clone/etc... to avoid all the layers? If using low spec hardware or hundreds/thousands of objects. I tried it with the repeater but somehow I can`t get it :(

[@mattcurr9931]

it will always be on the original shapes background point behind it. I'm about to use echospace (trapcode) but that's just for easier setup, it still will create a gazillion shape layers