Expressions & Scripting Resources for After Effects

Update: There's a new resource summary on PVC, Using and creating After Effects scripts.

Expressions are scripts, but not in the AE world, where scripts are supposed to refer to AE scripts as in the article above. Unfortunately, this cobbled list isn't always clear; note that the leading lights are good resources for both.

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Earlier, Todd Kopriva outlined scripting changes in After Effects CS6, plus a new scripting guide. And Jeff Almosul and Todd Kopriva detailed the Scripting changes in After Effects CS5 at Todd's Blog. See also AE CS5 Help on Scripts and Expressions.

Jeff Almasol is gradually updating his redefinery scripts so they can be updated to work as dockable panels in CS3. These will include the DV Rebel Tools and ones for Mark Christiansen’s Studio Techniques book.

There's enough AE scripts and expressions floating around to make my head swim, and many of them have gestated at AE Enhancers, the uberforum for scripts, expressions, and presets. Many script and expressions can be freely used, distribute or modified. Here's a quick summary of scripting resources mostly mentioned in AEP posts tagged Pixel Bender, Expressions or Scripting...

Expressions & Scripting Resources for After Effects

Training and scripts can be found at:

Motionscript by Dan Ebberts has both introductory and advanced stuff. It's a project-based resource for After Effects scripting and expressions (and there is a difference; for the user scripts are push button affairs). JJ Gifford's basic Expressions in After Effects is old but still attractive.

The Help system is a good resource; see the online version, Adobe AE LiveDocs, which has expressions help and examples. Adobe is offering a scripting guide for AE 8/CS3 at the Developer Center; see Todd Kopriva's outline of changes. See also the AE Help pages on Scripts and on Expressions. You can ask direct questions at the Adobe AE scripting forum.

Other expression training can be found in books like Creating Motion Graphics With After Effects by Trish & Chris Meyer (Dan Ebberts likes the big bonus chapter on the DVD and contributes his own Scripting Overview chapter). They're also adding a 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression on PVC, based on an extra in their book.

See also The DV Rebel Guide, as well as in video training like After Effects Pro: Professional Features by Total Training. Adobe After Effects Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen trumps these in the latest version of the book, which features a chapter written by Dan Ebberts.

Creative Cow has a wide variety of expressions tutorials, and forum habited by Dan Ebberts.

Video Copilot has tutorials that include scripting.

Harry Franks added a free intro video Expressions 101 to accompany his Toolfarm training videos.

These sites provide expressions and scripts but not so much training:

Lloyd Alvarez has an often-updated collection of scripts for AE, including BG Renderer CS3, at his domain AE Scripts that later expanded to add top scripting authors and a shopping cart for downloads. Most scripts are still free but the cart makes tipping easier. See also Lloyd Alvarez's AENY presentation on AE scripting. In 2009-2010, Lloyd had an ongoing course at fxphd, an Introduction to After Effects Scripting.

redefinery from Jeff Almasol has a great script library along 'AE Scripting' fundamentals. Jeff Almasol is gradually updating his scripts so they can be updated to work as dockable panels in AE CS3. These will include the DV Rebel Tools and ones for Mark Christiansen’s Studio Techniques book.

AE Enhancers is the expression & scripting forum for AE.

nabscripts from Charles Bordenave has a good number (English and French). He even has something to help you translate scripts into your own language; this script supports English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Dr. Woohoo specializes in AE<-->Flash integration where Adobe leaves off.

Adobe engineer Bruce Bullis, former keeper of the AE SDK, maintained the After Effects API Zone.

More valuable scripts and expressions can be found at: Creative Workflow Hacks who links to Armored Squirrel, colinbraley.com, crgreen.com, Leapfrog Productions, nabscripts, Peter Torpey. Cool scripts by Jeff Almasol are also in The DV Rebel's Guide by Stu Maschwitz.

XScriptorium, a new AE scripting resource, was launched in August 2008, and has been testing a revised interface at http://v2.xscriptorium.com. It's joined by a similar new website, After Effects Expressions Reference or AEER. Both aim to help organize and present the vast array of available scripts and expressions.

But wait there's more:

• After Effects Expression Controls is a 3-parter among others in the podcast series by Aharon Rabinowitz.
• Dave van Brink of QuickTime Music fame (and qt_tools) also has AE scripting nuggets at his blog, omino pixel blog.
• Chris Hatton and Michael Cardeiro have some cool tricks and scripts too.
• The AE Scripts blog was started by Anders Sundstedt.
• The Chad & Todd Podcast noted The SECRET Demo Palette in After Effects!

Update: Create Digital Motion posted Edit Ninja: Super Fast Video Sampling Workflow with After Effects Scripting. Here's a snippet: "Like to cut up and sample video? Sick of all that time-consuming scrubbing, slicing and rearranging in Vegas or Premiere? Well I’ve figured out a workflow using a collection of After Effects scripts which turns lots of tedious editing into a very quick process to output a series of video clips for your VJing pleasure. This technique uses the following After Effects scripts:
AEScripts‘ “Magnum - the Edit Detector”
Reverse Selected Layer Order
Precomp to Layer Duration
Redefinery’s RenderLayers, and ScriptLauncher, to speed things up even further."

Update: from the aether... Jonas Hummelstrand noted scripts which provide "needed-every-day-functionality:"
-- Lloyd Alvarez scripts "Zorro," "Throttler" and "BG Render"
-- Jeff Almosal scripts "KeyedUp," "ScriptsLauncher," "Statesman," and "CompositionSetter"
-- Dale Bradshaw’s & Paul Tuersley's camera rigging script
-- Dale Bradshaw’s Lower-thirds-generator
-- Paul Tuersley's TrackerViz

Update (December 2008): After Effects Expressions by Marcus Geduld is a new book on expressions in AE from Focal Press. As noted by Todd Kopriva, Focal Press have made a couple of excerpts of this book available for free. There's also a review of the book by Steve Douglas on Ken Stone's FCP, and you can see the author in action on at least 2 training videos; check out videos Making key frames loop in After Effects and The "wiggle" expression in After Effects.

Update: Todd Kopriva is updating the scripting guide for CS4, and posted a crib sheet with the new and changed items on his blog.

Update: Dr. WooHoo is involved with Flash panel and ExtendScript connections with AIR apps and CS4; see New SwitchBoard and PatchPanel tutorials…

Info on Adobe image processing archtecture and new plug-in format in CS4 can be found in previous articles on Pixel Bender, and at Kevin Goldsmith's blog.

Update: In Programmatic Animations in AE with Expressions & Scripting, Michael Coleman and Dan Ebberts (fullscreen) show tips and tricks with Scripting and Expressions in CS4. The parts on the video metadata pipeline were covered more full by Dan Ebberts in an article posted in early 2009 at Adobe, XMP metadata in Creative Suite 4 Production Premium.

Update: Sébastien Périer (Sebastien Perier for Google) has compiled a Top 10 list of After Effects workflow enhancing scripts, ones that he uses the most on a project basis. He also notes AE scripts and websites like AEER, or After Effects Expressions Reference and Final Cut 2 After Effects.

Update: AExtensions is a blog by Mathias Möhl (Mohl for Google), the mind behind the Tracker2Mask, KeyTweak, (AEP backgrounder post) and MochaImport scripts. He doesn't post frequently but posts present deep new features and include video tutorials.

Update: Satya Meka posted the tutorial Intro to Pixel Bender for Non-Programmers, and he likes the math explanations at BetterExplained.

Update: AEtuts started a video series by Frederik Steinmetz, Introduction To Writing Scripts For AE.

Update: Le freelance saucisse is an AE expressions resource in French with interesting and challenging examples. Google Chrome will translate it automatically for your convenience.

FeltTips returned with a few tutorials on expressions, After Effects Random Expression Shenanigans and Quick After Effects Expressions #1 - Camera Targetter. 

Lester Banks unearthed a 16-tutorial series on expressions by Arun Latvia on YouTube.

AE Scripts and Mamoworld now offer ExpressionTimeline, a new After Effects script that lets you combine and modify expressions without editing the code itself.  

iExpressions from Mamoworld combines the power of After Effects expressions with the convenience of effect plug-ins. They allow you to use expressions without writing any code -- each iExpression comes with an interface to control everything using adjustable parameters. iExpressions seems like something out of Stu Mashwitz blog on the potential of a nodes property panel, but it's just script UI for each expression. iExpressions, available on AE Scripts, ships with over 60 iExpressions in six different categories: Audio, Linking, Movement Modifier, Physics Simulations, Source Text, and Wiggles (links to demo movies).
 

Wiggly World: Deeper Modes of Expressions #9

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 9th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 9th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 9: Wiggly World on "how to apply the basic wiggle expression, and then add finer degrees of control to it. ... We think the wiggle expression is one of the core tools to include in your expression toolkit. However, you should know that many basic wiggle moves are available as a set of Animation Presets (look in the Behaviors subcategory). If you want to dive even deeper into random values, the next installment is for you. In it we’ll discuss the differences between random, gaussRandom, and noise, changing seed values, and freezing animations. [emphasis added]"

Color coding: Deeper Modes of Expression #11

Chris Meyer posted the 11th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 11th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 11: Dreaming in Color on using expressions to choose, modify, or create master colors:

"The next-to-last subject we’re going to cover is manipulating color inside expressions. This is powerful, as so much of graphics is about color, and also because it is very handy to set up a master color on one layer and then have a large number of other layers or effects look to this master – a great way to accommodate sweeping client changes at the last minute."

Random Numbers: Deeper Modes of Expressions #10

Chris Meyer posted the 10th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 10th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 10: Random Numbers on how to gain finer control over randomness:

"Last month, I discussed using the wonderful wiggle expression to add randomization to your animations. However, wiggle is but one specialized application of random number generation. For those who like take the lid off and truly get under the hood, After Effects also includes the methods random,gaussRandom, and noise. In this installment I’ll also discuss changing random seed values (patterns of randomness), and how to freeze randomness in its tracks."

Expressive Text: Deeper Modes of Expression #12

Chris Meyer posted the last of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5.

The 12th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 12: Expressive Text on ways to manipulate numbers and text using expressions:

"Finally, we’d like to demonstrate ways to use expressions to manipulate text created with the new Type tool. We’ll show how to display time and parameter values as text, both for diagnostic purposes and to create graphical elements. On the second page we’ll show to how to manipulate strings of text, including using the Buzz Words animation preset to cycle through words in a list. Then on the last page we’ll talk about the Expression Selector to animate text created with the Type tool."

After Effects expressions: Time, Layer Numbers, Speed, and Velocity

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 6th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The 6th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 6: Managing Time, Layer Numbers, Speed, and Velocity:

"By default, expressions assume you are interested in values at the current time. If you need to know the current time, just use the keyword time in an expression, and After Effects will return the current time in seconds (not frames, as we discussed in the previous section).

However, expressions allow you to access values at different points in time. They also let you find out what time keyframes and markers are located at so you can have animations change as they approach or cross one of these keys, as well as reference what other layers are doing. In this installment, we’ll explore a couple of ways to exploit time. ...including having one layer echo the movements of another with delay."

Layer space transform expressions in After Effects

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 4th of a 12-part series, Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book, Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The fourth installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 4: Space Conversions:

"As you work with Position values and expressions, you will run into the problem of what the Position value really means: Is it a position relative to the layer (such as an effect point), is it a position relative to a parent layer, or is it a position relative to the overall comp (sometimes referred to as “world space”)? Fortunately, After Effects has a number of layer space transform methods designed to help you move between these different definitions of Position. These are described in the online Help (press F1 to open). Most are straightforward, but there are a few useful transformations that need some extra thought."

Linked index to Deeper Modes of Expressions

Chris and Trish Meyer have finished posting the series on expressions in After Effects and provide a linked index of the 12 installments at Deeper Modes of Expression: The Index.

Intro to scripting in AE, expressions pt 2

AEtuts posted the 2nd installment of its video series Introduction To Writing Scripts For AE by Frederik Steinmetz (intro video below):

"This is the second tutorial on the road to generating script files for After Effects. I read the comments from Part 1 stating that those are expressions, not actual Javascripts. I figured, to learn what Javascript does from scratch, you have to understand expressions first, because you can immediately see what the changes do. There will be one more tutorial on placing layers with expressions, then we’ll move on to actual scripts. In this tutorial you will learn how for-loops can help analyzing several frames in order to customize effects."

See also Intro to scripting in AE, pt 1 expressions, as well as AE CS5 Help on Scripts and Expressions, Dan Ebberts' Motionscript, and the Deeper Modes of Expressions series from Chris and Trish Meyer. There's even more in the piled-on AEP post Expressions and Scripting Resources for After Effects and posts tagged expressions and scripting.

Looping with expressions in After Effects

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 8th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects, which was recently updated for CS5. The 8th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 8: Going for a Loop on "causing animations or footage to loop by repeating already-placed keyframes or segments of time. The previous installment was about decision-making loops (if/then and while/do statements). This installment is about a different kind of loop: repeating an animation without having to loop footage or places copies of an animation end-to-end"

After Effects expressions: Comp, Footage, and Layer attributes

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 5th of a 12-part series, Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The fifth installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 5: Comp, Footage, and Layer Attributes:

"If you can keyframe it, chances are you can control it with an expression, or use it as part of another property’s expression – usually by dragging the pick whip to it. However, there are additional properties you have access to – including those you can’t access with a pick whip, such as whether a layer’s audio or video switches are on, or its current in or out point. You’ll need to either manually type in code to access these, or get some help from the expression language menu. To give you a taste for what’s possible, let’s discuss a couple of comp and footage attributes of interest." Read more...

Useful Math Expressions

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the first of a 12-part series, Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book, Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The first installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 1: Useful Math Expressions.

After Effects expressions: if/then/else statements plus do/while loops

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 7th of the 12-part series Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The 7th installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 7: Making Decisions on learning how to craft if/then/else statements plus do/while loops that will open the door to a wide range of advanced techniques.

AE expressions and interpolation methods

Chris and Trish Meyer posted the 2nd of a 12-part series, Deeper Modes of Expression, based on an extra in their book, Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. The second installment is Deeper Modes of Expression, Part 2: Interpolation Methods Chris Meyer (replacement for a calculator).

2010 In Review at PVC: expressions

PVC is reposting what they consider the best posts for 2010 In Review. There's no "After Effects" tag to check relevant posts easily, and there must have a been a flurry of info after the CS5 release, but what stands out in memory is the series on expressions by Chris and Trish Meyer.

Check out the linked index of the 12 installments at Deeper Modes of Expression: The Index.