After Effects Expressions Academy.Complete course (2024)

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Explore how expressions in After Effects act as programming codes to manipulate layer properties, enable parenting, and replace hundreds of keyframes with simple, automated animations.

This lecture invites questions in the Q&A section, promises quick answers or video clarifications, and commits to updating and upgrading the course with new videos next month.

Conquer fears around after effects expressions by learning that you don’t need coding or math genius. Grasp basic JavaScript concepts, use ready-made expressions, and modify them with simple operations.

Learn to add, edit, enable, disable, and remove expressions in After Effects, explore the wiggle expression with frequency and amplitude, and use time-based math to drive rotation.

Learn to copy, paste, and link expressions in After Effects, including copying expressions only, applying to multiple layers, and creating dynamic links between properties across compositions.

Learn to link any two properties with expressions in After Effects, enabling one effect to drive another by controlling size, position, color, and tracking for synchronized, creative animations.

Learn to use the pick whip and expressions to drive opacity, rotation, and scale by linking to another layer’s transform values, and understand expression syntax from general to specific.

Explore Zen expression helping tools in After Effects, using slider controls to adjust frequency and amplitude, and convert expressions to keyframes for precise animation.

Explore how After Effects expressions use commands versus variables, and learn to identify methods and arguments, so you can reliably control properties like position and rotation.

Explore the wiggle expression in After Effects: learn its two main parameters, frequency and amplitude, apply it to scale, position, rotation, and color, and understand frame-based behavior.

Learn to create wiggle effects in After Effects to animate smoke by adjusting particles, gravity, direction, and blur, using a randomizer for rotation and motion.

Learn to wiggle with keyframes in After Effects using the wiggle expression to animate position, with time-based control via if-else, plus precompositions and effects like blur and glow.

Learn to control wiggle by time or other properties using After Effects expressions, adjusting wiggle with time-based increases, multipliers, and sliders, and applying blur radius.

Master controlling wiggle in a single dimension of an object's scale in After Effects, using per-dimension variables and values, with sliders for height or width.

Explore wiggle with five parameters in After Effects: frequency, amplitude, randomness seed, octave, and time, using defaults and frame-based randomness to shape motion.

Constrain the rotation to a 90 to 180 degree range by using a base of 135 plus wiggle with a 45 degree amplitude in an After Effects expression.

Master the linear expression in After Effects to map time to properties, control position and scale with min/max values, and combine with ease in/out for dynamic, keyframed motion.

Explore After Effects color expressions with color controllers to drive stroke and fill colors, sample background colors in real time, and map color arrays from 0–255 to 0–1 for design.

Drive layer scale with audio in After Effects expressions by converting audio to keyframes, using an audio amplitude layer and sliders, and building readable variables for flexibility.

Master the basics of after effects expressions: learn variables as value containers, how assignment works, and types - numbers, strings, booleans, arrays, property values like anchor point, position, rotation, opacity.

Explore four value types in After Effects expressions, including numbers, strings, booleans, and arrays. Learn to index arrays from zero, access sub values, and preserve the correct end result type.

Explore how objects act as containers for properties and values in After Effects expressions, and learn to access and manipulate these values across layers and compositions.

Explore methods in After Effects expressions, focusing on wiggle as a method with frequency and amplitude. Learn to use variables and math to manage arrays and rounding for clean expressions.

Explore the syntax grammar of After Effects expressions, learning line-based actions, semicolon usage, statements, case sensitivity, camel case, spaces, and comments to ensure correct evaluation and easy revision.

Learn how to use operators in after effects expressions, including plus, minus, multiply, divide, modulo, and boolean not, with variables and incremental operators to create animation.

Explore arrays and dimensions in After Effects expressions, including 2D and 3D space, zero-based indexing, and how matching dimensions keep properties like position and rotation in sync.

Explore parenting dimensions properties in after effects expressions, converting one dimensional controls into two dimensional arrays, linking opacity and position and rotation through multi-dimensional expressions for precise animation control.

Explore color as a four-dimensional property—red, green, blue, and alpha—using after effects expressions linked to rotation. Map rotation to color channels in 0–1 or 0–255 ranges using transform rotation.

Explore controlling 3D dimensions in After Effects with sliders and expressions, driving x, y, z via arrays, and using add, subtract, and single-value multiply operations.

Explore point and color controls in After Effects expressions, linking multiple values with control effects, driving position and color via sliders, arrays, and conditional expressions.

Learn to add a checkbox control in after effects, toggle between on and off values (0/1 or true/false), and drive properties like opacity with a simple expression.

Explore the layered controller to edit layout without changing the expression’s source code, then drive a circle’s position and size using dropdown layer controls in the current composition.

Learn to use an angle controller to drive a z rotation from 0 to 360 degrees and link a slider to control rotation with an expression.

In this lesson, explore how time drives animation with After Effects expressions, using time to drive rotation, scale, and position, including rounding time values, handling two-dimensional data, and avoiding keyframes.

Master the posterize time expression to create a stop motion style by updating rotation every three frames, and learn why a value or linear function is needed for smooth interpolation.

Explore After Effects expressions to drive animation timing with in point, out point, and duration, and read keyframes and composition time for precise motion.

Access the time of markers and keyframes with expressions, use marker times to drive opacity via linear interpolation, and reference the current time to retrieve keyframe values.

Learn how After Effects expressions use sin and cos to drive mask shapes and animate values from minus one to one, creating x, y, and z motion with time.

Explore time remap with expressions in After Effects to drive a circle animation via a slider, using linear mapping from zero to one second and a source time reference.

Explore how index values reference layers and effects to drive properties like position and opacity, using layer and effect indices to control tools such as radial blur.

Create geometric shapes using index-based expressions to offset positions, rotate shapes, and duplicate layers for complex, offset geometry. Learn to manipulate groups and the z-index to stack shapes precisely.

Learn how to use the loop expression in After Effects to create animation, with loop out and loop in options—cycle, reverse, offset, and continue—and explore duration control versus keyframe copying.

Explore the value at time and value expressions in After Effects, linking layers to follow a leader with time offsets, and using plus or minus delays to offset animations.

Explore after effects spaces: layer space, comp space, and world space; layer space is 2D from the top-left anchor, comp space from top-left to bottom-right, world space adds 3D.

Master parenting and expressions to link a circle to a solid, translate positions between layer space and composition space, and sync position, rotation, scale, and opacity across 3d layers.

Learn how to use toComp to link a particle system producer's z position to a square in a 3D composition, handle spacing between spaces, and make particles track the square.

Explore the fromComp expression to translate a composition's position into a layer's 3d space, linking transforms between composition space and layer space for accurate 3d movement.

This lecture demonstrates applying an expression to drive a crane’s 3d position, adding position keyframes and random motion, and compensating layer space with a z composition.

Learn to use the length expression to measure the distance between two layers in After Effects, including z distance and anchor points, with simple calculations suitable for keyframed animation.

Create an interactive dock bar in After Effects by using a distance-based scale expression, calculating cursor-to-icon distance, applying a linear interpolation, and maintaining spacing to prevent overlaps.