Austin Reeves & Company

Expression for Toggling Animation On/Off

At the suggestion of a friend, I wanted to pass along this tip for adding toggle controls for motion graphics.  This can be especially helpful when duplicating many graphics such as fullscreens or lower thirds.  Working on a recent project I created several fullscreens with information.  As part of the fullscreen the animated logo sits in the corner.  I’m an organization freak so I wanted the logo sitting “in” the fullscreen comp.

If you need to control whether an element animates in (like a logo animation) or holds in a freeze frame, there’s a simple expression that will allow you toggle the animation on or off.  In my project, some of the fullscreens stand alone and I wanted to have the logo animate in.  Others are back to back and it just wouldn’t look good having the logo animate in everytime it dissolves to a new fullscreen.

The comp above shows you my comp layout.  The controller Null Object (“Logo Controls”) has an Expression Control Checkbox added to it called “Logo Freeze”.  Simply add Time Remapping to the layer you wish to control and then add this expression:

x=6;
if (thisComp.layer(“Logo Controls”).effect(“Logo Freeze”)(“Checkbox”) == true){
x;
}else{
timeRemap;}

Where “X” is the frame you want to freeze on, “Logo Controls” is the name of the layer with the expression, and “Logo Freeze” is the Expression Control Checkbox name.  Keep in mind the value for “X” in this case is in decimel seconds, regardless of framerate.  For example if you’re using a 23.976 framerate and want frame 06:12 it would be 6.5.

I’m sure there are many uses of this expression and people far smarter than me can do more with it, or may have even come up with a better solution.  That said, I hope you guys find this helpful!

-Austin