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Roland Kahlenberg
Roland Kahlenberg
Legend
May 5, 2025
Question

Blog Article - Introduction to Regular Expressions, Reproducible Code + lots of sample Expressions

  • May 5, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 865 views

Regular Expressions are exceptionally useful in After Effects Expressions. If you're thinking of improving your Expressions to write more intelligent code or even to craft Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) to help speed up your development of Responsive and even Automated Motion Graphics MoGRTs and Motion Toolkits, then you MUST know the basics of Regular Expressions - there are two links to video tutorials to help you build a good foundation.

I've also added an example prompt you can use in a Large Language Model or with an AI Code Helper.

And you also get quite a few Regular Expressions that you can readily use. 

https://www.broadcastgems.com/post/here-s-an-excellent-after-effects-expression-you-should-have-in-your-expressions-library 

    1 reply

    nishu_kush
    nishu_kush
    Legend
    May 5, 2025

    Thanks for another gem, @Roland Kahlenberg. Good one! Keep posting.


    Thanks,
    Nishu

      Roland Kahlenberg
      Roland KahlenbergAuthor
      Legend
      May 6, 2025

      Thanks for the kind words, Nishu. 

      There's definitely lots more to come. I have enough content to last until the end of the year and they're scratching the surface stuff. I wish I could do these a lot more quickly and with fewer errors too - it takes a while to correct typos and there are still issues with synching my brain and my fingers - as I type on para 1, I'm thinking of paras 2-4.  😄


      Very Advanced After Effects Training | Adaptive & Responsive Toolkits | Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) | MoGraph Design System DEV
        O
        oleg_T
        Participant
        May 10, 2025

        Good day. I apologize if I am writing in the wrong thread, I am in despair, I can not solve the problem:

        I need to Create a Control Text Layer (donor text), and bind another layer with text to it, so that any changes in (donor text) would affect all other bound layers with text.

        The expression "thisComp.layer("donor text").text.sourceText" only changes the content of the text! But the style, font and other attributes are not transferred to the bound layers!!!

        The option from the GPT chat does not work either:

        srcDoc = thisComp.layer("donor text").text.sourceText;
        dstDoc = createTextDocument(srcDoc.text); // clone with the same text
        ------------------------------------
        // transfer the main styles
        dstDoc.font = srcDoc.font;
        dstDoc.fontSize = srcDoc.fontSize;
        dstDoc.applyFill = srcDoc.applyFill;
        dstDoc.fillColor = srcDoc.fillColor;
        dstDoc.applyStroke = srcDoc.applyStroke;
        dstDoc.strokeColor = srcDoc.strokeColor;
        dstDoc.strokeWidth = srcDoc.strokeWidth;
        dstDoc.leading = srcDoc.leading;
        dstDoc.tracking = srcDoc.tracking;
        dstDoc.justification = srcDoc.justification;

        dstDoc; // must return an object
        ------------------------------------

        What am I doing wrong? Where is the error?

        the condition for setting up the project is met:
        A. Setting up the project
        File → Project Settings → Expressions
        Expression Engine = JavaScript (important!)
        Click OK, save the project, close AE and open it again.

        B. Global setting Preferences
        Edit → Preferences → Scripting & Expressions
        ▢ Enable Legacy Extendscript Expressions (must be unchecked!)
        ☑ Enable JavaScript based Expressions

        ---------------------------
        Please help. Thank you.

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