Delaying animation with expression controls instead of keyframes

[Ludovic29924883eoep]

Hello,
To get a slight delay in my animation on each duplicated groups, i made this simple expression on a trim path :

i=(thisProperty.propertyGroup(2).propertyGroup(1).propertyIndex)-1;
value + valueAtTime(time+i/10)

But i just want only one set of keyframes to control every groups. 

if i replace the "value" by a slider control for example, the delay no longer works. I don't know why.

Any idea? Thanks

[Dan Ebberts]

Posting a screen capture of your timeline would help.

[Ludovic29924883eoep]

there it is

[Dan Ebberts]

I think it will be something like this:

delay = .1;
n = thisProperty.propertyGroup(4).numProperties;
myIndex = thisProperty.propertyGroup(3).propertyIndex;
diff = n - myIndex;
myDelay = diff*delay;
s = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
s.valueAtTime(time - myDelay)

[Dan Ebberts]

If you wanted it to go top to bottom (instead of bottom to top), it would be like this:

delay = .1;
myIndex = thisProperty.propertyGroup(3).propertyIndex;
myDelay = (myIndex-1)*delay;
s = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
s.valueAtTime(time - myDelay)

[Mylenium]

Why would you replace the "value" with the slider? This makes no sense. You need to manipulate the time inside the valueAtTime() function. Of course you may need a ton of extra code with linear() functions if you need exact values instead of the oens the function gives you, but I think you simply misunderstand the basics.

Mylenium

[Ludovic29924883eoep]

Because i want to duplicate the animation on a great amount of sub groups and be able to edit theire animation interpolation with 2 keyframes instead of hundreds. the linear doesn't give me this flexibility of editing though.