sourceRectAtTime box changing height

[jakec71401806]

Hi there,

I have a lower third set up with 3 auto-sizing text boxes. The "Company Name" position is tied to the end of "Person Name".

If I use a name that has letters with ascenders and descenders the "Company Name" box gets shifted down and no longer overlaps.

Is there a way I can make it so that the "Person Name" box is always the height of a name with both ascenders and descenders even if it has none?

Expression on "size" property

s=thisComp.layer("Left - Person Name");
w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width;
h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height;

[w,h]

Expression on "position" property

var s=thisComp.layer("Left - Person Name");
var w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width/2;
var h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height/2;
var l=s.sourceRectAtTime().left;
var t=s.sourceRectAtTime().top;


[w+l,h+t];

 Thanks in advanced

[Mylenium]

Of course you can always add custom padding values as you see fit. You may just need to branch your code and add a filter that checks for these characters in a conditional. The simpler alternative to that may be to have a separate layer of text that contains both the largest letters (presumably some umlaut like Ö and a minor g) and instead of using the actual text box' height you use that layer's height.

Mylenium

[Kyle Hamrick]

If it's workable to do so, it sounds like you can just set the height at a static value, instead of measuring the text layer.

[jakec71401806]

Sorry, I am new to expressions. How do I do that and still have the box width wrap around the text that gets typed in?

Thanks

[Kyle Hamrick · Accepted solution]

No worries! They can be confusing at first. 🙂

So here's your current Size expression:

s= thisComp.layer('Left - Person Name");

w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width;

h=s.sourceRectAtTime().height;

[w,h]

You're creating two variables here, one for width and one for height, which look at the other layer (Left - Person Name) to set those values. 

If you want the height to be a static value instead, just enter a number for h instead of linking it to that other layer's height. So your code might instead look like this:

s= thisComp.layer('Left - Person Name");

w=s.sourceRectAtTime().width;

h=200;

[w,h]

You should be able to see what an appropriate value for h is by looking at a "good" example of this title, or you can just trial and error it a bit until you're happy.

One other alternative would be linking it to a slider control (Effects > Expression Controls) and set the slider to 200 (or whatever number is appropriate here). That would keep it parked at a constant value, but still give you easy access to the number if you needed to make small adjustments manually. Sliders can also be easily passed through as controls in a Mogrt, if that's what you're building here.

Good luck! Let us know if you need any further help.

[jakec71401806]

Thanks for your help that I didn't realise it was that simple!

[Johan O]

The solution was way simpler and I was driving myself crazy. Thank you  Kyle. You're a savior.

[Mylenium]

Simply replace the "height" related code with a fixed value.

Mylenium

[defaultb6l5zlq06f39]

I'm not good at coding, but maybe it's useful to someone who stumbles upon this, you have to set the height based on the font style x height. It ignores ascenders an descenders.

[jakec71401806]

I have coincidentally run into the same problem again! Can you explain what you mean by "font style x height"?