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AntDX316
Inspiring
June 15, 2022
Question

What do expressions even do?

  • June 15, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 504 views

Alt+Left-Clicking the wick icon makes it show an expression. If you just Left-Click is it the same?

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4 replies

Community Expert
June 17, 2022

Alt clicking gets you into an expression menu where you can link properties together or write code.

Left clicking is different. Left clicking mainly adds or removes keyframes.

AntDX316
AntDX316Author
Inspiring
June 17, 2022

What if you get into the expression menu but right no code, can you still operate like it's keyframe only mode?

MarekMularczyk
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 16, 2022

Alt+click on stopwatch icon next to a property adds an expression.

Just click on stopwatch icon adds just a keyframe.

That's the difference.

 

Adobe Community ExpertAdobe Certified Professional
AntDX316
AntDX316Author
Inspiring
June 17, 2022

so they are the same?

MarekMularczyk
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 16, 2022

Expressions allow you to extend what After Effects can do.

For example, I use expressions to create animated infographics where some values (like percentages for some statistics) animate from 0 to a specific value. You can't do that by hand, without expression. It would drive you crazy 😉

 

Adobe Community ExpertAdobe Certified Professional
AntDX316
AntDX316Author
Inspiring
June 17, 2022

show a small demo

Dan Ebberts
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 15, 2022

Not sure what you mean by the wick icon, but you can create a default expression by alt+clicking a property's animation stop watch icon. If you just click that icon it will create at keyframe at the current time (or remove all keyframes if one or more already exist).