How can I make a countdown timer using After Effects

[Webshark2000]

I'd like to make a video that has a timer that counts down one second at a time. I need one starting at 5:00 (five minutes). Is there a way to easily do this in After Effects without having to manually change the text every second?

Thanks.

[_Steve_Patterson_]

Effect > Text > Numbers

[Webshark2000]

Thank you Steve. Your in-depth, extensive explanation worked perfectly. :)

I figured it out, and with the help of a couple masks was able to get the x:xx format I wanted (had to cover up the AM/PM).

Thanks!

[Todd_Kopriva · Accepted solution]

I'm glad that you found a solution, but I thought that you might appreciate a suggestion of another approach.

Colin Braley provides a tutorial and example project on his website that show how to use an expression on the Source Text property to animate text to overcome some of the limitations of the Numbers effect.

There's a similar example in the "Example: Animate text as a timecode display" section of After Effects Help.

Here are some Community Help searches that can lead you to some ideas, too:

Community Help search for 'countdown timer'

Community Help search for 'digital countdown timer'

[Guest]

Thanks for the link Todd.

What would it cost to rework and polish the numbers plugin (plugins in general) juuuuust a little ?
Don´t know how often i had to use Numbers for different approaches but i always hassled around with masks and precompositions to get it right just because of these "limitations".

the expression shown in the link is aweseome but a little complicated and big for my opinion i prefer Dan Ebberts expression because even my grandma understand it.

Btw. i've already sent 4 complaints, 8 feature request anno CS1 and 12 requests since CS3 bout that AE plugins stuff. But im still optimistic that someone has red those requests...

[Liran Tabib]

You can use this free tutorial on vdodna's site:

http://www.vdodna.com/tutorials/3-digital-clock/

Or use this Digital Clock / Timer Presets:

http://www.vdodna.com/products/digital-clock-timer-presets/

Good Luck!

[salimrpa]

Hey WebShark,

I wrote a tutorial and provided several template for AE countdown to help the After Effects community. Feel free to check out

After Effects Counter and Countdown - Free Templates

Hope this help

Best

Salim