Now change it to 'time*2' that's time multiplied by 2. It's a pretty simple way to make a clock ticking off seconds. The rotation will increase by 1 degree per second. For example: add time to the rotation property. What's that going to do? Play your timeline and watch as the value of that property increases with time. After you alt click on the property just type in 'time' (without the quotes). Try the following Expressions out in your current or future projects:

All you need to get started with Expressions in After Effects is to open up a project, go into a layer in one of your compositions, and hold down the Alt (for Windows) or Option (for Mac) key and click on the keyframe animation stopwatch next to the property you want to apply the animation to! This will turn the value of that property red to indicate an Expression is being applied and when you first click give you a text box to type in under the layer in the timeline. Also, if you're worried you need to be a JavaScript expert to make use of them, you don't even need to know what JavaScript is to take advantage of Expressions in After Effects. We won't get into the complicated side of Expressions here, though. And if you really dive deep on Expressions you can use them to accomplish some impressively complicated animation. With a command and some relatively simple math you can drive the animation for everything from the position property of a layer to the intensity of an effect applied to the layer. Expressions are small pieces of JavaScript that you add to a property in an After Effects layer to animate that property. Sometimes a relatively simple line of text can save you from creating hundreds of individual keyframes. An Expression is used in After Effects as a way to simplify the process of creating animation that might otherwise take a lot of time to keyframe. Are you ready? Let's dive in!įirst, we need to take a look at what expressions are. In this blog post, we'll break down some of the most essential Expressions and show you how to use them in your own projects.

Before you can take your motion graphics to the next level, you need to have a basic understanding of how Expressions power After Effects.

Opacity wiggle expression after effects