After Effects expressions library
Life is easier with After Effects expressions, but writing them can be daunting. That's why our team spent hours on writing and testing the most useful After Effects expressions for you.
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All expressions
Last update 26. Dec 2024.
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Dynamic AM/PM Digital Timer Expression
Ideal for motion graphics like digital clocks, dashboards, or time-based animations requiring precise and customizable time displays.
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u/Able_Asparagus1376
Row Counter for Text Layers
Great for automating layouts where the number of text rows affects the design, such as captions, paragraphs, or dynamic subtitles.
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Character Counter for Text Layers Excluding Spaces
Perfect for templates and animations where the number of characters, excluding spaces, plays a role in dynamic layouts, adjusting design elements, or enforcing text length limits.
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Character Counter for Text Layers
Ideal for animations or templates where character count impacts design decisions, like creating dynamic layouts or limiting text lengths.
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Auto-Scaling Text Layer with Width Constraints
Perfect for auto-scaling subtitles, banners, or text that needs to adapt to varying character counts without exceeding a defined width, ensuring consistency in responsive layouts.
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Split Text Layer by Separator
Perfect for automating text-based workflows where layers have structured names like “Title - Subtitle” or “Section: Topic,” allowing you to use each part independently.
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Letter-by-Letter Write-On Text Animation
Great for animating headlines, intros, or coding-themed sequences where text needs to appear letter-by-letter.
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Word-by-Word Write-On Text Animation
Perfect for captions, subtitles, or kinetic typography where text is revealed incrementally.
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Swinging Pendulum Animation
Ideal for creating physics-based effects or adding organic motion to objects like hanging signs, swinging decorations, or other elements that need natural oscillation.
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Automatic Scale Animation with Overshoot
Perfect for animating elements like buttons, logos, or text, adding smooth and professional-looking scale transitions. Ideal for templates or projects where automatic, time-based scaling animations save time and effort.
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Color Animation Based on Layer Position
Great for interactive animations where objects change color as they move, such as sliders, maps, or responsive graphics.
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Constrain Shape Layer Inside Circle Bounds
Ideal for creating animations where smaller objects, like buttons or icons, need to move freely but stay within a circular frame.
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Keyframe Value Control with Sliders
Perfect for projects where you need to adjust start and end values of animations on the fly without manually changing keyframes.
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u/Able_Asparagus1376
Detect Layer Overlap
Great for collision detection effects, such as interactive animations where elements change on contact.
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Elastic Connection Expression for Linked Animation
Perfect for animating objects connected with a spring-like motion, like bungee cords or flexible connectors.
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Wiggle One Dimension Only Expression
Ideal for subtle jitter effects on text or images that should only move horizontally or vertically.
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Digital Timer, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds Format
Useful for detailed time-based animations, such as timers or digital displays.
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Digital Timer, Hours and Minutes Format
Great for countdowns or time-based animations where hours and minutes are needed.
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Squash and Stretch Animation Expression
Ideal for adding a lively, cartoony effect to bouncing or landing animations.
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Ignore Parent Layer Rotation Expression
Perfect for elements that need stable orientation despite parent layer rotations, like fixed icons or labels.
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Display Current Date in After Effects
Useful in dynamic date overlays or template projects where the date should auto-update.
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Automatic Fade In and Out Expression
Ideal for templates or MOGRTs where layers need quick fade-in/out transitions.
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Replace Spaces with New Line Expression
Great for automating multi-line text layouts in templates or data-driven projects.
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LookAt Expression in 2D Space
Ideal for creating interaction effects, like eyes or arrows that follow a moving object.
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Gradient Ramp Fixed to Layer Edges, Ignore Rotation
Ideal for animated backgrounds, shapes, or titles where the gradient should stay fixed to the layer’s edges without rotating, preserving a stable gradient effect regardless of layer rotation.
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Gradient Ramp Fixed to Layer Edges
Perfect for animating backgrounds, shapes, or titles where a consistent gradient needs to stay aligned with the layer as it moves.
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Maintain Stroke Width in 3D Space
Great for 3D projects where stroke width consistency is critical, such as motion graphics with line animations.
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Inherit Parent Opacity
Useful in lower-thirds or other animated text elements that fade in and out with the parent layer.
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Loop Mask Animation Expression
Great for looping animations on raster images, videos, or shapes when track mattes aren’t practical.
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Trigger Animation with Markers
Useful for triggering UI animations on click or hover, like button highlights or tooltips.
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Scale Up Near Another Layer Expression
Great for interactive animations, like UI buttons that grow as a cursor approaches.
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Maintain Scale While Parented Expression
Perfect for maintaining the original size of elements within a hierarchy, like text or UI components.
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Maintain Stroke Width During Scaling
Essential for icons or shapes where stroke width consistency is key, regardless of layer scaling.
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LoopOut Duration Control Expression
Ideal for animating short loops with controlled timings, like flickering lights or pulsating effects.
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LoopIn Specific Number of Keyframes
Handy for creating dynamic intro animations, where the start of the animation needs to repeat.
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LoopOut Specific Number of Keyframes
Great for looping specific motion sequences, such as repetitive character movements or logo animations.
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LoopOut Continue Expression
Useful for animations that should continue smoothly beyond their last keyframe, like gradual fade-outs or growing/scaling effects.
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LoopOut Offset Expression
Perfect for creating staggered animations, like a row of bouncing balls or objects moving forward in a cascading pattern. Each cycle builds on the last, ideal for effects where movement needs to accumulate over time.
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Random Seeded Color Expression
Generating random colors consistently for text layers, ensuring each layer gets a unique color.
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Parent Position Offset Expression
Offsetting a child layer’s position by 100 pixels relative to its parent.
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Scale Based On Distance
Scaling an object based on its distance from another object in the scene.
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Random Rotation Expression
Randomizing the rotation of layers in a starburst pattern, between 0 and 360 degrees.
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Parent Scale Expression
Increasing the scale of a child layer by 10% compared to its parent layer.
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Wiggle with Seed Expression
Creating a wiggle effect on position with a set seed, ensuring the randomness is consistent across renders.
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Looping Wiggle
Use this on the Position property of an object (like a floating balloon or drifting cloud) to make it gently move up and down in a looping, natural manner. This expression ensures the wiggle effect loops seamlessly every 3 seconds, preventing abrupt jumps.
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Rolling Ball Expression
Automatically rolling a ball that has position keyframes.
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Change Value Based On Position
Changing the opacity of a layer if it crosses a certaing position.
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Random Position Expression
Randomizing the position of a layer within a 200-pixel range in both X and Y directions.
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Point To A Layer
Aligning a layer to always face a target layer.
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Layer Linking Expression
Linking a child layer’s position to its parent with a slight offset to create a trailing effect.
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EaseIn Expression
Gradually increasing a layer’s scale from 50% to 150% over 2 seconds.
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Center Anchor Point Expression
Aligns other elements (like icons or graphics) to the exact center of a dynamically sized text box, keeping the layout balanced.
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Exponential Counter Up Expression
You want to animate a text layer that shows a price or number increasing exponentially, simulating the effect of fast-growing numbers.
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Color Fade Expression
Fading a color from white to black over 5 seconds.
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Time-Remap Control Expression
Slowing down a video clip by half its speed using time remapping.
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Dynamic Text Box
Automatically resizes a background box to fit around changing text, ensuring consistent padding for labels, buttons, or captions.
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Value Relative to Time Expression
Gradually changing the scale of an object from 0 to 100% over 5 seconds.
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Strobe Light Expression
Making a text layer's opacity blink between 100% and 0% every second.
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Oscillate Expression
Creating a simple sine wave motion for a bouncing object or pendulum effect.
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Loop Path
Use this to have an object (like a car or airplane) continuously follow a looping path, such as driving around a track or flying in a circular route, without needing to manually repeat keyframes.
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Distance-Based Scale Expression
Scales the layer based on its distance from the point [500, 500]
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Overshoot Expression
Adding an overshoot effect to the scale property, causing it to bounce back slightly after reaching its final value.
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Random Color Expression
Randomly generating a color within the RGB range for a flashing light effect.
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Parent Rotation Expression
Adding 45 degrees to the parent layer’s rotation to ensure the child rotates at an offset angle.
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Sine Wave Motion Expression
Animating the opacity of an object to pulse over time using a sine wave.
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Delay Expression
Delaying the rotation of a gear object so it follows the rotation of a larger parent gear.
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PosterizeTime Expression
Forcing a layer to update at 12 frames per second to create a stop-motion effect.
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ToComp Expression
Use when you want the 2D element to track the position of the 3D layer but stay flat and readable without 3D distortions.
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SeedRandom Expression
Ensuring random values for each layer stay consistent over time based on their index.
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ConvertToWorld Expression
Aligning a spotlight’s position to the world space anchor point of another 3D object.
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Smooth Expression
Smoothing out the jittery motion of a handheld camera by averaging out its position over time.
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LookAt Expression in 3D space
You want a layer (such as a 3D object or camera) to always face another moving object (the target layer)
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Clamp Expression
Ensuring that a layer's scale never goes below 50% or above 150%, no matter what animations or adjustments you apply.
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Number Counter With Separators
Neatly formats large financial figures (e.g., "1.500.000") from a slider for on-screen display.
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Index Expression
Placing each layer 50 pixels apart for a grid layout.
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LoopOut PingPong Expression
Animating the position of an object in a cosine wave pattern, creating a back-and-forth motion.
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Bounce Expression
A ball bounces to a stop after falling, using this expression to animate its bounce motion.
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Random Expression
Setting the opacity of multiple objects to random values between 0 and 100.
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Ease Expression
Smoothly increasing opacity from 0 to 100 over 1 second for a fade effect.
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ValueAtTime Expression
Delaying the position animation of a layer so it follows another layer with a slight lag.
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LoopOut Cycle Expression
Looping the position of a bouncing ball to repeat its motion indefinitely without adding more keyframes.
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Wiggle Expression
Creating a subtle shake in a text layer to simulate a hand-held camera effect.
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Time Expression
Rotating an object at a steady rate over time by applying it to the Rotation property.
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