Comments on: Designer, developer, let’s call the whole thing off

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 19:25:49 +0000

quote” Another thing on my list would be an automatic update function that changes your expressions when you change the name of a comp or layer. Shouldn’t be too hard to implement.”

Hey Johaness, this was implemented in AE7..

And great post Dale… I began my career as a designer/animator and that’s what i call myself, but i used to do basic way back in my Commodore 64 days and with the introduction of expressions and scripting in After Effects, my curiosity for programming has been completely reawakened. I’ve been wondering if those 2 sides of the brain could co-exist…. I am happy to report that they most definitely do as i find myself using both more and more on almost every job i do now.. although i don’t think i can call myself a programmer just yet, perception is everything in this business and i doubt i would keep getting booked as a designer if i called myself a programmer.. at the moment i like to think of this skill as a “secret weapon”.. but i do hope to make it less secret in the future..

-Lloyd

By: Johannes

Johannes — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:30:56 +0000

I know what you mean by “claustrophobic” in terms of editing expressions in AE. I’m especially bothered by the way an errormessage pops in your face when you quit the expression line before you finish your code (e.g. if you have to look up a value or name in another comp that is required for your expression). I think it would be better if expressions where deactivated by default after creation so you can finalize it before they take effect.

Another thing on my list would be an automatic update function that changes your expressions when you change the name of a comp or layer. Shouldn’t be too hard to implement.

At least you have a full expression editor in AE7 now that comes alongside the graph editor so you don’t have to figet around in the timeline anymore. I think thats a step in the right direction.

Anyways, nice post.

Greets,
Johannes

By: Dale

Dale — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:03:15 +0000

Mike,

CoSA 1.0…ahh, the memories.

Jonas,

>>just resize the expressions area by click-dragging just below it when your cursor changes to up-and-down-pointying arrows?

You’re right… but I’m so keyboard focused that I usually throw in a few returns so I can arrow-up and down with a bit of room to think.
Which I guess points out yet again what a difficult task it is to balance the left brain/right brain keyboard/GUI needs of a diverse user set.

I just wanted to get a few thoughts down in this post. With a couple of days behind it and re-reading it, I sort of lobby for a lot of different things. There is a grain of something interesting but I’m not sure from a usability, user-interface standpoint you can have it both ways.

btw. Love the diverse coverage at General Specialist.
Dale

By: Jonas Hummelstrand

Jonas Hummelstrand — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:20:59 +0000

I’d love to see a script recorder and an expressions editor that was a bit more user-friendly, but you do know that you’re not limited to “one line data entry” if you just resize the expressions area by click-dragging just below it when your cursor changes to up-and-down-pointying arrows?

Keep up the great work!

/Jonas Hummelstrand
http://generalspecialist.com/

By: Mike Curtis

Mike Curtis — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 02:56:31 +0000

Nice post! I too straddle those two worlds often in what I do, with more techie (but not codie) stuff going on the last couple of years. But when I did motion graphics (and After Effects was my bread and butter, going back to CoSA 1.0), I definitely wore multiple hats.

-mike