29-04-2021

Time Expression After Effects



Adobe After Effects is a powerful video editing & effects application. It includes a code expression engine, allowing you to write scripts to automate mundane and complex tasks. Discover how to use After Effects Expressions to quickly & easily create a countdown timer video.

How to Create a After Effects Expression

Time Expression After Effects Project

  1. Create a new After Effects composition, matching the exact duration of your countdown timer
  2. Create an empty text layer
  3. Expand the ‘Text’ options
  4. Hold down the ‘Alt’ key, and click on the stopwatch next to the ‘Text Source’ property
  5. Paste your expression code (seen below) into the code editor area

Simply right-click the desired layer, select Enable Time Remapping, then apply the loop expression to the layer. If this generates a blank frame at the loop point of your layer (a common problem), you can fix it fairly easily; Create a new keyframe at the last frame of your layer, one frame prior to the keyframe that Time Remapping created. After Effects displaces each pixel in the image by replacing a pixel in the image at the current time with the pixel in the same position at another time. The other time is the displacement amount in seconds for the pixel, calculated in step 3.

Value At Time Expression After Effects

Effects

That’s it! You’re done! Scrub the playhead across the composition, and see your lovely countdown.

Expression Code: 60 Seconds

Expression Code: 5 Minutes

Time Rotation Expression After Effects

Fonts

Countdown Expression After Effects

When creating a countdown, you may notice the numbers jumping around. You can try and avoid this by adjusting your text alignment. However, the best way to keep the numbers is a consistent position is to use a monospace font.

One reasonable monospace font is CMG Sans Mono Digits. This font, based on Montserrat has been specifically designed to make it easier to create church countdowns.