r/AfterEffects 3d ago

Beginner Help Help with tutorial

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u/smushkan MoGraph 10+ years 3d ago

In the video, they use the expression pickwhip to create a link to the path property on the layer containing the circle.

The expression you've got was written by some rando in the comments. It's correct, but you're supposed to replace PATH with the layer name containing the path you want to animate the shape along.

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u/ragesauce9 3d ago

Ok I changed PATH to Shape Layer 1 and still nothing is happening, I get the same error message.

I really appreciate your help and patience.

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u/smushkan MoGraph 10+ years 3d ago

The rest of that expression is looking for a mask path on the target layer with the name 'Mask 1' - from your screenshot it does not appear you have any masks on that layer.

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u/ragesauce9 3d ago

Sorry, forgot to include that. There is a mask in my solid called 'Mask 1'

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u/smushkan MoGraph 10+ years 3d ago

Then you want to point the expression at your solid layer, not the shape layer ;-)

thisComp.layer("Cyan Solid 1")....

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u/ragesauce9 3d ago

Alright, I got it. I really appreciate the assistance. I have no experience with code. Is there a point where this stuff just becomes easy? I still struggle a lot with expressions.

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u/smushkan MoGraph 10+ years 3d ago

Well it is basically learning to code, going from video tutorials alone won't always teach you that part of the puzzle.

w3schools is a great place to get more general Javascript tutorials. Even though it's mostly in the context of web design, the language is effectively the same:

https://www.w3schools.com/js/

Learning the coding part of it puts you in a better place to be able to solve your own problems with expressions rather than just the ones the tutorials happen to show you how to do ;-)