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Drag & Drop Properties to create Live Text Reference Layers

Click and drag a property onto the Comp Viewer window to auto-generate a live text layer reading the value.

I love using this one to debugging expressions - sometimes you just need to see what your values are!

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by Good Boy Ninja (80% pretty sure that's not his real name)

How does this work?

If you're new to expressions, the drag and drop workflow above is just a shortcut to a simple workflow that will be helpful to know!

Let's recreate that workflow manually

  • Create a new text layer
  • Twirl Down Text > Source Text
  • Option/Alt + Click on the stopwatch to add an expression.
  • Instead of typing an expression, drag the pickwhip to the property (on the other layer) you want to read. This will apply a simple expression that links your text value to the property value.
  • That's it! Your text layer now reads the value and updates whenever it changes.


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If you want to copy the format from the drag and drop workflow, you modify your expression to include the property name, separate dimensions, and more.

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Radical!

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