After Effects expressions value keyframes tutorial

The Purpose of the value Variable in AE Expressions

AE Study Notes

By Pixel Li · January 12, 2022

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The default value of value

In After Effects expressions, value can be used as a default value. If both keyframes and an expression are present, you can add value to the expression, so that an if statement can output either the expression’s result or the keyframe result depending on the case, giving you flexible control over the output.

Example

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// If the controller's checkbox is false, output 1920
if (thisComp.layer("Controller").effect("Checkbox Control")("Checkbox") == false) {
	1920;
// If true, disable this expression and the original keyframes take effect
} else {
    value;
}

Also, value doesn’t necessarily stand in for just one value. If a property has multiple default values, for example position has x and y values, you can use value[0] for the first default value, value[1] for the second, and so on.

Of course, you can also right-click a property with multiple dimensions and choose Separate Dimensions for flexible control.

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