eBox 🏗

Create rectangles within After Effects expressions

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✨ Download eBox ✨

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Overview

eBox a system for creating rectangles in After Effects with intuitive controls for changing their position, size, and scale.

It comes in the form of a JSON file that's imported into the project, and a set of expressions you apply to a path property, with the box parameters edited within the expression.

The benefit of using eBox is being able to easily create and scale boxes in expressions, while maintaining a consistent anchor point.

You can animate each of the box properties with the expression animation tool, eKeys 🔑.

eBox is written in TypeScript using our Expression Library Template

Contents

• Overview
• Example
• Usage
• License
• Contact

Example

An example setup of an eBox setup:

// Import eBox library
const eBox = footage('eBox.jsx').sourceData;

// Create new eBox
const myBox = eBox.createBox({
  size: [800, 200],
  position: [960, 540],
  rounding: [12, 12, 12, 12],
  anchor: 'center',
});

// Scale the box in from the left
myBox.setScale([scaleIn, 100], 'centerLeft');

// Scale the box off from the right
myBox.setScale([scaleOut, 100], 'centerRight');

// Return the box path
myBox.getPath();

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Usage

1. Download and import eBox.jsx into your After Effects project

   This is the JSON file that contains the necesary code to run eBox. You may not be able to drag and drop it into your project, in which case you will need to use the import dialog.

   Note: eBox is only compatable with After Effects versions >= 15.1.

2. Add a refrence to the library in your expression

   To refrence the library in an expression, you need to assign it to a variable. This is done via the line:

   const eBox = footage('eBox.jsx').sourceData;

   ⚠️ Since After Effects doesn't count footage items that are only referenced within expressions as used, it's recommended that you also place the eBox.jsx file in any compositions where it is referenced.

   This will ensure After Effects includes the file when collecting assets or packaging into a Motion Graphics Template.

3. Create an eBox

   You then call the .createBox() function, passing it an object containing the properties for box.

   const myBox = eBox.createBox({
     size: [800, 200],
     position: [960, 540],
     anchor: 'topLeft',
     isClosed: true,
   });

   Box Object Properties

   
   

   • size: The size of the box, in pixels
     • Type: array
     • Required: true
     • position: The position of the box in the composition
     • Type: array
     • Required: true
   • anchor: The anchor point that will be at the given position
     • Type: string
     • Options: topLeft, topCenter, topRight, bottomLeft, bottomCenter, bottomRight, centerLeft, center, centerRight
     • Required: true
   • isClosed: Whether the path is closed
     • Type: boolean
     • Required: false
     • Default: true
   • rounding: Radius for each corner
     • Type: array
     • Required : false
   
   

4. Set the scale

   This step is optional, you can call myBox.getPath() without applying any scaling

   Scale the box, from the center or a corner:

   myBox.setScale(scale, anchorPoint);

   Set Scale Parameters

   
   

   • scale: Scale of the box
     • Type: array
     • Range: [0..100, 0..100]
     • Required: true
   • anchor: The anchor point that will be at the given position
     • Type: string
     • Options: topLeft, topCenter, topRight, bottomLeft, bottomCenter, bottomRight, centerLeft, center, centerRight
     • Required: true
   
   

5. Show the box

   This function returns the path for the box:

   eBoxName.getPath();

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License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

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Contact

Bugs, issues and feature requests can be submitted by filing an issue on Github. For everything else, feel free to reach out to @modeveloper on twitter.

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