From the course: After Effects CC 2021: Character Animation Essential Training

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Introduction to expressions

Introduction to expressions - After Effects Tutorial

From the course: After Effects CC 2021: Character Animation Essential Training

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Introduction to expressions

- [Instructor] During the process of rigging and character animation, we'll want to simplify our workflow to reduce both the number of keyframes used as well as the number of controls. Expressions are a real powerful way to do this, but what are they? Basically, expressions are little lines of code that can automatically give value to a property. Much like a parent layer controls a child layer, expressions can create connections that can have one property drive another property. We'll look at some of the basics here. In this example, I have my two characters fighting for this idea, and it's being animated both with keyframes and one of the most commonly used After Effects expressions, the wiggle expression. If I select all my layers, I'm going to disable all the expressions here by going under Layer, Switches, Disable Expressions, and you can see how much of a difference the wiggle expression has made. All we're…

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