CRAZY After Effects Technique \\ The Power Pin Sandwich

While creating the CC Power Pin video for the Effects of After Effects series I learned about an unusual checkbox called Unstretch. It has a pretty practical application for footage, but I discovered a very useful technique using the unstretch checkbox for allowing you to treat text, or any vector layer as if it were a regular footage layer. This means you can apply effects and distort vector layers the same way you would with a photo or video, without the need for precomposing the layer first. It's a wild technique, but will definitely be useful to know. And best of all, you can save this setup as a preset so you'll never have to think about it again after you make it once.

-------EXPRESSIONS USED-------

Top Left:
var x = transform.position[0];
var y = transform.position[1];
var s = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime();
var w = s.width;
var h = s.height;
var t = s.top;
var l = s.left;
var m = effect("Margin")("Slider");

[x+l-m,y+t-m];

Top Right:
var x = transform.position[0];
var y = transform.position[1];
var s = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime();
var w = s.width;
var h = s.height;
var t = s.top;
var l = s.left;
var m = effect("Margin")("Slider");

[x+l+m+w,y+t-m];

Bottom Left:
var x = transform.position[0];
var y = transform.position[1];
var s = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime();
var w = s.width;
var h = s.height;
var t = s.top;
var l = s.left;
var m = effect("Margin")("Slider");

[x+l-m,y+t+h+m];

Bottom Right:
var x = transform.position[0];
var y = transform.position[1];
var s = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime();
var w = s.width;
var h = s.height;
var t = s.top;
var l = s.left;
var m = effect("Margin")("Slider");

[x+l+w+m,y+t+h+m];

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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:44 Point Controls and Vector Layers
01:51 What Unstretch does
04:11 Adding expressions
06:19 sourceRectAtTime
09:45 Using this setup
13:36 Wrap Up