relates to #34: Add expressions from the manual

[vladavoX]

@ivansenic @danixeee too big maybe? Should I try to make it more compact with icons and stuff?

[ivansenic]

@vladavoX looking on this screenshot this is definitely not the way to go, if we want to add more expressions in the future, this will become unmanageable..

imo it should be:

1. select expression/setup

• could be a checkbox with more details
• or open a modal when clicked with search (similar to scripts on current UI)
• but we need to have name and description, so people know what are they doing (maybe event that example as on the website)

2. where to apply

• again here we need to give options like to apply it to only a single layer, or all, or all under some composition, maybe all starting with a prefix
• not sure how apply works atm, this could be radios with optional inputs, not sure
• expression type should dictate what layers are supported, so I can not select media for text-based expressions and vice versa
• what if expression has an input, how would this be controlled

it should also be coded in a way that adding a new expression is just as easy as adding a new type and it's properties and not code bunch of stuff all over again..

[danixeee]

I would talk to Staki and go into details on how he creates the templates, then figure out his workflow and discuss a few UI / UX directions with him. Everything else is just our guessing as we are not the ones who are using AE

[vladavoX]

@vladavoX looking on this screenshot this is definitely not the way to go, if we want to add more expressions in the future, this will become unmanageable..

imo it should be:

1. select expression/setup

• could be a checkbox with more details
• or open a modal when clicked with search (similar to scripts on current UI)
• but we need to have name and description, so people know what are they doing (maybe event that example as on the website)

2. where to apply

• again here we need to give options like to apply it to only a single layer, or all, or all under some composition, maybe all starting with a prefix
• not sure how apply works atm, this could be radios with optional inputs, not sure
• expression type should dictate what layers are supported, so I can not select media for text-based expressions and vice versa
• what if expression has an input, how would this be controlled

it should also be coded in a way that adding a new expression is just as easy as adding a new type and it's properties and not code bunch of stuff all over again..

@ivansenic

1. I don't think there should be a step where you need to click somewhere and setup expression in some way of a UI for it only, whether that is a modal, or more details. I think it should be all there, maybe just a dropdown to expand what you want to use, and there have something similar as to how entire After Effects looks like, some small icons, buttons, text, and needed options. IMO it should be a simple, and quick, I want to click a text layer where I need a auto scaling, and I want to click in Plainly window on one button, that I wish to have an auto scaling for this layer.
   Similar with more options, I have for example a few paragraph (box) layers, and I want them to scale at a center point, I click expand on this option (if it is not expanded already) -> center (icon) -> all layers (icon) -> apply

I think it should have this type of UI, ofc it can't be the same, as some need to be more complex than others, and some might be just a single click, but as simple and as quicker as possible.

We can have a help link, where we would store all of the info about these somewhere, so someone can look up what they mean, if they can't figure out by name and a description

• again here we need to give options like to apply it to only a single layer, or all, or all under some composition, maybe all starting with a prefix

I think we are going deep again, with unnecessary stuff, will someone really care about prefix, and click apply all to prefix once they are done with project, which can than cause fuck ups? I think the use case for these things is, "while I am creating something, I apply the thing I need, and I am done with it"

• expression type should dictate what layers are supported, so I can not select media for text-based expressions and vice versa

I don't think I can force someone to not be able to click on a layer he wants, we just don't do the stuff, who cares, you've selected an image and you are clicking on a Text auto scale, what do you expect to happen?

---

Staki told me this when I've sent him a ss of current, and asked him, how they use these things, and what they look like:

hm pa uglavnom te toolove sa puno manjih skripti i expressiona nameste samo sa dugmadima - neka karakteristicna ikonica, pa kad hoverujes on ti ispise sta je
(ne znam dal je ovo moguce) ali mozda da se namesti i opcija gde mogu da pale/gase dugmice tj da sklanjaju ako im nesto ne treba

So similar as what I've said above, they want it quick, as few clicks as possible

cc @danixeee