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effectcraft/crates
Sean Hawkey 24df676af5 Expressions, Scripting: a layer's property numbers and match names follow After Effects (#3528) (#3529)
* Expressions, Scripting: a layer's property numbers follow After Effects

In After Effects a layer's top-level number reaches the same group on every layer of a kind:
Marker is 1, and slots the layer has not used yet (Time Remap, Motion Trackers, Layer Styles,
Data, Sets...) keep their place. EffectCraft numbered only the groups a layer holds, without
Marker, so `layer(n)` and `layer.property(n)` reached a different group, and the numbers moved
as groups were added. Rigs that read a palette by number, such as
`comp("Palette").layer(1)(4)(n)(1)` on a shape layer, read Transform instead of Effects; their
`try` fell back to the stored value and every linked colour rendered near-black, with no
expression error.

`effectcraft_project::ae_order` holds After Effects' slot order per layer kind, observed in
After Effects 26.3 from a script (`layer.property(i).matchName`) and from an expression
(`thisComp.layer(..)(i).name`) on new layers of each kind. The expression host and the
scripting model resolve a layer's numbers through it: 1 is the markers, a used slot is its
group, an unused one is an empty group (never null, so loops over `numProperties` are safe).
`numProperties` at layer level and `propertyIndex` of top-level groups are After Effects'
numbers too. 3D model and primitive layers keep EffectCraft's own numbers.

* Expressions: a layer's top-level groups by After Effects match name

`thisLayer("ADBE Effect Parade")`, as scripts such as Karton write their expressions, reaches the
group through the same table as the layer's numbers: Effects, or an empty group for a slot the
layer has not used, and `("ADBE Marker")` the markers.

* Expressions, Scripting: review follow-ups for After Effects layer numbers

- An enabled Time Remap (a top-level property) reports After Effects' number 2 as its propertyIndex.
- In scripting, an unused slot resolves to the same empty group by match name
  (`property("ADBE Layer Styles")`) as by number (`property(7)`).
- The empty group is callable like any group: `layer.property(7)(1)` is null, not a TypeError.
2026-11-12 13:40:56 +05:30
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