CONTENTS

Introduction

When to Use Expressions

What Is an Expression?

Adding Expressions

The Pick Whip

Vectors and Dimensions

Ranges of Values

Interpolation Methods

Objects

Global Objects

The Default Object

Methods and Attributes

Vector Math

an example

OTHER MATERIAL

Geometry

Tables

Project Index

HOME

Methods and Attributes

Throughout our discussion of objects and their contents, you may have been wondering, ‘Method?’

Don’t worry about it.

You really don’t need to know what a method is, or what the difference between a method and an attribute is, or whether something is one or the other. It really doesn’t matter. All you need to know is what options are available to you at any given time. (And that methods and attributes are contained by objects, and so you must always specify the object first.)

But if you’re really curious, the basic difference is that an attribute is a thing, and a method is a way of doing something. Attributes are nouns and methods are verbs. One clue that you’re dealing with a method rather than an attribute would be the presence of parentheses, in which you supply the method with some additional information. For instance,

this_layer.opacity.value_at_time(0)

‘Value_at_time()’ is a method that returns the value of the specified property at the time specified in parentheses.

Entire contents © 2001 JJ Gifford.