Value Solver is really interesting behaviour. First, you should read docs about it, as it will make it easier to understand what we are dealing with here. Now, once you have baseline knowledge, let’s talk about it.

In simple terms, Value Solver will add values over time. As frames (Composition Time) advances, each value will be added to the previous one. 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 and so on. This will result in:

• 1
• 1+1 = 2
• 1 + 2 = 3
• 1+ 3 = 4
• and so on

Thats the basics of Value Solver. Now, since we are dealing with procedural animation, we can easily increase these values over time, use bigger values than 1, fade them as the time progresses and much more.

In the examples I have shown you, I used small values. Especially, when dealing with Scale. Scale 1 = Scale 100 in After Effects. That’s why you want to start with small values. Or even better – pay attention, where you are using Value Solver. For example, Opacity will “clamp” any value above 100%. Once you know your “intent”, then it is easier to figure out what values you need to input into Value Solver to make interesting effects.

Number Range Behaviour is your friend. When you want to easily convert A to B, you want to use Number Range. In our example, I used it to dynamically change colour of shapes, as Falloff passes over them. I used Value Solver to create values between 0-1 and converted them to 0-100. This one Behaviour handles all the complex math for us and we can use one system in multiple places.

Here are some examples we created during the tutorial. Notice how the “tail” is different, based on the values I used. Small change resulted in quite a difference in the final animation.