If you’ve tried to make a number counter using Slider Control, you may have noticed a limitation to the upper value of the Slider Control. To get around that, consider using Point Control.
Point Control is another expression controller found in After Effects. The controller provides X and Y coordinates, although there is a 3D Point Control should you ever need that. The intention of this control is to help you attach layers to a point in space, but here we’ll use it as a replacement for Slider Control to help us get a larger value.
With Point Control applied to the text layer, set an expression for Source Text and pickwhip to the point value of Point Control. In the expression that appears, you’ll see a 0 in brackets. This means the expression is using the X-coordinate of the Point Control. Change the 0 to a 1 if you want to use the Y-coordinate for some reason. Also, we’ll place Math.round to the beginning of the expression to avoid any number anomalies that may occur. Be sure to move the end parenthesis that will appear after “round” to the end of the expression.
Now, you can change the X-coordinate of the Point Control and your number will update accordingly on screen. Point Control allows for larger numbers than Slider Control.
Check out this short After Effects tutorial:
