How to make a 60 second countdown timer

Question

Hi there.
Trying to make a clock that counts down from 60 seconds to 0. Displaying it exactly like the 60, 59 ,58, etc.
How do I do this. I've played with Effect>Text>Number, but I don't get it.
Anyone wanna give me a clue?
Bless,
Chris

Answer 1

You could also apply the following expression to a Text layer's Source Text property:
st = 60;
t = st - time;
c = timeToTimecode(t);
c
The first line defines the st variable to 60 seconds.
The second line defines the t variable as the start time (st) minus the composition time.
The third line defines the c variable by converting "t" to timecode.
The last line prints c
The result at the first frame of the composition is 00;01;00;00
The next frame would be 00;00;59;00 providing the composition is running at 30 frames or 29.97 fps.
You can use the mask tools to hide the frames counter. If your comp is running at a different frame rate you can set the timecode base to any value by writing the third line like this: (this is for 24 fps)
c = timeToTimecode(t,timecodeBase = 24);
Your counter will work well with monospaced fonts. The numbers will jump around with most other fonts because the kerning will be changing.
If your counter needs to start at 60 then just create another text layer and cut to the countdown when it starts. That's a lot less work than writing an expression that will do it and still count frames.
I hope that this helps.