Templates

A template is a comp someone else can change without opening its guts: the text, the colours, a few switches, and nothing that breaks. Design the controls first, then build everything to read from them.

1. One place for every knob

Put every changeable value on a null named Controls, as expression controls. Every animated element reads from it (see ae-expressions):

ae_create_layer {"kind": "null", "options": {"name": "Controls"}}
ae_add_property {"layer": "Controls", "path": ["Effects"], "add": "ADBE Color Control", "name": "Accent"}
ae_add_property {"layer": "Controls", "path": ["Effects"], "add": "ADBE Checkbox Control", "name": "Show Line"}
ae_add_property {"layer": "Controls", "path": ["Effects"], "add": "ADBE Slider Control", "name": "Speed"}