Can I make an After Effects layer follow cursor movement?

Lottie Animation Design
1

Hi,

Is it possible to specify a particular layer in my After Effects animation to follow the movement of the cursor? I would like just the pupils in my animation to follow the movement of the cursor, with the pupils only moving on a horizontal plane with breakpoints on the left and right to ensure the pupils don’t move outside of the eye area. Ideally I would like to retain the blinking of the eyes also.

The animation is currently made up of two animated elements; the eyelid which is a shape layer with scale keyframes and the pupils which are connected to a null with position keyframes.

Link to Lottie animation:
https://app.lottiefiles.com/share/b614e672-3bf1-494c-a733-fe36cc39c560

Screenshot of After Effects layer structure:

After Effects Layer Structure
After Effects Layer Structure1920×1177 92.8 KB

Thank you for taking the time to read this, any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

To make the pupils in After Effects follow the cursor, use expressions to link their X-position to the cursor’s X-positions, with Y-position fixed. Add limits within the expression for boundaries. The blinking can stay separate.