Hi Lee LLeeBridges ,
I'd say, that it's not the Driver that's causing problems, but the Origin of the Pencil, that is in a weird place...I could be totally wrong, but the screen-recording doesn't show much...
It looks like you have modeled your pencil on the grid floor with the origin point still at the world origin.
In the lesson Kent models the pencil not using the grid as a floor/surface.
You can fix this, in object mode with the pencil selected, then in the Object menu > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry
Then press ALT+G to return the pencil to the world origin.
In the next lesson, Kent adds the paper surface and moves it down below the grid.
Top Tip: The grid is often used and sometimes called a grid floor or ground position, but it is not an actually floor/ground. The floor or ground can be positioned anywhere.
For this animation it is easier to animate the pencil on the x axis only and not worry about the y or z axis.
