Display random frames without consecutive repetitions?

Adobe After Effects Expressions

Display random frames without consecutive repetitions?

Posted by Danny Parsons on November 21, 2007 at 7:32 pm

Hi everyone,

This is the first time posting on any of the COW forums, although I

Danny Parsons replied 18 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Dan Ebberts
November 21, 2007 at 9:18 pm

The basic idea would be something like this:

numFrames = 6;

seedRandom(index,true);
f = Math.floor(random(numFrames));
for (i = 0; i
Danny Parsons
November 22, 2007 at 12:38 pm

Thanks, Dan, for your swift response. I
Dan Ebberts
November 22, 2007 at 4:54 pm

Sorry, the expression got trashed on it’s way to the page. Let me try it again. And yes, it’s for time remapping.

numFrames = 6;

seedRandom(index,true);
f = Math.floor(random(numFrames));
for (i = 0; i <= timeToFrames(time); i++){ f = (f + Math.floor(random(1,numFrames-1)))%numFrames; } framesToTime(f) Dan
Danny Parsons
November 22, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Thanks! The repaired expression works a treat.

Unfortunately, however, a solution to the frame-rate issue still eludes me. Any suggestions?

Slightly off-subject, but relating to a potential back-up plan if I can
Mike Derk
December 5, 2007 at 8:24 pm

Wow, I was going to come on and ask just this exact question. And, by the way, I understand nothing in your expressions except the “modular function”.

So, here is my follow-on question: how would I alter the code if I wanted each individual drawing to play for 2 or 3 frames. For my purposes, playing only 1 frame is a bit fast.

Thanks,

Mike
Dan Ebberts
December 5, 2007 at 8:54 pm

This should do it:

numFrames = 6;
holdFrames = 3;

seedRandom(index,true);
f = Math.floor(random(numFrames));
for (i = 0; i <= Math.floor(timeToFrames(time)/holdFrames); i++){ f = (f + Math.floor(random(1,numFrames-1)))%numFrames; } framesToTime(f) Dan
Mike Derk
December 5, 2007 at 9:53 pm

Thanks!
Danny Parsons
December 7, 2007 at 1:45 am

And I guess that more or less sorts out my frame-rate problem as well!

Whilst it would have been nice for any further animation added in the main comp to also be at the low frame-rate, I’m happy to choose this new expression over any of the relatively time-consuming makeshift ‘get-arounds’ I’ve come up with since conquering that initial hurdle (I’ve got a lot of scenes in this same style to get through).

So any ingenious suggestions that would achieve my ideal are still welcome!

For the meantime though: Thanks again, Dan, and thanks, Mike, for inadvertently pointing me towards a forehead-slappingly obvious solution!

Cheers,

DP

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