• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Maximum number of points in a path

  Posted by Nicolas Guionnet on May 12, 2020 at 9:07 am

  Hi,
  To create and animate a mathematical curve, I use an expression. It works well, but I need a fairly high number of points to make the path look smooth.
  The curve is interrupted when I add more than 1200 points approximately. It is not so much if you need to build something complicated.

  Here is the code I use to test this :

  
myPoints = [] ;
lambda = 1 + time/5;
pi = Math.PI;
pas = 1;
init = -720;
fin = 720;
for (x = init; x <= fin; x = x + pas) {
xPoint = 200*pi*(x)/360 ;
yPoint = 200*Math.cos(pi*x/180*lambda);
nouveauPoint = [xPoint,yPoint];
myPoints.push( nouveauPoint ) ;
}
createPath(points = myPoints, inTangents = [], outTangents = [], is_closed = false);


  I know I can smooth it and use less point using tangents but even so, I am surprised the limit is so low ( when I am used to build meshes in Blender with millions of vertices … ).

  I am wrong ( as often … :o) ) ?
  Thanks !

  Nicolas Guionnet replied 6 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Andrei Popa

  May 12, 2020 at 10:35 am

  I tried your expression and didn’t notice any interruption. What do you mean? The line is missing at some point?

  If you are talking about the broken lines that appear at the edge of the curves, that is not interruption, it’s just Line Join property of the stroke. Go to the stroke under your path, collapse options and change “Line Join” to “Round Join”

  Andrei
  My Envato portfolio.
• 

  Nicolas Guionnet

  May 12, 2020 at 1:03 pm

  Hi Andrei,
  Thank you for your answer !

  Well, I know it is interrupted for a part of the curve is missing. To see why, you can modify the “pas” variable :
  Try pas = 0.1 ; instead of pas = 1 ;

  The points will be closer from each other … so to achieve the same journey, more will be needed. But the curve gets shorter … 10 times sorter, which means that the number of points reached a maximum limitation.
• 

  Andrei Popa

  May 12, 2020 at 7:23 pm

  Hey. I replaced pas with 0.1. Same result, but a lot heavier on rendering.
  I use after effects 2020, 64 gigs of ram and Ryzen 7 3700x.
  The layer is selected so you can see that it goes out of screen.

  

  Andrei
  My Envato portfolio.
• 

  Nicolas Guionnet

  May 12, 2020 at 10:39 pm

  … oh ! … so it may be a question of raw power ( I have 32 Go and a 1060 … ).

  But the total absence of error message worries me …
  Settings could play a role … I will check tomorrow.
  Thank you Andrei

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