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Random stop expression
So I have a composition set up like a slot machine with 3 letters. There’s over 17000 different combinations that needs to be done. I don’t want to have to set all these keyframes. Is there an expression I can use to either have it spin then stop randomly on all combinations or set it up to spin and stop on the next combination until all combinations has been made?
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5 Replies
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How is this comp set up? In other words, how do you actually set the landing values in your setup?
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
If it is a slot machine, shouldn’t you be able to stop the individual slots from turning, rather than all at the same time?
I guess the real question is why you want to do this in AE in the first place? In something like Flash you could program the random animation without having to render anything. AE seems to me a very non-optimum approach to this. Over 17000 prerendered video clips, as opposed to one light-weight app that does them all automatically in real time.
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It’s 400px by 1000px , frame rate 29.97 the duration will change, I want each spin to last like 5 seconds. I’m currently using the offset effect with a directional blur on 3 vertical text layers a-z. So I want it to spin and land on a different combination until all combinations have been made. I’m probably gonna do all combinations in one video the edit and chop each combination individually.
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I’ve never used flash, is it hard to learn?
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It’s not particularly easy. Adobe renamed Flash to Animate CC recently, and it now includes HTML5 and Javascript, which is simpler but not as powerful as Flash Actionscript.
After Effects expressions are a sort of a subset of Javascript, which means that the syntax will be familiar. Some of the main differences are that Javascript in an HTML context responds to real time events and has global variables, while AE expressions only work in a render situation. If you haven’t used Javascript in that context before, there is definitely a learning curve involved.
The Javascript for this animation would resemble what you would write for an expression, but you wouldn’t have to render all the variations, they would be generated in real time based on user generated events such as button click.
The most essential question would be what the intended end use is and how you are going to build the functionality — are you going to be making an actual interactive slot machine, and are you going to have a programmer involved in the process?
BTW, 26x26x26x5 seconds is more than 24 hours of video.
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