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Assigning random velocity, within a range, to individual characters
So this seems like it should be rather simple, but I can’t quite get it to work…
I would like the characters in a line of text to move into place from both the top and bottom of the screen. The characters should arrive in place at the same time but reach their resting points at random velocities.
I’ve enabled per-character 3D and added a position animator, with the y value animated. Under advanced, I’ve changed the shape to smooth and enabled randomness. I’ve then added an expression selector with this script (from Dan Ebberts) to have characters come in alternately from the top or bottom of the screen:
if (textIndex%2) selectorValue else -selectorValue
This almost accomplishes what I want, except that I’d prefer there to be some randomness to which characters come in from the top and which come in from the bottom (as opposed to there being a sequence in which the first character comes in from the bottom, then the next comes in from the top, and so on).
I also would like to specify a range of velocities, so no character travels slower or faster than I would like it to. So if I had a slider to control the overall completion of the movement, each character would randomly be assigned a velocity between (positive or negative) .5 and 1.5 times the overall velocity.
Seems like something I should even be able to do with a canned preset, but nothing quite works. Any suggestions?
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1 Reply
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Well, I found an answer. I applied Darby’s answer in the following thread to the position animator.
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/979293
But I modified it slightly to prevent the script from multiplying the selector value by numbers between .3 and -.3. Those values had caused my characters to move too slowly.
seedRandom(textIndex, true);
t=random(-1, 1);
if(t>0){linear(t, .3, 1) * selectorValue} else {linear(t, -.3, -1) * selectorValue};
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