Audio count

[Andrei Popa]

I think the sampleImage() function is pretty demanding. And the fact that you recursively use it must be what makes the render so slow. Just think that for the last frame, your expression must calculate all the values before, for each frame.

You could either use the AudioToKeyFrames() to see if that is faster or make a script that sets keyframes each time it finds a kick. Because scripts have memory, you do not have to use while and go back in time each frame.

For the script, you could do it like this.

Check when kick is one and add a keyframe. The script should look similar to this

myComp = app.project.activeItem;
myKickSlider = myComp.layer("Kick count").effect("Slider Control")("Slider");

//delete previous keyframes
for (i = myKickSlider.numKeys; i >= 1; i--) {
    myKickSlider.removeKey(i);
}

//add new ones
for (var i = 1; i <= timeToFrames(myComp.duration); i++) {
    if (myKickSlider.valueAtTime(framesToTime(i)) == 1) {
        myKickSlider.setValueAtTime(framesToTime(i), 1);
    }
}

Then the OutputSlider should have an expression similar to this:

kicks = thisComp.layer("Kick count").effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
k = kicks.nearestKey(time);
n = k.index;
if (time < k.time) n--;
addedRotation = inc * n;
base + addedRotation;

You should define base and inc prior to this part.

Haven’t tested these, so they may need a little tweak.

[Charles Cazal]

That’s already an alternative option I can try, and for that, thank you.

I’ll try and post the followup here 🙂

[Charles Cazal]

Ok, so I went through the install of AEST.

The code you sent me, should I copy paste it in a new script? I’m faily new to this, so I’m curious. (probably will find the answer soon, anyways) If not, then what’s there, and what’s missing? I kind of understand the point of the script, but I wonder how this is supposed to work. I launch the script once manually and it creates the values for the entire song (but then, I don’t understand how the script tells when a kick is happening), or is it kinda working in the background everytime i launch the animation?

Of course, my next step is to dive in documentation and ressources to try and figure it out, but the answers might come earlier from you than from deciphering every info I might find ^^

Also, I was pretty sure that the rendering nightmare was due to that many iterations of sampleImage() EVERY FRAME, but as I said, I’m no expert, and there could have been some other reason. I’m glad I got it right instinctively ^^

Re: using AudioToKeyFrames(), it is indeed faster, BUT cuts away such flexibility that I can’t resort to use it. I’ll try my best with the scripting option, and I’ll revisit my needs if scripting fails 😀

Thanks again!

[Charles Cazal]

Ok last update: it works! 😀

So glad. Thanks to your idea, I managed to make my first script, and it works. I’m so proud 🙂

I don’t know, should I explain here what I’ve made for future users? The code is quite long and I still haven’t figured out how to make more than one line of code in this forum haha 😅

Anyways, thanks Andrei, because of your idea of using script, now I’ve got a simple and real flexible way of getting the animations to react to a certain frequency of my chosing 🙂

[Andrei Popa]

I am glad you made it. If you want more advice for future scripts:

I use Visual Studio Code to write my script and an extension made by renderTom that’s called Adobe Script Runner to run them(you can execute any piece of code, even if not yet saved). You also have an extension made by adobe to replace Extendscript Toolkit (named Extendscript Debugger), but I don’t use that. It conficts with ESTK and I like ESTK more than the extension :D. I only use Extendscript Toolkit for indepth debuggind when something is not working.

[Charles Cazal]

Hey seeing you’re online, maybe you can help me with another step. The slider holding the incremented values has interpolation between key frames. I don’t want it ^^

So I would like these key frames to act as hold key frames but Im not sure it’s possible to make it part of the script instead of changing it manually after the script (which defeats the purpose of having a script in the first place)…?

I don’t want to use Math.round() cause it holds the value for half the duration I need it to (eg at 14.5 it becomes 15, the change doesn’t happen when there’s a new kick but when im halfway between kicks)

[Andrei Popa]

You can use the following function for that.

So after you assigned the value via .setValueAtTime(yourTime) function, you can use

.setInterpolationTypeAtKey(nearestKey(yourTime), KeyframeInterpolationType.HOLD)

to toggle hold keyframe for that specific key.

I am not sure how you’re code looks, so I can’t really tell you where to put this.