Changing colours of a few circles at random

[Sander Van dijk]

Hey Bronwyn,

You can make your image grayscale and overlay solids with fill effects.
Then apply this expression to the color property of that fill effect to make it change color over time.
You can change the var cycle to say how many time per second you want to change to another random color.

You can create sliders for all the vars so you can change the values for multiple fills.
thisComp.layer(” control layer “).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);

S.

var cycle = 5; // how many times to change per second;
var randomSeed = 2; //random seed

seed = Math.floor(time*cycle)*randomSeed;
seedRandom( seed , true );

var myColor = Math.floor( random(0,255))/255;
var mySaturation = .5
var myLlightness = .5
var myAlpha = 1;

hslToRgb( [ myColor, mySaturation, myLlightness , myAlpha ] )

var cycle = 5; // how many times to change per second;
var randomSeed = 2; //random seed

seed = Math.floor(time*cycle)*randomSeed;
seedRandom( seed , true );

var myColor = Math.floor( random(0,255))/255;
var mySaturation = .5
var myLlightness = .5
var myAlpha = 1;

hslToRgb( [ myColor, mySaturation, myLlightness , myAlpha ] )

[Bronwyn Harvey]

Awesome – works great. Thank you 😀

[Bronwyn Harvey]

Hello again.

Solution working great thanks –
Is there also a way to limit the colours to 5 specific colours?
So if I am given a brand guideline I can colour pick those brand colours and go with them…

Thanks in advance

[Sander Van dijk]

Hello Bronwyn,

1. Create a layer with the name control in your comp.
2. Apply two sliders to the control layer, one called seed the other called cycle
3. Then drag 5 ( or more ) color control effects on the control layer.
4. Then copy this new code into the fill effect color

The Fill effect will now pick a random color from the color controls available. You can also turn the color effect off to disable that particular color.

S.

try{
var controlLayer = thisComp.layer(“control”);
var mySeed = controlLayer.effect(“seed”)(“Slider”);
var myCycle = controlLayer.effect(“cycle”)(“Slider”);
var numEffects = controlLayer.effect(1).propertyGroup(1).numProperties;

var activeColors = [];
var ListValue = 0;
var numColorsActive = 0;

for ( var n=1; n <= numEffects; n++){
if ( controlLayer.effect(n)(1).name == “Color” && controlLayer.effect(n).active ){
activeColors [ ListValue ] = n;
ListValue++;
numColorsActive +=1;
};
}

var seed = Math.floor( (time-inPoint)*myCycle )+mySeed;
seedRandom( seed , true );

generateRandom = Math.floor( random( 0,numColorsActive ) );
var pickColor = activeColors[ generateRandom % numColorsActive ];
controlLayer.effect( pickColor )(“Color”);

}catch(err){
value;
};

[Bronwyn Harvey]

Brill thanks for this.

When I apply the expression to the fill effect – It only seems to stay on one colour.
The second “color change” choice in the control layer.

So it’s reading the control layer but it seems to be stuck on number 2.

Any Ideas?

Thanks

[Sander Van dijk]

Not sure why, make sure the names of the control layer and its effects are lowercase. exactly as the image shows.
Can you share a screenshot of your setup?

try this:

var controlLayer = thisComp.layer(“control”);
var mySeed = controlLayer.effect(“seed”)(“Slider”);
var myCycle = controlLayer.effect(“cycle”)(“Slider”);
var numEffects = controlLayer.effect(1).propertyGroup(1).numProperties;

var activeColors = [];
var ListValue = 0;
var numColorsActive = 0;

for ( var n=1; n <= numEffects; n++){
if ( controlLayer.effect(n)(1).name == “Color” && controlLayer.effect(n).active ){
activeColors [ ListValue ] = n;
ListValue++;
numColorsActive +=1;
};
}

var seed = Math.floor( (time-inPoint)*myCycle )+mySeed;
seedRandom( seed*index , true );

generateRandom = Math.floor( random( 0,numColorsActive ) );
var pickColor = activeColors[ generateRandom % numColorsActive ];
controlLayer.effect( pickColor )(“Color”);

[Bronwyn Harvey]

All seems to look the same but could be overlooking something simple as I’m fairly new

[Sander Van dijk]

I might know what is going on. Set the cycle slider to for example 5 to make it pick a new random color 5 times per second.
if you don’t like the picked colors you can increase the Seed slider.

Hope that works!

[Bronwyn Harvey]

Thanks!!

[Adam Walker]

HI

Thanks for putting this script up, i have been trying to make something similar but am struggling with exactly how expressions work.

is there any chance you would be able to add in a fade element to this script?

ie instead of snapping to the new color it fades?