Create a clock

[Steve Roberts]

One way is to apply an expression to the rotation of the hands of the clock that you’ve made in some way. Make sure the anchor point of each hand is at the end of the hand.

Check this thread:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_thread.cgi?forumid=227&postid=7448&univpostid=7448

Alternately, you could use the radial wipe effect to reveal a circular-masked solid.

Come to think of it, you don’t need expressions for a countdown – just keyframe the hand’s rotation or the radial wipe’s completion to the proper timing.

[Mark Fogarty]

I recently did a project that had a clock in it. I purchased the following file from iStock

https://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=2351140

I liked it because it was clean, clear, and it clearly stated that it was in layers so I could animate the hands. You could also change the colour or put a graphic on the clock face if you chose to (which is what I did for my project.

I moved the anchor points for the hour and minute hand to the center of the clock and keyframed their rotation. (I removed the second hand because for the effect I was going for, it was too distracting)

Perhaps for your needs you could put the clock in a comp and keyframe it to the movement of time you wanted, say… 48 hours.

Then move that comp into your final comp and time stretch that layer to meet your needs. This will allow you to adjust the length of the time lapse without having to mess around with the original clock comp and keyframing.

Also make sure you do activate motion blur for the moving hands and their comp.

Hope this helps

Mark