Create stripes procedurally

[Eric Chard]

The answer is to use the CHECKERBOARD effect in Width & Height Sliders mode.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Doyle Lewis]

Create a black and white solid (or whatever 2 colors you want your stripes to be). Duplicate both layers several times (the more times the thinner the stripes). duplicate one layer a last time so that there is an odd number. now sort these layers alternating from top to bottom. E.G.; white black white black white black white. Notice that the layers start and end with the same color. now parent layer one to layer two. then parent layer 2 to layer 3, and layer 3 to layer 4 and so on until all layers are parented to the layer below them except for the last layer which is parented to none. then make sure all layers are highlighted and hit p for position. With all layers highlighted move the y position (for horizontal stripes, x value for vertical stripes) to a higher or lower value until all stripes are of even width. That is the simplest way I can think to do it.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Eric Chard]

Doyle, we must have crossposted- the CHECKERBOARD effect I posted is far simpler.

It’s worth noting that for this specific application, to work with PIXEL DISPLACEMENT the checkerboarded layer needs to be pre-comped, because PIXEL DISPLACEMENT looks at the original layer, without any effects, to do its thing: IOW, it only sees a solid, not a checkerboard. Once it’s properly pre-comped, this is not a problem.

Thanks.

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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[Doyle Lewis]

haha yeah I did cross post. I leave the cow up on my comp and I forgot to hit refresh before I answered this post so didn’t see that it was already answered. I liked your checkerboard point though. I tried it immediately and I see your point with precomping.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Frank Feijen]

Checkerboard is a great way to go. But if you would want more control on the shape of the lines, you could achieve the same with a shape layer. Draw 1 line, adjust to taste and add a repeater. To feather: add blur.

[Eric Chard]

That’s a very good point: for instance, to make repeating, oh, sine-ish waves, or any arbitrary curve, Shape Layers would be the way to go.

A month ago, I hadn’t even heard of them! Oy. #redface

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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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