Creating Computer Font Type Numbers

[Walter Soyka]

I’ve done this with a few sliders and an expression. Here’s an FFX preset you can use on a text layer, or an AEP project with a layer already set up to examine.

7081_keenrandombinary.ffx.zip

7082_randombinarycs6.aep.zip

This lets you specify the size of the block in rows and columns, as well as the frame rate for how often the block will be refreshed. It works best with a fixed-width font like Courier.

Alternately, here are the instructions for doing it yourself:

Create a text layer. Add three slider control effects to the text layer and name them columns, rows and frameRate.

Twirl open the text layer and alt-click the source stopwatch. Enter the following expression:
// use sliders as variables for column, row, and frameRate
c = effect("columns")("Slider");
r = effect("rows")("Slider");
posterizeTime(effect("frameRate")("Slider"));

// initialize the string we'll be using
s = '';

// outer loop for rows, inner loop for columns.
// add random zeros and ones through the duration of a line, then add a newline
for (i = 0; i < r; i++) {
for (j = 0; j < c; j++) {
s += parseInt(Math.round(random()));
}
s += "\n";
}

s;

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Dorian Weber]

Thank you very much for your great suggestion!
Will try this next week.