creating dots and lines like polygon wireframe

Adobe After Effects

creating dots and lines like polygon wireframe

Posted by Christian Kim on October 27, 2010 at 9:03 pm

Good morning community!

i have been poking around the forum for few hours, but can’t seem to find any answer to this question.

above is 2 image showing the effect i would like to achieve
(both image from “saying” music video by vital, amazing video using heavy trapcode products)

basically i love the idea of lot of dots floating in 3D space (or 2D), and having thin lines connecting them.
or just having few sharp vector lines with animated vertex positions

I come from 3d visulisation, so achieving this in 3D and comping would be easy, but was wondering if there are better way of doing this in AE.

obivously, i looked to trapcode form, where i would be able to achieve the [dots], however, the lines are the ones i am having trouble with.

[beams] are no good as there are so much dots to join..

well if anyone can suggest good method of doing this, i would be very appreciative : )

again thank you all for your time!! looking forward to any suggestions : )

have a great day all!

Christian Kim replied 15 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Gary Hazen
October 27, 2010 at 9:27 pm

The top image looks like the Tracer Effector in Cinema 4D.
Christian Kim
October 27, 2010 at 9:33 pm

thanks Gary Hazen for your input.

i guess this “effect” is quite easy to achieve in 3d packages (in my case, i will be using max i guess) probably using combination of wireframe render + particle flow for the dots.

but i guess i was hoping some [post] method using combination of trapcode form to generate 3d dots in 3d space, and other effect to creat random lines between random points?

if anyone has “after effects” solution to this would be great : )

thanks!
Chris Wright
October 27, 2010 at 11:59 pm

as far as I know, you can’t access the individual points of particular.
you can always wiggle solids in 3 dimensions, then write a quick script or expression that attaches each 3d point as ends to the beam.

it would be pretty easy because the solids are circular to begin with so you don’t have to worry about angles.

also, I haven’t tried this, but what if you duplicate your particular comp and have one with trails on with smaller size and one with trail off with larger size. I don’t remember how particular creates it’s randomness code so this may or may not work.

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/
Christian Kim
October 28, 2010 at 1:47 am

Thanks Chris!

yep, i thought about doing just that, using expression to drive 3d Points and using beam to connect the dots. think this would be perfect for the second effect (where there are only few lines).

however, thought would be quite daunting if i wanted to achieve something in scales of first example.

hmm guess for this, i might have to resort to 3d packages.

just that i have recently fell in love with compositing/posting, and am so amazed how much you can do in 2.5D in after effects!

and thought there might also be a smart way around this using after effects : )

well if anyone else have other suggestions, i will be gratefull : 0

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