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Expressions brain hurt
Hi guys,
I used some expressions to make this:
https://www.mintylamb.co.uk/upload/3dengine.mp4
Seems to work ok – but I am trying to automate it a bit more. That was all pretty much keyframed.
It’s pretty simple – flat layers that are constantly facing the camera – linked with the rotational position. (the 3d objects are actually flat)
I want to build this all using null objects – using a central pivot – with 18 layers around the edge.
I’ve tried parenting null objects – making “arms” and “wrists” – sizes, anchor points – and it never seems to quite work properly.
I am loving these expressions – but I can’t get this figured.
James
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3 Replies
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A circle is defined by sinus and cosinus, so your setup could be expressed as
center=thisComp.layer(“Center”).position;
radius=500;X=Math.sin(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;
Y=100;
Z=Math.cos(degreesToRadians(360/(thisComp.numLayers-1)*index))*radius;[X,Y,Z]
If applied to positions, this will create a radial array of layers based on the number of layers in the composition. for the orientation, simply use auto-orient or re-build the functionality using e.g. code from my World Map tutorial.
If you want, you can even automate the fading based on the current angle of a layer using something like linear(angle,start_angle,end_angle,100,0) (it’s a bit more complex to actually derive usable angles, but you should get the idea)
Mylenium
[Pour Myl
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Oooo, I like that expression, great one for us Mathmatically challenged.
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Excellent! Thank you so much.
I set the auto-orient to “face camera” and set the center as the layers parents – and now I can control that perfectly.
I also changed the code so that it only made 18 items (the max I am going to have) in the array:
X=Math.sin(degreesToRadians(360/(18)*index))*radius;
Y=100;
Z=Math.cos(degreesToRadians(360/(18)*index))*radius;Many Thanks, James.
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