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Interesting masking/dot pattern problem
This is kind of a difficult problem to describe, but basically, I need to make an animation out of dots. Normally I’d do this with particular, but the dots are in quite specific locations. Essentially I need to reveal the animation with the dots. But the dots are large, so using a mask where we see the animation through the dots is out of the question – I need to dots to make the animation. In this example, the top image is wrong and the bottom image is right. https://b.imagehost.org/view/0103/dotexample.jpg
By the way, the animation is going to be done in echospace. And also, the dots will stay still, they wont move with the animation, so I wont need to get into any 3D particle business, I hope
Anyone got any ideas? Thanks!
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6 Replies
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Could you not just create the mask using the pen tool ??? Are the red dots going to reveal at the same time ??? If not, you will have to create seperate masks for each…
Regards
Mark
Mark Harvey
Senior Editor
Le Réseau des sports -
It’s kinda difficult to understand what you want to do with/to the dots. All you’ve mentioned is that you want to use the dots to reveal the animation. But you’ve not shared how the reveal is to be done and what the animation involves.
Bot to create thse dots, I would use the Text Tool. Possibly a few instances of it and either Randomize or make many Selections so that you have differing sizes and you can have control over colors.
HTH
RoRKbroadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops
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Right yeah I haven’t explained it very well. The dots are static, and the animation is actually made of moving, flat colour, shape objects created in echospace.
When I said reveal that was misleading, I just meant the whole of the animation will be made of dots. So essentially I’m pixelating it, but instead of pixels, there are dots.
The animation is based on a still graphic, where each dot is kind of hand drawn and hand placed, so they all fit around eachother nicely. If you look at the image link, and imagine that the red circle is moving left. The top example would be very easy to do, the dots are a layer with whole in it (for the sake of the top example, it doesn’t matter how this is done). The animation plays behind the dots, and that’s it. But what I need to do is have the dots, simply switch to red (so at no point is one half full) as shown in the lower example in the image link. It’s all got to look a bit like stop frame, so it doesn’t matter that this would look jerky. Hope this makes sense!
Might end up faking it but I’m curious to know how this could be done as I’ve needed to do it a few times before. I think particular could be the answer, as if you use a layer grid emitter, it does actually create images from particles, but again, the trouble is I’m turning an existing design into motion, and the way the dots are laid out is kind of like a mosaic, where the gaps between large dots are filled by smaller dots for example, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a quick way to make particular do this. If I’m still not making sense, ignore me.
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Particle Playground would be ideal if some of the dots are allowed to converge rather than have spaces between each dot. Although this can be controlled by a Property Mapper, setting it up will be tedious.
Which leads to another method which is to hand-create these dots. Then use an Expression to color each dot depending on the X-location of another layer, the circle.
The Lowdown
If you don’t mind this method, then use the following expression for each dot. Start with a single dot then just duplicate, re-position and scale to taste. This method works by looking at the distance between the Circle Layer (which can be switched off) and a dot. When the Circle is close to a dot, the dot will change its colour.The prep work
You will need to apply Effect>ExpressionControl>ColorControl to the dot layer. Your Circle Layer should only be as large as it should be, ie. without any extra baggage around the edges. Your circle layer should be named Circle. Sensitivity allows you to fine-tune the distance between the circle and your dot for the color to change.
//Start Script
Sensitivity = 20
CircleEffector = thisComp.layer(“Circle”).width+Sensitivity;
if (Math.abs(thisComp.layer(“Circle”).transform.position[0]-position[0] -
I forgot to mention that for prep work, you’ll need to apply Effect>Generate>Fill and the Color parameter is where the Expression script should be used.
Sorry.
RoRKbroadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops
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Wow thanks for going through the trouble of working that out, that is truly genius! You’re a legend.
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