Make wiggle random across compositions?

[Dan Ebberts]

Assuming each of your comp names ends in a different character, something like this should work:

c = thisComp.name.substr(-1).charCodeAt(0);
seedRandom(c,true);
wiggle (1,100)

In any case, there should be something different about each comp name that you could use to generate a unique seed.

Dan

[David Conklin]

The seed random is your best bet, but using index as an input isn’t going to help you if all your layers are the same index (i.e. if they’re all the 3rd layer in their respective comps). Additionally, the second argument to the seedRandom() function does not apply to wiggles.

You will need to feed the seedRandom() function a value which will be unique for every layer in every comp. It’s hard to say without knowing your exact setup, but if you have numbered comps, for instance

RENDERCOMP_1
RENDERCOMP_2
RENDERCOMP_3

You could use the integer attached to the name by doing something like

thisComp.name.match(/\d+$/gi);

to extract the # from the name. I have also had success by counting the # of characters in layer names, total number of layers, etc. You just have to find something that is different about Comp A from Comp B and use that as your seed.. this is a pain in the rear if your comps are designed to be as identical as possible for versioning purposes.

There has to be a better way to do this. Maybe someone else can chime in.

David Conklin
Motion Designer

[Wyclef Chron]

That’s a pretty clever idea. How do you add seedRandom to behavior? like Wiggle – gelatin. If I try to add an expression to wiggle amount lets say, I see effect("Wiggle - gelatin")(1) and if I add seedRandom(1,true); before that it doesn’t do anything.

[Wyclef Chron]

There probably will only be 12-15 comps I need to do this for. I like the idea of just pulling the number from the name as well.

[Dan Ebberts]

I’m not sure what you’re referencing, but if you find the wiggle expression itself, you can add seedRandom() before the wiggle(), like in my example.

Dan