Object not able to overlay another objects (or keeps distance with n pixels).

[Frank Mansfield]

Hi Long

This is probably a question for the expressions forum. I have had a bash at this, but my solution is pretty clunky and amateurish (anything even approaching real maths is way above my expression pay-grade!).

I’ve attached the test project I was playing with for you to have a look at, but basically I put this expression on the position property of the moving layer:

—

distanceValue = 200;

basePos = transform.position;

otherDotPos = thisComp.layer(“Shape Layer 1”).transform.position;

distanceBetween = length(basePos, otherDotPos);

newVector = basePos – otherDotPos;

newSetLengthVector = ( distanceValue / distanceBetween ) * newVector;

if ( distanceBetween <= distanceValue) otherDotPos + newSetLengthVector; else basePos;

—

the “distanceValue” is how far away it stays, and “otherDotPos” is the layer it’s staying away from.

Still might be worth a shout to the expressions forum, as people who are actually good at this stuff could probably add some damping or something to stop it having the potential to jump around so much. But for goodness sake, don’t show them my code, I’m not sure I could take the shame… 😉

Cheers!
-f

twoDotsMaintainDistanceTest__001.aep 77 KB After Effects Project Files - Click to view

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[Long Nguyen]

Haha really thank you so much for the help Frank!

I just made another post at the expression forum about this to get more answers. If you like you can go check it out!