-
Panning across hundreds of images in a seamless line
Hi
I am wondering if there is a way of building a composition with expressions or some other technique that will make a large manual task simpler.
I have about 300 images, all the same size (1920 x 1080) and over about 20 minutes I simply want to pan across them from left to right in a single sequence (as if they are all one very very wide image). I am wondering if the best way would be to load them all as layers, and animate the first one from the right hand edge of the comp to the left, and then use an expression to offset and move each layer below, relative to the layer above, so that they all appear as one long seamless line.
I think the images would be far too big to try to create a comp where they are all actually placed side by side and pan the camera over them, but I would be grateful for any help or advice people might have for this sort of thing.
Thanks in advance
-
4 Replies
-
[vlad cohen] “I have about 300 images, all the same size (1920 x 1080) and over about 20 minutes I simply want to pan across them from left to right in a single sequence (as if they are all one very very wide image). I am wondering if the best way would be to load them all as layers, and animate the first one from the right hand edge of the comp to the left, and then use an expression to offset and move each layer below, relative to the layer above, so that they all appear as one long seamless line.”
No need for expressions; you can simply set the positions for the first one, going from fully offscreen on one side to fully offscreen on the other, then copy and paste its position property on all the rest.
Then use the Sequence Layers keyframe assistant [link] (which really has nothing to do with keyframes at all) to arrange the layers chronologically with an overlap of 50%.
You’ll be done in no time.
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
You could do something like this as long as the pictures are the same size. Create your composition(20 minutes if need) and create a null, name it “Position Control”. Assuming you have your pictures in AE, you want to select them in the order you want them to appear, if it doesn’t matter, just select them all, and add them to your comp above the “Position Control”. To start, I would turn off the opacity of all the layers except the first 8 or so.
*If you have an order though, you can select them in order, 1 at time, and press “cntl+alt+/” and they will drop into your comp in the proper order.
Select your first picture, open up the position property and paste this expression:
x = value[0] + thisLayer.width*(index-1);
y = value[1];[x,y]
Now, right click the “Position” and select “Copy Expression Only”. Select all the other pictures except the null and paste the expression. All you layers should be now lined up, 1 after the other. You might want to shy all the picture layers now.
Next, select your null and add the following expression.
veloc = -100;
x = position[0] + [(time - inPoint) * veloc];
y = position[1];
[x,y]The variable “veloc” controls the speed. Parent all the picture layers to the null. They should be moving across the screen at a rate of -100 pixels per second.
Lastly, you don’t need AE calculating all the pictures off screen, so you will need to sequence the layers. I included in my work file a free sequencer script you will need to add to your script folder before you start AE. In my project, I watched the first picture and saw that it took 384 pixels for it to move offscreen. So I doubled that since all the other pictures would need to move on screen and made each layer 769([384*2]+1) frames long. Next I selected all the layers from top to bottom, and ran the Sequencer script (File>Scripts) and set it to offset each layer 384 pixels. This way the pictures are only being calculated as they come onscreen, and the layer turns off when they are off screen.
For your comp, being 20 minutes long, you will have to adjust the veloc variable to make the pictures last that long * come up with your own layer sequence math.
Check out my example project if you have any questions. 7729_panningpictuersfolder.zip
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
Wow…that’s a bit easier than my method. Guess I over thought that.
Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb. -
WOW, thank you for the amazing suggestions — I am very grateful and very impressed!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up