“Pin mould” animation effect for text

[Kevin Camp]

if you have cs3, you could use the imageSample expression to sample the text layer and convert that data to position…

i came up with this to be appied to the 3d position property of the pin… it looks at the layer (called ‘text’) and samples it at the x-y position of the pin layer, using just the alpha value to generate the displacement. the sample radius is half the layer size and displacement is a multiplier:

radius = div([width, height], 2);
imageMap = thisComp.layer(“text”).sampleImage([position[0], position[1]], radius);
displacement = -100;
z = imageMap[3] * displacement;
value + [0,0,z]

i think i would link the displacement value to a slider on a null to allow the animation of the pins to push out.

you will need to figure out how to make the 3d pin (i had though cc cylinder might work, but it didn’t seem to) in a separate comp, then apply the expression to the nested 3d pin comp.

after that you’ll still need to duplicate your 3d pin comp (with expression) and get them arranged in a grid… i found this script that may help called layers2grid.

good luck 🙂

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Jack Kelly]

Kevin, thank you so much for your extremely detailed reply! I think that must rate as one of the most helpful replies I’ve ever received on a forum!

The “pin mould” project has been put on hold for a week or so but I’ll be sure to give your suggestion a go when the project gets done. You’re far more advanced at expressions than I am but this could be a good excuse for me to learn a little more about expressions.

Thanks again,
Jack

[Kevin Camp]

i’m glad you liked it, but before you get too excited, there are things that will need to get worked out… like how to make a realistic 3d pin, arrange the pin comps in the mould comp and then i think you will need to take that comp into a third comp for camera positioning.

i only gave you a way to do have z displacement of a layer based on the alpha transparency of another layer…

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Jack Kelly]

Thanks for the heads-up.

I’ve been thinking some more about this “pin mould” project and I’m starting to think that maybe I should do it all in Blender 3D. It should be quite easy to make 3D, silver pins and I’m pretty sure I can use physics simulation to model the way the bottom of the pins will interact with the text. And, of course, Blender will look after all the shadows for me.

Hmmm… decisions, decisions!

Kevin, if you had to do a pin-mould project, would you do it in AE or a 3D package? (Of course, my preferred option would be to go out and buy a real pin mould and shoot it in a studio with the camera on a jib arm… but I don’t think we can afford that!)

Thanks,
Jack

[Tyler Paul]

here’s an easy way to distribute your pins in a grid

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/noise.php

and the shape extruder may work for the pins

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/drozda_jerzy/CEShapeExtruder.php

[Jack Kelly]

cool, thank you – I’ll take a look.

[Kevin Camp]

unfortunately, i don’t think you can use an expression to generate position for the pins… (at least not if you use my imageSource expression to generate z position). this is because the pin needs an x,y coordinate first to get the z coordinate from the imageSouce expression… it’s a bit like circular logic problems (which came first the chicken or the egg…). i know this, not beacuse i’m incredibly bright, but because i tried it…

but a script (possibly like the layers2grid script) that positioned a number of layers into a grid should work (a script should define new x,y coordinates to each layer)

ce shape extruder may work, along with the other ways of extruding that maltaannon (and aharon in his podcast covering 3d extrusion methods too)… my only concern about the the duplicating layer/repeating shapes extrusion methods are the number of layers that will be involved and how well ae will handle that, but it may be the only way. and i think the the shatter method, that both aharon and maltaannon mention, will have the same downfall as the cc cylindar, where it only seems to work in the plugin’s 3d space, not ae’s 3d space…

as far as using ae or a 3d app… a 3d app can quite easily handle creating the pins and the number of pins/polygons and arranging the pins. you’ll also get benefits of lighting, shadows and relfections for a more realistic looking pin mould (if you use the multi-layer/shape reapeater extrusion method in ae you won’t get realistic shading, but you can fake a lot this). in my old version of c4d, i can’t think of a way to ‘easily’ press another shape into the pin mould, but if it wasn’t going to be a lot of text (or other shapes), i think i could follow the shape of the text with a selection tool by hand, then just keyrame the z positions for those selected pins.

so, as much as i’d like to use the imageSource expression in cs3, and i might explore this a little more… i think i would end up using a 3d app. if i felt comfortable in the 3d software.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Tyler Paul]

Already did it worked great. (except that there were about 9000 layers). I used Dans expression as the position and your expression as the anchor point.

To make the 3d pins I used a 30 by 30 grid which is 900 layers and applied the animation. Then I took that comp and used the usual ‘multiple layers in Z space technique’ to extrude them. I also put a simple choker on all of the extrusion layers to create actual pins with heads.

http://www.brownsugarstudios.com/files/AE/pin.aep

It took 35 minutes to render 6 seconds though. Ugh.

If you go to the text comp (not called that) you could replace it with footage and use the Set Matte based luminance instead. Lastly, you only have about a 300X300 space to work with even though the comp is larger. I put in an adjustment layer that prevents you from going outside the boundry area.

[Kevin Camp]

nice job…. ty (or is it paul).

i couldn’t get the file you posted, but the process sounds excellent… i don’t know why anchor point escaped me. jack owes you a beer. 😉

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Tyler Paul]

Yay For Beer!!!!!