Pointers – re-making effect seen in Motion

[Steve Roberts]

I can guess that you might be able to do something like that with the Particular plugin, with a custom “X” particle, and a rotating emitter, maybe. Then to get the gradient, you might create a ramp (radial), mess with it’s grayness using Curves, then use the X animation as a track matte over that.
Or, in PP, you might be able to use a gradient to affect the scale property of the particles so they shrink as they go.

But … it looks more like a creation of a 3D app to me, due to the size and brightness variation in the X’es. Since it’s a static template background (isn’t it?), the elements could have been created with anything, not necessarily Motion. Though it does have a useful 2D particle engine.

Hope that helps (the Particular/PP tips).

[Mylenium]

The simplest way would be to use expressions. Define a circle, then for each element add an increment in angle, so it forms a spiral and not a circle. Try the following code:

angle=5; //basic angle between consecutive elements
radius_base=50; //base radius
radius_inc=20; //increment in radius

X=thisComp.width*0.5+Math.sin(degreesToRadians(angle*index)*radius_base+radius_inc*index;
Y=thisComp.height*0.5+Math.cos(degreesToRadians(angle*index)*radius_base+radius_inc*index;

[X,Y]

This will create the spiral in the middle of your comp. Apply the code to one element, then clone it as often as needed. Varying the values will give you any possible number of combinations. You can refine the look by using a similar incremental expression on the rotation:

angle_base=5;
angle_inc=1;

angle=angle_base+angle_inc*index;

[angle]

Mylenium

[Pour Myl