random diagonal lines

[Kevin Camp]

i would try a particle generator… particular (trapcode.com) would work well, but cc particle world should be able to do it. both are 3d particle systems, so you use a 3d camera move to show the depth of the particles. and both will accept a custom particle (the line), which you would create as a layer (could be created in photoshop) or precomp. then it’s just a matter of setting the emitter/source parameters to give you the look you are after (setting like size direction particle per second).

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Ong Joseph]

Thank you Kevin. I would give it that a try. Appreciate your help.

[Tom Ma]

create one diagonal line.
Try using trapcode echospace to duplicate that line.
Looks like in this animations’ lines are laid out in z-space.

There is also a way to do this with expressions…complex tho.
Reply if you would like info on going that route.

[Ong Joseph]

Hi Tom,

I would not pass a chance to learn any new stuff. I’ve haven’t got the opportunity to try echospace yet, this may be the time. Would you mind sharing how would I go about doing this?

Thanks

[Kevin Camp]

you could do it without echo space too (although your comp will have many more layers)..

create a line layer (or precomp) that looks the way you want it (angle, color, transparency, etc.). I think i would create it in photoshop and import as footage…

take it into a new comp and make it 3d. enable expressions for position and paste this into the expression field:

seedRandom(index, true);
x = random(0, thisComp.width);
y = random(0, thisComp.height);
z = random(-100, 400);
[x,y,z]

then just duplicate the layer and they will randomly space out in 3d space. i used the comp width and comp height to define the x and y space, but you could make that area larger. and the z depth was arbitrary so you should set accordingly. the seedRandom is set to generate a unique seed for each layer (the layer’s index number) and ‘true’ means that the random variable is fixed (won’t change over time).

actually, a smarter way to set it up would be to add a null layer, then add 3 slider controls to the null. link the expression to the slider values to allow tweaking of all the ‘line’ layers gobally. so with a null named ‘Null 1’ and 3 slider controls, you expression could be something like this:

seedRandom(index, true);
xAdj = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);
yAdj = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Slider Control 2”)(“Slider”);
zAdj = thisComp.layer(“Null 1”).effect(“Slider Control 3”)(“Slider”);
x = random(0 – xAdj, thisComp.width + xAdj);
y = random(0 – yAdj, thisComp.height + yAdj);
z = random(-100 – zAdj, 400 + zAdj);
[x,y,z]

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Ong Joseph]

Scared me off at first when I saw the large chunk of expressions. I precomped a rotated and scaled solid as a particle then tried using particular with custom particles. Worked out good. Thank you for your help Kevin. It is much appreciated. I’ll be trying that out.

Regards,
Joseph