Smoothing a position, after expression.

[Cassius Marques]

Hey guys.

The summary:
I have a 3d spline. In c4d I used an align to spline so I’d get the 3d position of a layer running along this spline. I baked this to actual position and exported to AE.

Now in AE I’m using this exported null to guide a camera to do a flythrough in said spline.

I baked the 3d position linearly for the duration. So in AE i’m using the .valueAtTime method with a time remmap property as argument. This way I can do easy ins and outs, essentially controlling the flow of the movement (temporally changing the velocity from linear to whatever I want).

The Problem:
Spacially it still follows the exact spline path, so during sharp turns it creates an undisired movement. I can’t use “smooth” since it evaluates keyframe values and not expressions (right?). So, any ideas how I can smooth this? Preferably with a control in amount and when?

Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com

[Cassius Marques]

nevermind, I’m stupid. I can smooth the guide layer prior to passing the value to the actual camera guide layer.

Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com

[Dan Ebberts]

I guess you could try converting the expression to keyframes and then smoothing the result.

Dan

[Cassius Marques]

Yeah, I know that. But since I’m doing the bulk of the animation now I need to be able to do the smoothing on the fly along with the velocity changes. So keep going back and baking everytime I change the speed is a no go.

But as I said before, I should have thought better before posting. It was easy.

I rushed to post because I knew if I didn’t figure it out, you’d probably write something better than I ever could, hahaha.

Thanks for taking the time to read anyway!

Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com