Spectator effect for the background

[Walter Soyka]

I would create a set of maybe 3-6 small, looping comps that feature one individual circle doing its own cheer, all with exactly the same duration.

Then, I’d either use expressions or a script to position them, looping them and randomizing their start times, or I’d use a particle system like Form to distribute them.

To use Form, you’d have to sequence your individual comps into one precomp that contains all of them, again, with exactly the same duration for each. Then set Particle > Particle Type to Textured Polygon, Texture > Layer to your all-animations precomp, Texture > Time Sampling to “Split Clip – Loop,” and Number of Clips to match the number of comps in your all-animations precomp.

Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

[Steve Davies]

Walter, thanks, I am strugging to follow your settings but I think I am missing something

I don’t seem to have the time sampling option to split clip – loop, unless I am applying CC Particle World to the wrong layer?

Steve

Digital Designer
stevedavies.io

[Cassius Marques]

Walter is talking about a setting in Trapcode’s Form plugin. I’m almost certain you can’t do that with CC particle World.

Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com

[Steve Bentley]

What about just duplicating your “head” layer but first put a small wiggle expression on it. The layer number of each duplicate will change the random seed of the wiggle so each is slightly different.

[Steve Davies]

This would work but I would need to duplicate the layer 100’s of times, if I am understanding right.

Digital Designer
stevedavies.io

[David Byrne]

Here’s an attempt to help you out –

12551_simplecrowdnoparticles.aep.zip

Its a crowd of 100 shaded dots moving independently. You can easily drag this comp into another, duplicate it and reposition to make larger crowd sizes.

It has a ‘Crowd Control’ master layer that you can change the tint of the crowd easily, or checkbox for a rainbow colour effect.
You can also control the speed and movement of the dots.

To affect the size of the dots simple change the size in the sprite control. Warning – too much movement or size difference may become noticeable when they interact due to the shading layer (a fractal noise adjustment layer).

BUILT as follows –
(this isn’t exactly the same as I did it, I have simplified dimensions for ease of instruction)

I made one Dot, a circle shape layer, in a 100×100 comp. I then animated the position properties with a wiggle setting of

s=wiggle(comp(2,10);
[s[0]/4,s[1]];

That is – 2 times a second the dot moves vertically up to 10 pixels in either direction (up and down) and a quarter of that speed and amount left to right. I made the comp 30 seconds long.

I then dragged this precomp into a new comp ten times the width to make my row of cheering dots.
[Comp Width (1000×100)]
I duplicated the dot 9 times. Using Align and Distribute I quickly selected one dot and moved it far left, another far right, then selected all layers and using the Distribute panel selected Distribute Horizontally (the fifth option from left).
Now I manually dragged the layers to the left at random amounts. This is to taste – just enough that the particles move at a different speed to each other.

I then moved this ‘Row of Fans’ precomp into a grid precomp and again duplicated it 9 times. Moving one row to the top, one to the bottom I then selected all layers and Distributed Vertically.
Again I manually dragged the layers to the left at random amounts. This is to taste – just enough that the particles move at a different speed to each other.

Now I added shading. I added Fractal Noise layer, set to Basic Block, 1.0 Complexity, Adjusted brightness and contrast to taste. I also scaled down to make it roughly 10 x 10 boxes. And changed blending to overlay.

Finally I precomposed all this into a Master comp – in my case I linked up some expressions to change colours, speed, etc from the master comp so no need to dive in, plus of course that means you could animate the crowd cheering a goal for example.

Hope this helps, happy to answer any questions and of course take suggestions.

Cheers!
Dave Byrne

Animo Motion Graphics
Freelancer, UK

[Richard Garabedain]

go to a stock footage site and look at videos of crowd cheering motion graphics…its a blur of motion and camera flashes. look at inspiration before you work…every time

[Steve Davies]

I never got to thank you for this! Thank you!

Digital Designer
stevedavies.io

[David Byrne]

You’re welcome!

Cheers!
David Byrne
Animo Motion Graphics
Freelancer, UK