[Arne Münch]

thank you Filip
Yes,makes sense.
Always good to hear if something is not possible to let go the ideas and stop thinking that I just missed something.

https://www.instagram.com/arnemuench/

[Arne Münch]

hi again
i actually found another solution for my expression, but the question is still interesting. i don‘t think its easily possible to calculate the point at a given percentage on a path without using pointOnPath. if it is possible at all, i guess its quite complicated beziercurve calculations.

so i just want to be sure.
does nobody know if there is a method for creating a path with expressions and using methods like pointOnPath and normalsOnPath afterwards within the same expressions??

seems strange for that this shouldn‘t be doable.
thanks for any hints..

https://www.instagram.com/arnemuench/

[Arne Münch]

Hi Robert
thanks for your reply.
but i dont really get it. Even when you try to use it in the path expression (what I want, the text layer was only for print out the variable) it doesn´t work. Type this in the path property:
originalPath = thisProperty;
correctedPath = originalPath;
correctedPath.createPath([[-100,0] , [100,0]] , [] , [] , originalPath.isClosed());
midpoint = correctedPath.pointOnPath(.5,time);

createPath([ midpoint , [100,0]] , [] , [] , originalPath.isClosed());

And you would expect the first vertex at [0,0] but it isn´t, it is in middle of what ever the originalPath was.
How can I create a path and use its attributes afterwards in the same expression?

https://www.instagram.com/arnemuench/

[Arne Münch]

Thank you Andrei for your thoughts on this. It was helpful.

When you copy several layers into the clipboard, I thought there must be a way to save that data.
And then a script simply had to read that data, put it back to the clipboard and paste it.
Is that what you mean by the JSON file?

Because manually I thought you can repeat all the steps you did to build up the comp in the .jsx, and there seems no need to create a JSON, but it can be a lot especially if you are not familiar with all the commands.

Another approach would of course be to save selected comps in an .aep and import via script from there. But you cannot just add layers to an existing comp with that way.

https://www.instagram.com/arnemuench/

[Arne Münch]

I just forget to say thank you.
This was really helpful.

[Arne Münch]

Another question concerning this is how to calculate real complementary colors in AE in general. To shift the H value 180 degrees is not what the eye feels as complemantry, i guess.
The adobe color tool (https://color.adobe.com/de/create/color-wheel) uses this colorwheel, and when you set a hue of 1, the complemantry hue is 137, (and not 180)
So my question, is there a way to calculate complemantary colors inside AE.
And if not, does anyone know of a way to calculate these complemantry hues manually, or also triade hues?

[Arne Münch]

hi tom
this thread is very old but maybe you come around again.
i am trying the same thing at the moment, but with my setup and I think with your setup aswell, there is still the problem that the layer isn´t orientated automatically towards the camera. Under specific circumstances you see that layer from the “side” and it disappears.

Did you find a solution to improve the orientation expression to always have the layer stay fully visible? It seems to be a quite tricky math calculation.

[Arne Münch]

to adjust the z value manually just add “+ value” to the orientation expression, but how to calculate the perfect value?? I think about this for many hours. Any ideas??

end = thisComp.layer(“B”);
end = end.toWorld(end.anchorPoint);
lookAt (position,end) + value;

[Arne Münch]

I understand your point, but I don´t think I need an extra null here, because in my setup I can adjust the orientation z value so that the plane never goes edge-on.
The problem is how to set this value correct automatically, because when I copy this layer a lot of times connected to randomly arranged circles, i cannot do this manually.
This same problem I would have with an extra null aswell.

[Arne Münch]

hi Steve
Thanks for your reply.
The last thing with the cone I didn´t understand right away and have to think about it.

But what I am actually trying is to connect a shape Layer stroke in 3D space, not a layer with the beam effect (but this should be possible too)
Here is my project file:
12401_connectionlines3d.aep.zip

I am really sure that there is some math to resolve my problem, because I can always, if the layer seems to dissaper because you view it from the side, just manually adjust the z value of the orientation to face it back to the camera and everything is fine again.

So there must be some math to put in the orientation of that layer to get everything work, but I cant´t figure it out because this 3d rotation stuff is tricky.