[Brendan Mccullough]

This is a question I’ve found myself asking lately too. How does one change values at a specified time, but using a smooth animation, rather than a drastic jump. I’ve been noodling it, and I’m sure it’s something like:

if(time >= someValue) {
linear(time, time, time+animationDurationInFrames, value01, value02);
}

but I can’t quite grasp what I’m missing.

I was playing with a rotation value today that it would have been nice to have this. I want to rotate between (let’s just say) 0 degrees and 10 degrees over the course of 10 seconds, and then, in 30 frames, I want to complete the rotation back to 0 degrees from 10 degrees, and then continue the move from 0 degrees to 10 degrees over the course of the next 10 seconds.

My gut tells me there’s a modulus equation that’ll get me what I want, but yet again, it’s eluding me. It’d be something like…

duration = 300;
if(duration % 300 == 0) smoothly animate expression that’s probably linear(something);

[Brendan Mccullough]

x=effect("Separate XYZ Position") ("X Position")+100;
y=effect("Separate XYZ Position") ("Y Position")+100;
if(x<0) x *= -1;
if(y<0) y *= -1;
if(x>y) [x,x];
else [y,y];

You can’t have it link to two values at the same time, but what if it was selective? This example only uses the greater of the two values…

[Brendan Mccullough]

temp=effect("Separate XYZ Position") ("X Position")+100;
if(temp<0) temp *= -1;
[temp,temp,temp]

You want to check if the value goes below 0, and if it does, multiply it by -1, which will make it positive. Just apply the concept to any of your variable you want to keep positive.

[Brendan Mccullough]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I tried it out immediately, and once I start toying with sequenced scaling using an expression control, I think this is going to do exactly what I’m thinking about (I’ve been searching in vain trying to find the original example).

I’m still breaking down the code you posted, so I may have a few questions as I dissect it. Thank you very much, Dan.

–Brendan