[Brendon Murphy]

One really simple way is to use a solid (any color) with a fractal noise effect. Under transform, change the scale width to something like 2500, and the scale height to something like 8.

Use a levels effect to play with contrast, then add a tint and glow. I made the image below using this recipe, with the solid rotated a bit in 3D space. It can be animated in various ways within the fractal noise effect.

[Brendon Murphy]

This works:

On a new solid, draw a path along the ceiling (just the surface where the ball will touch). Do the same for the floor on another solid.

Add a circle using the ellipse tool (this assumes you will have a uniform circle). Be sure to zero out the shape’s anchor point and position under “Contents” so it matches the layer anchor point.

Add three null objects. One will be the “Leader” that you animate on the x axis. The other two, “Top Tracer” and Bottom Tracer” will follow along the top and bottom paths when you paste this into the “position” parameter (change pathLayer so you have the correct paths selected):

pathLayer = thisComp.layer(“Bottom Path”)

pathToTrace = pathLayer(“ADBE Mask Parade”)(1)(“ADBE Mask Shape”);

startPos = pathLayer.toComp(pathToTrace.pointOnPath(0));

endPos = pathLayer.toComp(pathToTrace.pointOnPath(1));

pathWidth = endPos[0]-startPos[0];

leaderX = thisComp.layer(“Leader”).transform.position[0];

followOffset = 0-startPos[0];

pathUnits = 1/pathWidth;

progress = (leaderX*pathUnits)+(pathUnits*followOffset);

pathLayer.toComp(pathToTrace.pointOnPath(progress));

On your ball, use this for position:

topTracer = thisComp.layer(“Top Tracer”).transform.position;

bottomTracer = thisComp.layer(“Bottom Tracer”).transform.position;

vertPos = (topTracer[1]+bottomTracer[1])/2;

horizPos = thisComp.layer(“Leader”).transform.position[0];

[horizPos,vertPos];

And for the ball’s scale:

topTracer = thisComp.layer(“Top Tracer”).transform.position;

bottomTracer = thisComp.layer(“Bottom Tracer”).transform.position;

neededHeight = topTracer[1]-bottomTracer[1];

origHeight = content(“Ellipse 1”).content(“Ellipse Path 1”).size[1];

newHeight = (neededHeight/origHeight)*100;

[newHeight,newHeight];

Hope that helps!

[Brendon Murphy]

Note that the above expression is for changing the text’s anchor point to the second character. If you want to change the anchor point of another layer to be at the second character, it’s like this:

textLayer = thisComp.layer(“CHARACTER”);

textWidth = textLayer.sourceRectAtTime().width;

numLetters = textLayer.text.sourceText.length;

characterWidth = textWidth/numLetters;

charIndex = 2;

horizAnchor = (textLayer.transform.position[0]-textLayer.transform.anchorPoint[0])+(characterWidth*charIndex)-(characterWidth*.5);

verticalAnchor = textLayer.transform.position[1]-textLayer.transform.anchorPoint[1];

[horizAnchor,verticalAnchor];

[Brendon Murphy]

There may be a more elegant solution, but this will get you there:

textWidth = thisLayer.sourceRectAtTime().width;

numLetters = thisLayer.text.sourceText.length;

characterWidth = textWidth/numLetters;

charIndex = 2;//this is the index of the letter you want

horizAnchor = (value[0])+(characterWidth*charIndex)-(characterWidth*.5);

verticalAnchor = value[1];

[horizAnchor,verticalAnchor];

[Brendon Murphy]

Each cell in a given column has a different index number. If the lines are in separate cells, you need to call both indices in your expression. However, this would break the 1 to 1 relationship between layer number and row number (ie index number).

If the lines are in the same cell, you can probably split them based on a period or other character and then read them to separate lines using “\r”. There’s some good information here that might help: https://fluxvfx.com/blogs/blog-fluxvfx/data-driven-expressions-for-after-effects-2019

[Brendon Murphy]

It’s a quick way to make sure the precomps land in the exact right place without needing to tweak the position.

[Brendon Murphy]

Wait – I just noticed that you’re referencing another value in “TEXT 0” via expression. This may be closer to what you need:

textNum = thisLayer.index-2; //change the minus to whatever makes sense for your layers

param = thisComp.layer(“CSV TEST.csv”)(“Data”)(“Outline”)(“TEXT”)

subParam = param(textNum);

subParam.toUpperCase();

[Brendon Murphy]

I think you’re looking for something like this:

textNum = thisLayer.index-2; //change the minus to whatever makes sense for your layers

param = thisComp.layer(“CSV TEST.csv”)(“Data”)(“Outline”)(“TEXT”)

textName = param.name+” “+textNum.toString();

textName.toUpperCase();

[Brendon Murphy]

Glad to help!

[Brendon Murphy]

Sent you a reply in the expressions forum.