[Chris Standley]

Ah – found an issue.
This expression only works then the text is at the start of the comp – i.e. Zero frames.
As soon as you move it along the timeline, the expression screws up.

Any thoughts?

Chris

[Chris Standley]

That’s fantastic! I knew there would be a way, but when it comes to working out new expressions I’m lost!
I think this is a really valuable expression (it’s going to save me hours) and worth spreading around – thank you so much.

[Chris Standley]

Got it.

Thanks for the help, Tim. I’m still not entirely clear on what I’ve done, but it’s worked, and with the addition of a random effector, the lights switch on, moving away from the camera, but randomly too.

Now to render the damn thing…

Thanks again.

Chris

[Chris Standley]

Thanks for those replies.
Randy’s is a great project – but my brain is too tiny to figure that out!!
I’ll think I’ll go for the plain effector as I (vaguely) understand it – even though I’ve already tried it with no luck. Does the size of the effector – the actual physical dimensions – of the, say, box matter – does it only affect things it overlaps?
If it does, can I animate its scale over time? That way I could switch the first light on then, as it expands, it would sweep out across the rest of the bulbs.
OR – is it the falloff that would do this?

Just doing a big AFX render so I’ll try it out once that’s completed.

Thanks, everyone.

[Chris Standley]

Mr Ebberts – you are a master.
Thank you so much for this.
Now if I could just figure out how the maths actually works….

Would you mind if I include this in a tutorial I’m doing? I’ll happy say you supplied it.

Chris