[Colin Braley]

I think creating a plug in is very feasable for a guy with “okish” programming abilities. I’ve been wanting to write a few plug ins for a while, but I’ve never really had enough time to devote to learning the API. If I were you I would do the following:
– Read Bruce Bullis’ blog (hes the AE API Manager)…heres the link
https://blogs.adobe.com/ae_api/
– Download the API from Adobe’s site but before you start digging through it I reccomend reading this document https://blogs.adobe.com/ae_api/
– Your also going to need to brush up (or learn) some C/C++ and some math. If you want any links to relavent math topics I can give you some. However, depending on what you plan on developing might not necessarily have to learn a ton of math, but for other things it will be very necessary.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

There is an effect called by Digital Anarchy called “Color Sampler”…I got to use it where I used to work and it was fun to mess around with using expressions. Check it out at the following link:
https://www.digitalanarchy.com/toolbox/toolbox_sampler.html
The only downside is that you can’t buy the plug individually to my knowledge…you have to buy the whole anarchy toolbox unfortunately.

As for the examples you provided, both are very doable. If you want some code to help you get started I can hep you with that. I was able to mess around with the DA Color Sampler at my previous employer and was able to come up with some very fun stuff using it…
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

There is an effect called by Digital Anarchy called “Color Sampler”…I got to use it where I used to work and it was fun to mess around with using expressions. Check it out at the following link:
https://www.digitalanarchy.com/toolbox/toolbox_sampler.html
The only downside is that you can’t buy the plug individually to my knowledge…you have to buy the whole anarchy toolbox unfortunately.

As for the examples you provided, both are very doable. If you want some code to help you get started I can hep you with that. I was able to mess around with the DA Color Sampler at my previous employer and was able to come up with some very fun stuff using it…
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

I would just do what Dan said but if you really want to use expressions use this:

//I don’t have AE on this machine but this should work
diameter = 200;//pixels
zBegin = -1000;//pixels
zEnd = 1000;//pixels
spinRate = 2;//Adjust this until you like it
beginTime = 0;//seconds
endTime = 5;//seconds
//–
x = diamter * Math.sin(time * spinRate);
y = diamter * Math.cos(time* spinRate);
z = linear(time, beginTime, endTime, zBegin, zEnd);
[x, y, z]
//Enjoy

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

I would just do what Dan said but if you really want to use expressions use this:

//I don’t have AE on this machine but this should work
diameter = 200;//pixels
zBegin = -1000;//pixels
zEnd = 1000;//pixels
spinRate = 2;//Adjust this until you like it
beginTime = 0;//seconds
endTime = 5;//seconds
//–
x = diamter * Math.sin(time * spinRate);
y = diamter * Math.cos(time* spinRate);
z = linear(time, beginTime, endTime, zBegin, zEnd);
[x, y, z]
//Enjoy

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

That makes sense now…thanks a lot Dan. I’m taking a class in vector geometry and 3d calc so a lot of the expressions you have up here finally make sense to me… 🙂
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

That makes sense now…thanks a lot Dan. I’m taking a class in vector geometry and 3d calc so a lot of the expressions you have up here finally make sense to me… 🙂
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Dan,
I was reading through this expression trying to figure out how it works and ive got a few questions. I typed out what I think each line does but im not sure about line 3…

C = thisComp.layer(“Camera 1”);
//var C = the camera

v1 = normalize(position – C.position)
//v1 is the direction vector from the camera to the layer (it has length 1)

v2 = C.toWorldVec([0,0,1]);
//what is this line doing?

radiansToDegrees(Math.acos(dot(v1,v2)))

//so here you are finding the angle between v1 and v2 and outputting it in
//degrees because v1 dot( v1 , v2 ) = length(v1) * length(v2) * cos( theta )
//where theta is the angle between the two vectors…but since v1 and v2 are //normalized you are just using the arccos to get the angle between the two //vectors

Thanks in advance Dan.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Dan,
I was reading through this expression trying to figure out how it works and ive got a few questions. I typed out what I think each line does but im not sure about line 3…

C = thisComp.layer(“Camera 1”);
//var C = the camera

v1 = normalize(position – C.position)
//v1 is the direction vector from the camera to the layer (it has length 1)

v2 = C.toWorldVec([0,0,1]);
//what is this line doing?

radiansToDegrees(Math.acos(dot(v1,v2)))

//so here you are finding the angle between v1 and v2 and outputting it in
//degrees because v1 dot( v1 , v2 ) = length(v1) * length(v2) * cos( theta )
//where theta is the angle between the two vectors…but since v1 and v2 are //normalized you are just using the arccos to get the angle between the two //vectors

Thanks in advance Dan.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Does this one do the trick?

//begin
p1 = thisComp.layer(“Camera”).position;
p2 = thisComp.layer(“HUD”).position;
distance = Math.round( length( p1 , p2 ) ) ;
distance
//end

~Colin