[Colin Braley]

I’m not quite sure what you are asking. Is the “beam” footage of a wooden beam, like a 2×4, and you need to motion track something into the scene, or is it a graphical element like an arrow, and you need to get an arrowhead to follow it? In the case the you mean “beam” as in footage of a piece of wood, ou can use AE’s 2 point tracker to get rotational values…then use AE’s single point tracker to get positing values…then apply these to the object. — If the “beam” is just an object within AE, like a masked solid or something, why not use parenting and avoid the expressions alltoghether? I hope I understood your question.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

I’m not quite sure what you are asking. Is the “beam” footage of a wooden beam, like a 2×4, and you need to motion track something into the scene, or is it a graphical element like an arrow, and you need to get an arrowhead to follow it? In the case the you mean “beam” as in footage of a piece of wood, ou can use AE’s 2 point tracker to get rotational values…then use AE’s single point tracker to get positing values…then apply these to the object. — If the “beam” is just an object within AE, like a masked solid or something, why not use parenting and avoid the expressions alltoghether? I hope I understood your question.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Hey, I don’t know much about this topic but I will give you the little help I can: Buy as much RAM as you can (probably up to about 4 gigs), and a fast processor. From what I understand (As of AE 6.5) OpenGL isn’t well implemented, so a fancy graphics card isn’t as important. Also, does anyone have any comments about dual-processors? I remember reading somewhere that AE itself is multithreaded but many plug-ins are not? I’m thinking I’m gonna wait for AE 7 before I buy a new computer because I’m hoping AE 7 will have some great OpenGL utilization and will make a high-end graphics card worthwile. Anyone ele’s comments/responses would be greatly appreciated.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

What I do is add a marker to a layer(press the * key) and then right click on it and go to settings and add some text to it. This is useful if you don’t need to include a ton of instructions.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

What I do is add a marker to a layer(press the * key) and then right click on it and go to settings and add some text to it. This is useful if you don’t need to include a ton of instructions.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

I think getting the certificaiton can pay off, especially if you are young. I got one last year and tried to get an internship as a motion graphics artist, but many companies assumed I was too young/inexperienced because I was 17 at the time. When I told them I had passsed the ACE exam they began to take me more seriously. Just my .02, and don’t go by what I say too much because I know next to nothing about how this industry works.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

While Mylenium’s way is the quickest and easiest way to do it, you can also do it via expressions with one layer. Something like this should do it:

//Expression for opacity

endTime = 5;//Time to stop repeating keyframes and use one value
endVal = 100;//Opacity value to stop on

//————————————

if(time < endTime) { //Put whatever code you used to //cycle the keyframes //in here }else{ endVal } //--End expression for opacity ~Colin

[Colin Braley]

While Mylenium’s way is the quickest and easiest way to do it, you can also do it via expressions with one layer. Something like this should do it:

//Expression for opacity

endTime = 5;//Time to stop repeating keyframes and use one value
endVal = 100;//Opacity value to stop on

//————————————

if(time < endTime) { //Put whatever code you used to //cycle the keyframes //in here }else{ endVal } //--End expression for opacity ~Colin

[Colin Braley]

I’m not sure if I totally understand what you are asking for. If you want to take a layer, duplicate it and have it in random positions for the whole time you could add these two expressions before duplicating it:

//Expression for position

seedRandom(index, true);
x = random(0, thisComp.width);
y = random(0, thisComp.height);
[x, y]
//End position expression

Then try this for scale:

seedRandom(index, true);
scaleMin = 30;
scaleMax = 200;
s = random(scaleMin, scaleMax);
[s, s]
//End scale expression

Thats about it.

~Colin Braley

[Colin Braley]

I’m not sure if I totally understand what you are asking for. If you want to take a layer, duplicate it and have it in random positions for the whole time you could add these two expressions before duplicating it:

//Expression for position

seedRandom(index, true);
x = random(0, thisComp.width);
y = random(0, thisComp.height);
[x, y]
//End position expression

Then try this for scale:

seedRandom(index, true);
scaleMin = 30;
scaleMax = 200;
s = random(scaleMin, scaleMax);
[s, s]
//End scale expression

Thats about it.

~Colin Braley