[Colin Braley]

Well here is a quick solution:
-Lay out the cars in a circle around the center point of the ferris wheel. Make sure each cars anchor point is in the center of the car. Parent the cars to the center point of the ferris wheel. Add an expression to the rotation parameter of each car: In this expression pick whip to the rotation values of the center point but put a negative in front. Your expression might look something like this.

-thisComp.layer(“Wheel Center”).rotation

That should fix your problems.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Well here is a quick solution:
-Lay out the cars in a circle around the center point of the ferris wheel. Make sure each cars anchor point is in the center of the car. Parent the cars to the center point of the ferris wheel. Add an expression to the rotation parameter of each car: In this expression pick whip to the rotation values of the center point but put a negative in front. Your expression might look something like this.

-thisComp.layer(“Wheel Center”).rotation

That should fix your problems.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

You can use the alpha obstacle parameter of the advanced lightning effect to get the lightning to flow around the layers alpha channel. Check out the AE Help for more info.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Check out this thread:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=860575
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Check out this thread:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=860575
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

linear() is an interpolation method. (By the way, I don’t have AE in front of me so I can’t currently check on/test any of this.) linear() usually takes 5 arguments (things in parentheses). These are: linear(t, tMin, tMax, value1, value2). What it does is it looks at the value t and as t varies from tMin to tMax it makes value change from value1 to value2. That sounds kindof confusing but with an example it isn’t too hard to figure out. For instance:

//this would be an expression for opacity

linear(time, 0, 2, 0, 100)

this expression would make opacity go from 0 to 100 as time went fron 0 to 2. Usually linear() will be used with time but sometimes you can use it for other things such as in the following example:

//This would be an expression for scale

pos = thisComp.layer(“random layer”).position;

linear(pos[0], 10, 200, 50, 150)

this expression would make the scale of the layer vary from 50 to 150 as the x coordinate of random layer’s position varied from 10 to 200. There are other interpolation methods such as ease(), easeIn(), and easeOut(). Check the manual on these for once you understand linear() these are pretty self-explanatory.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

linear() is an interpolation method. (By the way, I don’t have AE in front of me so I can’t currently check on/test any of this.) linear() usually takes 5 arguments (things in parentheses). These are: linear(t, tMin, tMax, value1, value2). What it does is it looks at the value t and as t varies from tMin to tMax it makes value change from value1 to value2. That sounds kindof confusing but with an example it isn’t too hard to figure out. For instance:

//this would be an expression for opacity

linear(time, 0, 2, 0, 100)

this expression would make opacity go from 0 to 100 as time went fron 0 to 2. Usually linear() will be used with time but sometimes you can use it for other things such as in the following example:

//This would be an expression for scale

pos = thisComp.layer(“random layer”).position;

linear(pos[0], 10, 200, 50, 150)

this expression would make the scale of the layer vary from 50 to 150 as the x coordinate of random layer’s position varied from 10 to 200. There are other interpolation methods such as ease(), easeIn(), and easeOut(). Check the manual on these for once you understand linear() these are pretty self-explanatory.
~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Dan-
I probably should have checked your site before spending the last 15 minutes trying to write that expression 🙂 In mine the distance between the two layers isn’t always perfect, sometimes its off by a few pixels.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Dan-
I probably should have checked your site before spending the last 15 minutes trying to write that expression 🙂 In mine the distance between the two layers isn’t always perfect, sometimes its off by a few pixels.

~Colin

[Colin Braley]

Michael –
I’ve got an expression that seems to work pretty well, but I’m not sure if it is exactly what you are looking for. Just keyframe the position of the first layer and then apply this expression to the position property of all the other circles (they must be directly below the other circles in the timeline because the expression relies on layer indicies). Well, here is the expression:

//Begin expression
offSet = 500;//In pixels
//—–
frame = timeToFrames(time);
prevPos = thisComp.layer(index – 1).position;
var finalPos;
//–
function getPrevPosAtTime( f )//Time in frames is passed to the function
{
return prevPos.valueAtTime( framesToTime( f ));
}
//–
var bestFrame = 0;
//–
for(i = 0; i < frame; i++) { curr = length(getPrevPosAtTime( i ), prevPos); currError = Math.abs(curr - offSet); oldCurr = length(getPrevPosAtTime( bestFrame), prevPos); oldError = Math.abs(oldCurr - offSet); if(currError < oldError) bestFrame = i; } //-- getPrevPosAtTime( bestFrame ) //End expression I think that expression should get you headed in the right direction. If you have any trouble with it post again. ~Colin