[Darby Edelen]

This adjusts the last endVal to be the same as the first startVal. Changes to your original code are bold red.

segDur = .5;
loop = thisComp.duration;
x = 1;
n = loop / segDur;
if(time > loop – segDur) x = 1 – n;
minVal = [64,0];
maxVal = [64, thisComp.height];

seed = Math.floor(time/segDur);
segStart = seed*segDur;
seedRandom(seed,true);
startVal = random(minVal,maxVal);
seedRandom(seed+x,true);
endVal = random(minVal,maxVal);
ease(time,segStart,segStart + segDur, startVal, endVal);

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Right click on the position property and select Separate Dimensions from the context menu.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

I have three recommendations.

1) Increase the Sample Distance on your volumetric light. I haven’t looked at your entire animation but simply changing the value from 0.028m to 0.2m reduced the render time for the first frame at 756×486 resolution from 1:25 to 0:38 with no discernible visible difference (I increased the resolution so that I could more easily compare quality). If you absolutely need smaller steps then you might try animating the sample distance to be lower for only those frames where it’s needed (I doubt it’s needed though).

2) Set the Adaptive Sampler to the “Automatic” mode and change your Shading Error Threshold to 3%. This additional change resulted in a render time of 0:17 seconds from the previous 0:38 again with no discernible visible difference. You could probably increase the Shading Error Threshold even higher (say 5% which resulted in a 0:10 second render time), if it results in noise in blurry reflections then increase the Blurriness Subdivision instead of lowering the Shading Error Threshold.

3) Since this is an animation you should be using the Gaussian anti-aliasing filter instead of Cubic. This will not affect render time in any significant way but it’s preferred as it will help to avoid moire and crawling that can result in Cubic or other sharpening AA filters for animations.

You should be able to cut down the render time to about 20% of what you were dealing with by doing the above.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Scott Green] “1. How do I connect 2 points from different splines to make them into one spline?”

The general answer to this question is that you must first Connect the splines so that they are segments in the same object. With both splines selected in the Object Manager go to Objects > Connect Objects or Connect Objects and Delete (if you don’t need to keep copies of the original separate objects). Then you can use Join Segment to join the splines.

However, in the image you posted it looks like you want to join the end of one spline to the middle of another spline. That’s not possible. Each spline has only one start and one end. They cannot form Y or T junctions.

The best option for you might be to connect the objects as mentioned above but not attempt to join the segments. Instead select both points and use the Scale tool with the Shift-key held to scale them into the same point in space. The splines will still be separates segments but they will appear to be joined.

[Scott Green] “2. I’m planning to model an object that I can take into Affects Effects that looks like a wireframe/outline. Do you think applying sweep nurbs to splines is the best solution? And further down the line would I be able to fill the object with a solid colour with opacity so that the lines that are on the opposite side of the object are not as visible (kind of like when you enable X-ray on a solid object and you can still see through it)?”

I would model the object using polygons and then either convert the desired edges to splines and sweep them or use a Cloner to place cylinders along the edges.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

What you’re looking at/editing is called the value graph. If you want to edit handles on the Position’s value graph then you need to Separate Dimensions. You can edit the speed graph without separating dimensions.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Set the keyframes to linear spatial interpolation, then use the pen tool to drag out new custom spatial bezier handles.

Alternatively you could skip going to linear and try to find the problematic bezier handles and reduce their length (influence). It’s usually easiest to find these handles in the 4up view and zoomed in (also make sure you have the 2 keyframes in question selected).

I usually convert to linear spatial interpolation first so that I know the problematic handles will be gone.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Okay, the loop is 10 seconds long, but is the random motion every 0.5 seconds supposed to be random start/end points with continuous motion in between? Or should the line jump to a new location every 0.5 seconds and hold position until the next jump?

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

Time remapping is the easiest way to do something like that. In that case an expression would be optional depending on how you want it set up.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Julien Imbert] “I have checked around and didm’ found any solution. What I have found best for now is a 0,3 pt fast blur, so i have now blurred pixels… :)”

You might try a Box Blur instead. Set the radius much lower and increase the iterations. Try something like 0.01 radius and 6 iterations.

Darby Edelen

[Darby Edelen]

[Julien Imbert] “I’m doing it with AE CS4 on a mac.”

Is your mac a laptop with one of those silly retina displays?

Darby Edelen