[Declan Smith]

Hi,

Glad it worked.

All you need to do is add r (That is backslash r ) at the point you want a line break. This is an escaped sequence that gets interpreted to mean carriage return. e.g. in your example

comp2 = [“Those who mind don’t matterr and those who matter don’t mind.”]

EDIT: adding screenshot because I can’t get the COW to accept backslash r:

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi,
You can set up a text file with all the data you need to follow the format below:

= [ “”,”” , “”]

where:
is the name of your composition
is the text of the first field
is the text of the second field
is the text of the third field
etc

Each comp would have an associated line. The number of fields you include depends on how many separate pieces of information you want to extract.

As an example, lets assume this is saved in a file called /compdata.txt and you have two comps. The file would look like this

comp1 = [“A line of text”]
comp2 = [“A different line of text”]

Now, setup a comp called comp1, add a text layer then option or alt click the source text stopwatch, and add the following in the expression window:

$.evalFile(“/compdata.txt”);
try {
eval(thisComp.name)[0]
} catch (err) {
“not found”
}

This will set the source text appropriately. If you leave it as numbered compositions, then it’s easier to duplicate as you get the number increment for free and all your expressions copy with the duplicated composition.

If you want to access the other fields, then you would eval the additional fields such as

eval(thisComp.name)[1]

or

eval(thisComp.name)[2]

etc

Note that it doesn’t have to just be text in the fields, you could put position data, rotation angles etc as you need.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Try this:

https://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/motion-graphics/building-a-grid-like-layout-using-basic-expressions/

With a bit of adapting it can provide the sliding windows effect you are looking for. If it’s like what you are looking for, scroll down the comments towards the bottom and see the changes I made to make it more flexible. If you have CS5.5, and it is the sort of thing you are after, let me know and I’ll upload a template project I setup.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

On your shape, add a “Trim Paths” operator (1), then set end to 0% (2) and animate up to 100%. You can also play with the start and offset to get other effects.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi,

If I understand what you are looking for is a way to get a shape layer follow a perfect circular path and auto orient ?

I have uploaded a project that may help.

3942_orientobjectaroundcirclularpath.aep.zip

Hope this is of use.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Just to add, you can add the following expressions to animate the dashes and the stroke (alt/option click the stopwatch)

for the Dashes offset:

-timeToFrames(t = time + thisComp.displayStartTime, fps = 4.0 / thisComp.frameDuration, isDuration = false)

You may need to remove the – sign from the beginning depending on which way you want the dashes to travel. Also, to control the speed that they match, change the fps above to suit.

For the Trim Paths End parameter, use a similar expression.

timeToFrames(t = time + thisComp.displayStartTime, fps = 1.0 / thisComp.frameDuration, isDuration = false)

Again, the fps will control the speed of drawing.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

One approach would be to use a shape layer to create an arc, add dashes (1) , tweek to suit then animate the offset (2) to get the dashes to move (like marching ants). Then click add (3) while still in the shape layer, and add a trim paths and animate the start/end (4) to suit.

EDIT: Then make it a 3D layer and position it to taste

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Hi

I may have found something that is useful for you. I only looked because I didn’t know what closed captions were, but this article from Apple seems to show this can be done in compressor.

https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutstudio/workflows/index.html#chapter=6%26section=4%26tasks=true

I fire up compressor and if you click on the clip then select “Additional Information” from the Inspector tab, there appears to be a way to add these files. As I say, I don’t have any .scc files and have never heard of them before so this may or may not be helpful.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

Select your keyframes and right click. Keyframe assistant and Keyframe velocity may well be what you need. Easy Ease gives a more natural entry/exit from a keyframe

Also, you can use the graph editor to alter the curves.

Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”

[Declan Smith]

One potential method is:

1. Create a Mask to be the size of your orbit
2. Click on the Mask Path to select it, then copy it (edit->copy)
3. Now go to your smaller circle and select position and then paste.

What this does is paste a bunch of keyframes representing the circular motion path of the mask. You can then adjust the duration this plays out by spreading out the keyframes. You could have a completely different position animation prior to the orbiting keyframe, then ease into it. To have the other circles join is a matter of staggering the layers.

As this is the expressions forum, I guess its only right to have an expression, but from what you have said, I think the above method may suit better, possible not, but I’ll leave that up to you.

To create a circular path with expressions, I have included a starter for 10. You would put this expression on the position property of the smaller circle. The First four lines are your variables which can be pickwhipped to sliders etc if needed or you can further derive their values. The radius is the radius of you orbit, the start angle is where on the orbit you want to start (from 0 -360), the speedmulitplier is how long (with that set to 1 it takes 36 seconds), and the centre is the centre of the orbit. I have set this to be the centre of the comp

radius=300;
startAngle=180;
speedMultiplier=100;
centre=[this_comp.width/2, this_comp.height/2];

angle = time * speedMultiplier + startAngle ;
x=radius * Math.cos(degreesToRadians(angle));
y=radius * Math.sin(degreesToRadians(angle));
add(centre,[x,y]);


Declan Smith
https://www.madpanic.tv
After Effects CS5.5/ FCS3 / Canon 7D / Canon XL2 / Reason / Cubase

“it’s either binary or it’s not”