[Doyle Lewis]

First of all very neat Expression. I like it! Secondly to do what you are talking about automatically I am pretty sure you would need a script that was able to measure pixel distance because AE has no easy way (that I know of) to know how long across text is. My suggestion is to go into the comments that you have on the markers and break the subtitle up manually with the return key, or am I miss understanding the issue you are running into?

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

I just did a blend frames morph and used photoshop to set up morph keyframes I liked so I had some control over how the picture morphed. I put both the photoshop timeline and the AE project in the attached zip if you like. It is not as pretty as some of the above suggestions, but I think it works.

7358_figerprinttopicture.zip

If you have any questions about frame blend morphing just let me know and I can further explain what I did.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

As always the answer can be found in a Andrew Kramer tutorial. lol

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/disintegration/

You may want to play a bit with the animation to make it more smoke like than particle like, but this will give you the basics of how to do it.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

I found an example!

https://revision3.com/filmriot/dslrquestions

the part about shutter roll is @ 4:23ish

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

I have actually been told that the rolling shutter repair is even better on iMovie than on FCP7. The results I have seen were actually quite impressive. They said they pulled the clip into iMovie repaired the shutter roll and the exported the clip back out to use with FCP 7.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

No problem. This is a quick fix. The error message is saying that the command timeToFrame is undefined.
The problem is the correct command is timeToFrames. You just need to make it plural. The commands are sensitive. If they are not spelled exactly correct AE assumes they are variables and then tells you those variables are undefined. Let me know if you run into any further problems.

Also While I was looking at what you wrote you have currently as the third line,
effect(“Form”)(“Disperse”)(slider).valueAtTime(f)

it should instead be:

effect(“Form”)(“Disperse”).valueAtTime(f)

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

Hey no problem

I am learning expressions too. They are hard, but just spend time parching through other peoples expression and looking up the parts you don’t understand and eventual it starts to make sense. It is difficult though.

So I’m sorry I didn’t specify. The placeholders are not actual AE placeholders. It is actually just what I named two slider effects forgetting that placeholders were the name of an actual thing in AE. So the important thing is that those placeholders(actually slider effects) have to exist on the same layer as the effect and they have to live above the disperse effect.

So it should look like this

So instead of (thisComp.layer(“form 2”).effect(“Form”)(“Disperse”)it should be

effect(“Form”)(“Disperse”).valueAtTime(f)

Don’t forget to add the .valueAtTime(f) after you pickwhip. What this tells the expression is to use the value of the disperse effect from a frame ago. because on the first slider we calculated the time value in frames of one frame ago with the expression

t=timeToFrames(time);
f=framesToTime(t-1);

So now f is equal to current time minus one frame. and the second slider is the same just it calculates two frames ago.

Let me know if you have any more questions sorry for the confusion.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

ok so here is the expression that does everything you want it to do. I am currently rewriting it to make it look prettier but this does the trick and is still pretty fast.

rand= Math.round(random(5,10));
seedRandom(12);
rand2= Math.round(random(5,10));
seedRandom(40);
rand3= Math.round(random(5,10));
s1=effect(“Placeholder 1”)(“Slider”);
s2=effect(“Placeholder 2”)(“Slider”);
s3=(effect(“Placeholder 1”)(“Slider”))+1;
s4=(effect(“Placeholder 1”)(“Slider”))-1;

if (rand != s1 && rand != s2 && rand != s3 && rand != s4){
rand;
} else if (rand2 != s1 && rand2 != s2 && rand2 != s3 && rand2 != s4){
rand2;
} else if (rand3 != s1 && rand3 != s2 && rand3 != s3 && rand3 != s4){
rand3;
} else if (5 != s1 && 5 != s2 && 5 != s3 && 5 != s4){
5;
} else if (6 != s1 && 6 != s2 && 5 != s3 && 6 != s4){
6;
} else if (7 != s1 && 7 != s2 && 7 != s3 && 7 != s4){
7;
} else if (8 != s1 && 8 != s2 && 8 != s3 && 8 != s4){
8;
} else if (9 != s1 && 9 != s2 && 9 != s3 && 9 != s4){
9;
} else if (10 != s1 && 10 != s2 && 10 != s3 && 10 != s4){
10;
}

The expression that you put on the second place holder is just:

t=timeToFrames(time);
f=framesToTime(t-2);

effect(“Your effect name here”)(“Slider”).valueAtTime(f)‘

and you still need the first placeholder just like before. and they both need to be above the effect on the effects pane.

I want to write it prettier because in reality with the requirements you want for your random number there are on any given frame only 2 to 3 options so I would like to write something that narrows those down first then chooses one randomly, but I haven’t figured out how to do that just yet. I might keep working on it.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

You are right. That doesn’t quite work sorry about that. Okay this one should though.

Build a placeholder slider and paste the expression:

t=timeToFrames(time);
f=framesToTime(t-1);

effect(“Your effect name here”)(“Slider”).valueAtTime(f)

Then on your effect paste the expression:

rand= Math.round(random(5,10));
s1=effect(“Placeholder 1”)(“Slider”);

if (rand != s1){
rand;
} else if ((rand+1) <= 10){
rand+1;
} else if ((rand-1) >= 5){
rand-1;
}

Keep in mind that the placeholder slider has to be placed above the effect because after effects calculates effect on top first.

So doing this worked for me and I tested much more frames than I did the first time. Sorry again about that. The only problem is that it only makes sure it is not equal to the last frame, not that it is not equal to two frames ago. This can’t be solved by adding a duplicate placeholder that subtract 2 frames and adding the code:

s2=effect(“Placeholder 2”)(“Slider”);
if (rand != s1 && rand != s2 ){

because you may still get the value of “s2” when you add or subtract 1 to “rand.” I have not figured out how to fix this yet but if I come up with something I will let you know

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com

[Doyle Lewis]

Sure…
on the effect you want to choose a random value put the expression:

if (value = effect(“placeholder”)(“Slider”)){
random(5,10);
} else {
value;
}

If you notice the expression references an effect called “placeholder” I added this as a slider to be a placeholder for the value that my effect is only one frame before. So on the same layer as your effect add a slider control and name it placeholder. Then add this expression to the “placeholder” slider:

t=timeToFrames(time)
f=framesToTime(t-1)
effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”).valueAtTime(f)

In that expression I just attached it to a slider control instead of an effect but just highlight “effect(“Slider Control”) (“Slider”)” and pickwhip to the effect that you are randomizing.

That may not be the best or prettiest way to do what your asking but it is how I would do it.

Doyle Lewis, Assistant Videographer

thinkck.com