[Filip Vandueren]

I would use the “Beam” effect with an expression for Starting Point so that it follows the sattelite:


l=thisComp.layer("Satellite");
l.toComp(l.anchorPoint);


if you combine that as a track matte to a “radio waves” effect that has that same expression for “Producer point”, you’ll get something like this:

(I changed Ken’s project):

Satellite.aep

[Filip Vandueren]

I would use the “Beam” effect with an expression for Starting Point so that it follows the sattelite:


l=thisComp.layer("Satellite");
l.toComp(l.anchorPoint);


if you combine that as a track matte to a “radio waves” effect that has that same expression for “Producer point”, you’ll get something like this:

(I changed Ken’s project):

Satellite.aep

[Filip Vandueren]

You can create two keyframes for source-text:

one in English, the other in French (par example), place them both before the layer inpoint, now drag the language you need to be the last one (but still before or exactly at the layer-inpoint, otherwise you’ll see the text swap.)

[Filip Vandueren]

If you make sure you pre-comp both your TV-screens grid and your graphic, there shouldn’t be any problem in using Card Wipe with the graphic set as Back Layer.

so one comp that has all the different videoscreens side to side hugging eachother in a 3×3 grid
the other comp has the same size as the first one, and contains just the graphic, large enough.

– add a Card wipe on your tvscreens comp (rows and colums set to 3), you might want to lower the Card Scale so the screens don’t touch anymore.
– hide the layer with the graphic comp, and select it as the Back layer in the Card Wipe.
– animate your card wipe.

same thing applies to card dance, if you need that much control.

[Filip Vandueren]

I would use a very soft write-on effect and animate that.
Maybe even add an extra blur over it.

If possible find a font or design a tag in Photoshop that you can ‘trace’ with the write-on position, that will make life a bit easier.

You can overlay or softlight a few fractal noise-layers of different scales on top it if it’s too soft and even for your taste.
Low frequency noise overlayed on top of a soft stroke will add some variation in thcikness of the stroke.
High-frequency noise will mimic the sprayed noisyness.

I would create it first in White on Black (that way the overlay will make more sense) then colorize the end-result.

Also, do a search for paint or blood, for some tips on having paint drip down the wall here and there.
Aharon’s “Horror text” on a wall tutorial also may come in handy.

[Filip Vandueren]

copy the keyframes to your small solid,
then resize the solid using the Solid settings (not scale)
the mask-shape and it’s keyframes will scale with it:
hurray ! 😉

[Filip Vandueren]

I’ve had some success with opening the .aep file in a texteditor and doing a global search and replace for “FE Sphere” to “CC Sphere”.

This only seems to work if the new plugin name has the same number of characters as the old one, and all the parameters still have the same name.

Like I said, it probably only works on a few of them.

Do this on a copy of course, and use a good text or hex editor (for example don’t try this with word 🙂 )

good luck

[Filip Vandueren]

did you try the adobe tip “install from a new user account” ?

Worked for a colleague of mine who was unable to install it.

[Filip Vandueren]

If you set the pixel aspect ratio correctly in “Interpret Footage” ( ie. ‘Pal or NSTC Widescreen’ )
you’ll see that the scaling is allready correct,

You can then use “Fit to Height” or “Fit to Width” to choose if you want it cropped at the sides or with letterboxing, when you drop it in a comp with different dimensions or pixel aspect.

search the manual for “pixel aspect” for some more info

[Filip Vandueren]

I also fixed a bug were -xxxxxx would display as -,xxx,xxx:


num=effect("Point Control")("Point")[0]; // use the first part of a point for more resolution than a slider

numAsText= ""+num;
dotIndex = numAsText.indexOf("."); // check for decimals
if (dotIndex==-1) { dotIndex=numAsText.length; }

formattedText = numAsText.substring(dotIndex-3,dotIndex+3); // +4 for 3 decimals etc.

if (dotIndex>3) {
for (i=dotIndex-3 ; i>0 ; i=i-3) {
extractedText = numAsText.substring(i-3,i);
if (extractedText=="-") {
formattedText = extractedText + formattedText
} else {
formattedText = extractedText + "," + formattedText
}
}
}

formattedText;