[Greg C neumayer]

If choking it moves the fringe, it sounds like it’s outside of the Element plugin. Do you have any effects on it that might be disrupting it? (like Colorama. that one always gets me).

[Greg C neumayer]

This is a pretty old post, but still valuable for expressions. Here’s a script get something to flicker/blink.
If you put the opacity at 50%, it will randomly blink on/off.
If you put two keyframes from 100 to 0%, it will transition with flickering instead of a smooth fade, like a light burning out.
If you don’t use any keyframe and set the opacity to 70%, with a flicker frequency of 100, it nicely approximates an eye blink.

Cheers!
-Greg @ Antifreeze Design

//--Flicker On
//Make something flicker to 100% opacity instead of fading in
//Adjust this flicker frequency to your taste
flickerFrequency = 150;

op = value;
if(op > 0 && op < 100){
reverseAmt=100-transform.opacity;
wiggledAmt=wiggle(flickerFrequency,reverseAmt);
roundedAmt=Math.round((wiggledAmt/100));
roundedAmt*100;
}
//--end Flicker On


[Greg C neumayer]

Thanks, Dan!
That works great. But my curiosity is greater than my math skills. Would you mind briefly telling us what it’s doing if you get a chance?

I don’t mean line by line, I just mean something like,
“I multiplied Hamburgular’s girth by the duration of time between each keyframe, giving me a way to smooth the amplitude of Ronald’s hair.”

Thanks!

[Greg C neumayer]

I think the answer is “kinda”. (R19 Broadcast)

The compositing tag on my object makes me assign the object to a numbered buffer.
However, in my multi-pass Save options, when I add an Object Buffer I AM allowed to rename it.

When rendering, it will use your render-setting-assigned-name for the Object Buffer IF you check the box “User Defined Layer Name” (e.g. “…_GregsBuffer_…”)
Leaving this unchecked will default to appending it with the numerical value of the Object Buffer used in your Compositing Tag (e.g. “…_object_2…”) .

Hope it helps!
-Greg

[Greg C neumayer]

That’s a good question. Without knowing what the more difficult shapes look like, I’d probably also simply try masking the part I don’t want. You can either use a mask on the Solid that has the warp, or you could mask it with a mask layer above it, and set the warp’s layer to Alpha Matte.

[Greg C neumayer]

Yes, switching to “high” will give you better quality at the expense of a little slower performance.

As far as the distortion, I’m not sure I understand what you’re going for. Send some more details about the project if you’d like more input.

Cheers!

[Greg C neumayer]

Yeah, calling them “scripts” is a bit confusing, because they’re basically plug-ins. However, I’ve easily made my money back in saved time with some of their products.

Favorites:
Animation Master: (better than Ease N Wizz for adding that nice little bounce, and it’s extendible),
Keysmith: (stop manually changing my default 33% ease to my preferred 60%)
Rift: (sequence layers or keyframes in multiple ways)

[Greg C neumayer]

Nothwithstanding Thomas and Sergio’s good advice, you might also look into a script/plugin that pre-renders and trims your footage to only being the portion that you actually need. This may help your load/auto-save times. I’ve had clients hand me a 1.5GB video file that only needs 5 seconds of the video. When it comes time to archive the project this can be a huge space saver as well.

Look up Auto Crop or Trim N Collect on aescripts.com

[Greg C neumayer]

I’d probably start with a rough low-poly spheroid shape using Cinema 4D and After Effects integration:
https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/c4d.html

[Greg C neumayer]

Try this tutorial:
https://motionarray.com/tutorials/after-effects-tutorials/how-to/how-to-create-animated-arrows-in-after-effects

It looks like it would do what you need, provided you’re able to taper the end of your stroke.
Here’s a taper tutorial, but you may have better luck with a plugin that does tapers like Trapcode 3D stroke.

https://www.schoolofmotion.com/tutorials/free-tapered-stroke-after-effects/