[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Making the gradient circular will be very close.

If “close enough” is not adequate, you can make a custom stroke from an expanded blend from beginning color to end color. Since gradients and blends are not legal for brush strokes, you have to expand the blend to separate pieces of fill before creating the brush. Max 256 steps needed, less can work as well.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

In essence, what I am suggesting is that you copy all but the last line of this code to a Slider Control value expression, which should make the Slider Control value equal the StartVal. Then pickwhip that Slider value to the position and scale expressions and use some additional math to offset and scale them.

Hopefully that works as anticipated.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

There are (at least) three ways to syncronize random values.

The first one is to use the same random seed for different effects. This works as long as you call the random number the same number of times and frequency for all effects.

Another one is to use a random value in one location and then use expressions (or pickwhip) to read and modify that value.

The easiest approach in many cases it to use a single slider control with wiggle expression and then link several effects to it. Might not apply in this case.

—

Looking briefly over the code, the StartVal is probably the one you want to base the other effects on. That is one that changes for every cut but remains fixed through a single clip (StartVal = the beginning time of the clip). That being the case, you could use the StartVal as your random seed, as it would force the random number to be the same throughout the clip (between cuts). Here’s where it gets interesting: You’ll have to copy the entire code that generates the StartVal for any effect you want to use it for. You can’t have one effect reading the StartVal from another effect. Which is why it is preferable to attach the code that generates the StartVal to a Slider Control, as you only have to do it once, and you can pick whip the value of the slider to other effects.

—

This can sound pretty complex if you’re new to expressions…

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Ok, then you will have the same issue when extruding it, Element will put the center point in the geometric center of the object. It doesn’t care where your original center point is. You’ll need to align the rotation point of the object in Element Scene setup to Element world origin. I’d do it by creating a sphere of slightly smaller radius than your object and using it to visually center the “C” arrow from front view in E3D Scene Setup. Then delete or hide the sphere.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

If it is one of the built-in animation options from within the Text layer itself (From under the “Add” menu of the Text layer) it won’t show up in the Effects panel. Only actual Effects do. Twirl open the text options on the layer itself.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Several ways to fix that. The simplest would probably be to bring the circle into AE and cut off the part to make it a “C” with a subtract mask. Then the center point should stay in place without further attention, I’d assume.

Or then just use a copy with the full circle to align the center point. Guides or Title safe grid is helpful here.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Looks like it is needed in third location as well, line 4, then should be all set:

if (thisComp.marker.key(n).time > time + [offset value here]){

Thus, the whole code would be:

offset =.5;// your custom offset value here
n = 0;
if (thisComp.marker.numKeys > 0){
n = thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time + offset).index;
if (thisComp.marker.key(n).time > time + offset){
n--;
}
}
if (n == 0){
0
}else{
m = thisComp.marker.key(n);
t = time - m.time + offset;
}

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

I’m on a PC, commands for Mac may differ.

The official keyboards shortcuts for kerning are Shift-Ctrl+] and Shift+Ctrl+[

(On my Scandinavian keyboard those are “Å” and “^” keys.)

Alt+arrow works as well.

A couple of things to check:

-Is your keyboard set to the right language input?
-Num lock on or off?

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

The 3D angle between the faces of a dodecahedron is 116.565 degrees. On the other hand, the corners of a pentagon are 108 degrees and the faces are rotated from the center by 72 degrees.

So, then, you could build the separate faces by 3D rotating 12 pentagons 116.565 degrees on one axis and multiples of 72 degrees on another. Or, rather, doing that for five of the faces and then mirroring them for the other side. That would give you the separate faces in “illustrator 3D”. It would not be a real 3D pentagon in that you’d still have to align the corners in 3D space depth-wise.

As to how to add z depth in Illustrator and rotate the entire construction as one… I’ve got nothing.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

Ok, I see. The nearest marker changes at that point.

So it needs to find the nearest marker to the point in time plus that offset.

Does adding the same value to the third line as well work?

n = thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time+[offset value here]).index;