[Kevin Camp]

to build off mathew’s expression, this one will ‘bump’ at every comp layer marker, so you can trigger the wiggle by adding comp markers.

freq = 10;
amount = 50;
detail = 5;
decay = 10; //how fast it slows down

n = 0;
if (thisComp.marker.numKeys > 0){
n = thisComp.marker.nearestKey(time).index;
if (thisComp.marker.key(n).time > time){
n--;
}
}

if (n == 0){
value;
}else{
t = time - thisComp.marker.key(n).time;
a = amount/Math.exp(decay*t);
wiggle(freq,a,detail);
}

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if you wanted to use markers, then you could also set the values with comments in the markers rather than using the sliders, which makes a pretty simple expression.

start = thisComp.marker.key(1);
mid = thisComp.marker.key(2);
end = thisComp.marker.key(3);

if (time<=start.time) start.comment;
if (time>start.time && time<= mid.time) linear(time,start.time,mid.time,start.comment,mid.comment);
if (time>mid.time && time< end.time) linear(time,mid.time,end.time,mid.comment,end.comment);
if (time>=end.time) end.comment;

to add comments to a comp marker, simply double click the marker and enter a value.

[Kevin Camp]

something like this should load the deck in favor of lower numbers.

r = random(10);
(r*r*r/100);

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i’m not entirely clear on how you have things set up currently, but i think if you were to simply parent the spikes to the body, then scale the body, the spikes would stay in position relative to the body, correct?

but you’d like it if the spikes moved with the body as it scaled, but not scale themselves — or the scaling remained in dependent of the body?

if that is the case then you could try an expression like this to ‘cancel out’ the parent scale:

xScale = value[0]/parent.scale[0];
yScale = value[1]/parent.scale[1];
100*[xScale,yScale]

with that expression, after the spikes are parented to the body, as the body scales up, the spkes will look like the stick to the body, but the scale will remain the same. you can still animate the spikes’ scales if separately if needed.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

when i’ve done things like this, i’ll usually use simple screen grabs, rough cut it, then rebuild anything that i need closeups of (or animate) in after effects.

however, potentially if you had a hi-res display (like a retina display) you may be able to shoot it or get better screen grabs…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

sorry, since it was enabled in your comp, i assumed you had enabled it on purpose…

the collapse transformations option is the little sun (or spiky ball) icon in the layer switches, between the shy layer switch and the layer quality switch.

if you don’t need collapse transformations enabled for that layer, if you switch it off, then the motion blur and layer quality switches will become enabled for the nested comp as a whole.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

when you enalbe ‘collapse tranformations’ your telling ae that you want to use the properties that are set for the individual layers within that comp. so layer attributes like 3D space, blending modes and even motion blur become independent of the setting for the nested comp.

in short, if you enable motion blur for the layers within that nested comp, you will see motion blur for those layers within the main comp.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the echo effect would probably work for you… and keep it all on one layer.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can’t get the time resolution fine enough to make a good waveform in ae with this technique, but it does produce a graphic representation of the sound wave…

use the keyframe assistant to convert the audio to keyframes, add a new solid throw the write-on effect on it. then add this expression to the brush position:

amp = thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
freq = 48000;
yMult = 10;
xMult = 400;
y = Math.sin(Math.PI*time*freq)*amp * yMult;
x = time * xMult;
value + [x,y]

adjust the freq, yMult and xMult to suit and it should draw out the audio amplitude with points.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i’d use a follow the leader expression:

leader= thisComp.layer(“Leader”);
offset = .05;
leader.position.valueAtTime(time-offset*(index-leader.index));

you’d animate the first photo to move in the path that you want, then paste that expression into the position property of one of the photos. change the name that in quotes on the first line to be the name of the photo that you animated (or first change the name of that photo to ‘Leader’).

drag though the timeline to see how the second photo follows the first and make adjustments to the offset value (that value is in seconds).

once you have that the way you like it, select the position property with the expression on it and choose edit>copy expression only. then select the rest of the photos and paste. they should all follow the leader in a snake like ribbon.

the expression does assume that the leader has the lowest index (closest to the top in the timeline), the order of the followers is determined by layer order, ie. if you want a different photo to be in the second position, move it to just bellow the leader.

if you need the photos to rotate as they follow the path, select all the photos and choose layer>transform>auto orient and select along path.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW