[Kevin Camp]

when i first saw what you were trying to do, I thought the biggest issue would be getting smooth animated arrows around those hard corners. and (like Roei and Rick) the way i thought of to avoid that was to use a motion path wth rounded corners for the arrows.

i would propose keeping the smooth arrow movement (around the rounded corners), but then trying to use a octagon with hard corners to as a matte to get the hard corners back… this will mean increasing the thickness of the animated lines and arrows to fill in the hard corners of the matte.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if you precompose each split layer individually and select the options for ‘move all attributes…” and “adjust composition duration…” it will do what you are asking. it will also do the same to the in-points (not sure if that will be an issue for you).

unfortunately, it also moves your time effects to the new pre-comps, so those will need to get cut/pasted from the layer in each pre-comp onto the pre-comp layer in the main comp to work as desired with the time effects.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

just to show you other options that can do the same…

I often use the linear() function to interpolate between dissimilar values (like percentage and position, or position and rotation, etc..). a basic set up using linear() could look like this:

completion = effect(‘slider control’)(‘slider’);
closed = thisComp.layer(“center”).transform.position;
open = [ 50, -50 ];
linear( completion, 0, 100, open, closed )

also, not that you need to change your set up, but the cc jaws effect might make things a little simpler to create our eye lids… by default the jaws effect will create cheesy teeth, but if you set the height to 0, it will create a simple wipe that starts at a point and wipes outward. that point could be linked to you ‘center’ layer’s position and then use the completion setting (0-100) within the effect to open and close both the top and bottom eye lids. it may not work for exactly how you want things to be, but the functionality seems close, so i thought i’d mention it.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you might try using the timewarp effect and using wiggle on the speed setting.

i think as long as your wiggle amount value is less than the speed setting that you set (the default is 50%) it should always move forward in time… say you set the value to 100, and have a wiggle amount of 50, the speed of the clip should only vary between 50% and 150%, but should never go backwards (like -50%…)

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

it might help to see a screen shot of what you have, but i think i understand what you are trying to do, so try this and see if it does what you need…

i think you could do this with track mattes. so create a solid or rectangular shape layer that is big enough to mask the entire leaf no matter how it is rotated. position the matte layer so that an edge bisects one of the leaves. with that matte layer above one of the leaves (in layer order), select the leaf below the matte and, from the TrkMat pulldown menu select ‘alpha matte’.

you should now see half that leaf.

duplicate the matte layer and move it above the other leaf. then, from the TrkMat menu of that leaf, choose ‘alpha inverted’ for the track matte.

you should have a half brown/half green leaf.

to rotate the mattes, add a null and position it along the bisect line of the leaf at a point where you want the colors (or mattes) to pivot. then parent the matte layers to the null and rotate the null.

does that do what you are looking for?

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

can you build your forest in a much larger comp, then bring that comp into a comp that’s the final size for what you need?

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

maybe cc radial scale wipe, or bulge, or a combination of both.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

Nice. i haven’t seen that method before. thanks for sharing it

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you can convert a frames value to time, or a time value to frames… i think i’d use the first option like this

hold = 15; //time to hold each number (frames)
min = -1;
max = 1;

seed = Math.floor( time / framesToTime( hold ) );
seed_random( seed, true );
random( min, max )

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if you are looking to repeat a sound within the same audio layer, you could use time remapping to repeat it, and you could trigger that repeat with a layer marker….

enable time remapping for the audio layer, and try this expression for time remap:
n = 0;
if ( marker.numKeys > 0 ) {
n = marker.nearestKey( time ).index;
if ( marker.key( n ).time > time ) {
n--;
}
}

if ( n == 0 ) {
0;
} else {
time - marker.key( n ).time;
}
then add some layer markers to that layer when you want to trigger the sound.

if you wanted to try and go further, i think you could have an audio pre-comp with many sounds in it (each butted front-to-end) and then a layer that would have named markers (like gun shot, bird chirp, etc.) for the start of each sound.

then you could bring that audio comp into the main comp, enable time remapping and use a more complicated expression (found here at motionscript.com), then add a marker with the name of the sound that you want to trigger (guns shot, bird chirp, etc.) when you want the sound to play….

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW