[Kevin Camp]

if you wanted to be selective on the noise, roughen edges can create a noisy edge effect… crank up the border and decrease the scale. selecting ‘photo copy’ as the edge the inverts the effect.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i’m not sure if you tried this, but you can copy/paste a mask path as a motion path.

twirl the mask properties down, select the ‘mask path’ property and copy that.

select the position property of the layer (dot) that you want to follow that mask path, and then paste the mask path (which will then become a motion path). you’ll see the mask vertices as keyframes, and can adjust those keyframes as needed.

to create the repeating dots, you could try adding the echo effect to the dot layer, adjust the number of ‘echoes’ and then adjust the echo time to see if get offset that you need to have them follow around the mask path.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

each circle with either expression would move from one random position to another random position.

but it sounds like you want it to ‘wiggle’ as it moves?

try:
freq = 1; // samples per second
amount = 500; // value in pixels
seedRandom( index, true );
random( [0, 0], [10885, 1361] ) + wiggle( freq, amount )

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

the first part of the example was likely done with time displacement (or similar effect in another piece of software)… this is the part with the big eye that is broken into a grid of slightly re-timed ’tiles’.

the examples with the eye that is duplicated across the screen in a grid could be done in a similar way. you can create the grid with the footage pretty easily with the motion tile effect in one comp. then in another comp, create the displacement map. to mimic the timing offset in the example, try starting with the ramp effect creating a gradation from the top left, to the bottom right, then add the mosaic effect with setting to give you the same number of boxes as you creative with the motion tile effect (like 4×4 or 8×8, etc). then take both those comps into a new comp. add the time displacement effect to the footage comp, and select the mosaic comp as the displacement map, and you’ll start getting close.

for a few of the boxes that you want to time displace further (like the eye that looks left, independent of the others), you might need add manually.

or you could do the whole setup manually, scale the clip down, duplicate it many times and arrange it in a grid. then offset the footage manually in the timeline.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

if you’d rather use a rate (or speed/velocity), then this might work for you:
maxRate = 100; // value in pixels per second
seedRandom(index,true);
p = random( [0, 0], [10885, 1361] );
v = random( [-maxRate/2, -maxRate/2], [maxRate/2, maxRate/2] );
p + mul(v, time-inPoint)
modify the maxRate value to change the range of random velocity.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

you might try creating two random positions and have the expression animate between them… try this:

seedRandom(index, true);
p1 = random( [0, 0], [10885, 1361] );
seedRandom(index+100, true);
p2 = random( [0, 0], [10885, 1361] );
linear(time-inPoint, inPoint, outPoint, p1, p2)

it will animate the layer between 2 random positions for the duration of the layer (between the layers in and out points)

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

well… i did a little test, and at first the cc slant procedure seemed like it might work with my simple stick figure, but as the figure got more complex, the method started to fall apart….

so, the 3d layer method might be the best way…

or possibly getting really creative with displacement map….

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

cc slant might help you… it makes a pretty good angled shadow. try this:

duplicate the character comp and add fill (to make it the shadow color) and then add cc slant.

in the slant settings, set the floor point to be at the height of one of the feet and then adjust the slant and height settings to get an angled shadow similar to how you want it.

then add linear wipe (love the cc slant effect). this will be to crop out the top of the figure. set the wipe angle to zero and drag the completion setting to about where you want the shadow to move vertically up the wall.

now duplicate that layer, delete the slant effect and set the wipe angle to 180 (to invert the cropping). position that layer to match up with the angled shadow.

i think you can get close with that method.

another method might be to make the figure comp a 3d layer, create 2 more 3d layers and position and angle them to be a floor and far wall. then use a 3d light to cast the shadow, adjusting the light to create the shadow as needed.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

assuming you animated the offset, applying this to the ‘end’ property should start to get you there:

content("Trim Paths 1").offset.speed * thisComp.frameDuration

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW

[Kevin Camp]

i would use illustrator, it has better path tools for that kind of job.

Kevin Camp
Art Director
KCPQ, KZJO & KRCW