[Kevin Camp]

A better option in Photoshop is to use ‘save for web’ then choose GIF, Black – White, and Diffusion.

You still need to darken the image a bit with an adjustment layer, but you don’t need to convert to black and white.

Also, you can probably apply that to footage and export as an animated gif that can then be imported into AE… probably not as good as that plugin, but would save $50.

[Kevin Camp]

Found this: https://aescripts.com/retrodither/

[Kevin Camp]

It’s really similar to the bitmap mode in Photoshop… not sure if Photoshop is an option, but if so try this:

Open image in Photoshop, choose Image>Mode>Grayscale, and add a black layer above it and set the opacity to around 75%.

Then choose Image>Mode>Bitmap, set the resolution to 72 and the method to Diffusion Dither, and you will get close…

You’ll probably need to adjust the opacity of the black layer to adjust the spacing of the dither pattern to get closer.

[Kevin Camp]

Dust and Scratches effect?

It can remove small details like those, but it would remove details across the entire frame.

Since the dead pixels shouldn’t move for a given camera, you might try applying Dust and Scratches to an adjustment layer and then use tiny masks to mask only those areas. You should then be able to copy/paste that adjustment layer to other comps that use footage from the same camera and it should line up with those bad pixels too.

[Kevin Camp]

Try this:

Create a new solid and add the Grid effect, setting the Size to ‘Width Slider’, the Width to about 100 (or whatever seems right to you) and the color as needed.

Once you have that grid the way you want, make the layer 3D (click the 3D option in the layer’s Switches), type ‘r’ to see the rotation property and set the X Rotation to -90. Type ‘p’ to see the position properties and lower the y-position so the bottom edge of the grid goes off the bottom of the screen.

It should look like a 3D grid on the floor at this point, but cropped to the layer size.

To expand the layer, add the Repetile effect, set the Expand Up to 20000 (max amount) and set the Left and Right to something high (like 5000) until it fills the width of the screen.

That should get pretty close.

[Kevin Camp]

There is probably a more elegant way to do this with a single text animator for Fill Color, but this seems to work — note I am assuming your text looks something like this: “John Doe, Jim Smith, Jane Jones”

It’s easy to make a text animator work on words, but I couldn’t figure out a way to split it at the commas and colorize based on that result, so I found another way.

Try this:

On your text layer with all the comma separated names, apply this expression to the source text property:

value.replace(\/s\g,'_').replace(\,_\g,', ') 

That should put underscores between all the first and last names, but keep the commas.

Now we can easily colorize every-other-name with a text animator. Just add a text animator for Fill Color, set the color as needed and add an Expression Selector to the animator and add this expression to the Amount:

textIndex % 2 * 100

Every-other-name should now be colorized.

To replace the underscores with spaces, add a new text animator (so you’ll have Animator 1 and Animator 2), this time for Character Value, set the Character Value to 32 (which is the ASCII code for a space), then add an Expression Selector to that Animator and enter this expression for Amount:

if ( text.sourceText.value[textIndex-1] == '_' ) { 100 } else { 0 }

That should find all the underscores and replace them with spaces.

[Kevin Camp]

You could try working in a comp that is 2x or 3x the size you need and then render out to the required frame size, or drop that comp into a smaller comp and render the smaller comp.

[Kevin Camp]

Using sourceRectAtTime() makes this pretty simple.

Vertically center:

rect = sourceRectAtTime() ;
y = rect.top + rect.height / 2 ;
[ value[0], y ]

Align bottom:

rect = sourceRectAtTime() ;
y = rect.top + rect.height ;
[ value[0], y ]

Apply either of those to the anchor point property of the text layer.

[Kevin Camp]

I think the Block Dissolve effect will do this… you’ll need to do a little math to get the blocks the correct size and uncheck the ‘soft edges’ option.

It always seems to use the same ‘random’ pattern though…

[Kevin Camp]

One way would be to make the % a separate text layer.

Another way would be to use a text animator to affect the scale of the %. To do that add an animator for scale to the text layer and set the scale to 47.5%. Then add an expression selector to the animator and add this expression to the amount:

if ( textIndex == textTotal ) { 100 } else { 0 }

That should make it so the animator affects only the last character in the string, in this case the % sign.